With the price of college constantly increasing, many Alder students, primarily upperclassmen, have looked towards dual enrollment in order to save money and get a jumpstart on college classwork and completing required credits.

    Dual enrollment is where students take a college class through a university, but they receive both high school and college credit for completing and passing the course. Alder students primarily take classes through Columbus State Community College and Clark State Community College.

    Students can take classes through the college exclusively online, only going to the campus to take exams. Many students are taking the Intro to Psychology course through Columbus State, and every four weeks they must go to the Columbus State main campus or one of its satellites in order to take their exams. Senior Lydia Lyons takes Psychology in order to get ahead on college coursework and hopes to gain some college-level learning by taking the course.

    Another option for students who want to take classes that require labs and person-to-person classwork is taking the classes on a Columbus State campus. Junior Sandy Moser is taking Calculus 3 on campus this year. Moser took AP Calculus last year at Alder, and over the summer, she took Calculus 2 online. Moser appreciates the challenge of Calculus 3. She appreciates the fact that she has an actual teacher for the class so that she actually understands what she is learning.

    Alder also offers classes for college credit taught by certified Alder teachers. Mrs. Jennifer Danner teaches English 1100 and 2367 through Columbus State, and Mr. Matt Carpenter teaches Probability and Statistics through Clark State. Senior Kennedy Norris takes Danner’s English 1100 through Columbus State because she wanted to knock out her required English credits for college. “Since I want to major in Physical Therapy, I don’t want to have to take English classes while I’m in college,” Norris said.