Bahiya Nasuuna hasn’t even started college, but she’s already got some academic credits in the bank that will save her time and money and give her a jump on graduating—as she hopes to—within four years.
“My parents need as much help as they can get” to cover her tuition, said Nasuuna, who lives in the outskirts of Boston, in Chelsea. She passed an Advanced Placement test in English at her public high school that she’s cashed in for college credit, using it to forgo a required introductory writing course.
In all, Nasuuna passed seven AP exams in high school and is ready to use those, too, to keep her studies on track at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she plans to begin this fall on a path to an eventual degree in public health.
Nasuuna’s one of a record number of students getting a head start on college credits while still in high school, cutting costs and speeding toward degrees—and jobs—as quickly as possible to avoid dragging out costly higher educations.
“Everyone is looking for a leg-up,” said Dave Taylor, principal of the Dayton Early College Academy in Ohio, a charter high school whose students simultaneously enroll in classes at nearby Sinclair Community College to get some college credits out of the way.
In addition to taking AP tests or college courses while they’re still in high school, students are receiving college credit for life experiences, or skipping their senior years in high school altogether to attend so-called early colleges.
