College Credit

Concurrent credit is earned when a CPC high school student completes a specific course that qualifies for both high school credit and college credit. Concurrent credit is extremely low-cost to our students and a great opportunity to earn college credit while in high school. Courses offered include chemistry, history, systematic theology, and more – see each campus full list of courses offered below.

We partner with Northwest University (NU) and Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) to provide concurrent credit courses. Each teacher of a CPC concurrent credit class has a Master’s degree (or equivalent experience) and has been through a vetting and approval process by the University to become an adjunct professor.

• What extra work is involved?
  Most classes do not require any extra work. English and Bible often have additional pages added to a research paper, but – for the college credit received – it’s a big payoff for little effort.
• How much does it cost?
  It varies by class but it overall, a fraction of the cost of a regular 3 or 4 credit class. Please see the “Concurrent Credit Available at Cedar Park” chart to see the fee for each CC class.
• When do I have to decide?
  At the beginning of the year, you will be given a due date of when the registration paperwork for each class is due – usually in mid- to late-September.
• How do I sign up for Concurrent Credit?
  You will sign up after school starts. The teacher of the class you will be earning CC in will discuss it with the whole class, and give you a form to sign up with. You will check which classes you are taking on the form, fill out the paperwork, and will be charged via our FACTS payment management system. Recently NU made it even easier by allowing students to sign up online! You can see instructions on how to get started HERE.
• When do I get the credit?
  The credit will be earned at the end of the year.
• Does my Concurrent Credit go on my Cedar Park Transcript?
  No it does not. When taking Concurrent Credit, you are earning high school credit and college credit at the same time. Your high school CPC transcript will reflect the high school class and the University will give you the college credit. The college credit will be reflected on a transcript from that university.
• How do I communicate to colleges that I earned this credit?
  1) You will be asked to reflect this information on your college applications. Please keep track of which classes you are earning concurrent credit in, how many credits, and the college course name of each class.
  2) At the end of your Senior year, you will request your college transcripts to be sent to your future college:
  • Ordering NU Transcripts
  • Ordering NNU Transcripts
• Will colleges accept it?
  Almost always. While it is the decision of your future school to accept your Concurrent Credits, most students have no problem and report that all their credits were accepted. Sometimes students need to provide their syllabus from their high school class. Generally speaking, you’ll be bringing in credits (to whatever college you attend) in the same way any college transfer student would.
• Do I have to go to NU or NNU to get the credit?
  NO, you are earning college credits through NU and/or NNU but that does not have any bearing on where you will attend college in the future. They are simply the school where your concurrent credits come from.
• As a Concurrent Credit student, what are my responsibilities?
  1) BE AWARE of whether or not you are doing concurrent credit or not. We often get asked, “can you please tell me which concurrent credit classes I took?” Remember, your concurrent credit is not part of your information in the school system and it is not on your Cedar Park Transcript.
  2) Sign up in a timely manner: turn in your paperwork and payment on time.
  3) Keep the High School Syllabus of each class you are doing Concurrent Credit in.
  4) At the end of your Senior year, order your transcripts from NU and/or NNU.

Dual credit is earned when a CPC high school student completes a specific course that qualifies for both high school credit and college credit. Dual credit is extremely low-cost to our students and a great opportunity to earn college credit while in high school. Dual Credit is taught online only through Dallas Baptist University and the professors are DBU faculty. Courses offered include micro and macroeconomics, geology, sociology and more – see the full list below.

Dual credit courses are open to 10th-12th graders at CPC. Your student must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 to qualify for the dual credit program. For more information, please see the FAQ’s and the courses offered in the PDF files below, separated by campus.

• How is the Dual Credit instruction administered?
  These are asynchronous, online courses taught by DBU professors. Students will be enrolled in our Dual Credit Tech Lab periods and complete their course work during the day while on campus here at Cedar Park. Our Dual Credit Tech Lab periods will be facilitated and supervised
  by one of our teachers, and students will be required to complete their dual credit course work during this time. Just like with any other in-person course, there will be additional work to be completed at home. DBU’s courses will require students to begin their coursework 1-2 weeks
  prior to the start of our semesters, and will end a few weeks before our semester ends. More specifics on course timeline will be provided by the University.
• How much do courses cost and how many credits will I earn?
  See the Dual Credit Information Sheet regarding cost and credits earned.
• Are these courses transferable?
  Yes, each of the courses selected are considered fully transferable to other colleges and universities across the country, including private, public, 2 year and 4 year schools. How exactly courses would transfer in is up to the student’s future institution where they might attend.
• Why were these courses selected as Dual Credit options?
  We evaluated the degree requirements of several of the most common degrees pursued by our students including Business, Communication, English, Pre-Med, Pre-Law, Natural Sciences, Education and Social Sciences and selected courses that would likely be required for most of
  these degree programs. We also evaluated our current course offerings and selected courses that would add more variety to our current electives, science, and math offerings.
• How are these courses different from Concurrent Credit?
  Concurrent credit courses are courses that are taught in-person by one of our CPCS teachers. Dual credit courses are online courses offered to high school students, taught asynchronously by university professors.
• Can I take other Dual Credit courses offered by these two universities and have them applied to my high school transcript?
  No. Only the selected courses on the information sheet are eligible to earn CPCS credit. A student can however, choose to work independently with DBU and enroll in additional dual credit courses on their own. Those courses would NOT be placed on their high school transcript, but would be added to their college transcript through that university only. (There is a higher cost for dual credit courses taken outside of the preapproved course list.)
• Why is CPCS partnering with DBU Dual Credit courses?
  DBU has a well established dual credit program with robust course offerings. The pre-approved dual credit courses offer curriculum and instruction that fits within the CPCS framework for Christian education. CPCS is not promoting or elevating this university on an institutional level, nor are we specifically encouraging our students to enroll at either of these universities after high school.
• Who is eligible to take these courses?
  In general, Dual Credit classes are open to 10th – 12th graders. There is a minimum GPA requirement: 3.0 GPA for 10th-12th grade.
• Can I take two of the Dual Credit math or science classes and fulfill my diploma requirements?
  No. CPCS diploma requirements still need to be fulfilled through our classes taught in person by one of our CPCS teachers. The math and science classes offered via dual credit can be taken in addition to our diploma requirements. For example, a College Prep diploma student who might otherwise be done with their 3.0 math credits at the end of junior year, may choose to take dual credit College Algebra or Finite Math for Business Analysis their senior year.

For more information on DBU’s dual credit program see www.dbu.edu/pages/dual-credit.