How to Take Community College

Classes During High School

Why Take Community College Classes?

Some high school students take community college classes in addition to their high school courseload, either during the school year or over the summer. But most people don’t and it is not necessary to get into a top college, so you shouldn’t feel any pressure. We have found that people do it to: advance faster in a subject (like taking community college PreCalculus over the summer to take Calculus during senior year), take a class you couldn’t get into in high school, free up your high school schedule (e.g. by taking Health at a CC), or explore a topic not offered at school (like Python or Child Development). Compared to taking outside classes at an Online High School or at a 4-year college, there are many benefits. City College of San Francisco (CCSF) classes are FREE for San Francisco residents (except for books/lab fees) and at other CCs they cost very little. There are options to take classes person, online live with the professor, or online asynchronous (not live) by watching videos. Lastly, if the class is “UC-approved,” then on your high school transcript and your University of California (UC) college application, your grade is weighted like an honors/AP class so it will help boost your GPA.

High School Dual Enrollment

Dual Enrollment is when you enroll for a CC class through your school district. If you are an SFUSD student, you can dual enroll at CCSF (City College of San Francisco) after sophomore year for the Fall, Spring or Summer. Check out the SFUSD Early College website here for instructions. For Dual Enrollment, there is a list of CCSF classes that are “pre-approved” by the district so the nice thing is that you DON’T need a high school counselor to approve it, only your parent/guardian. Some classes are popular though and not guaranteed, so they recommend that you list 3-4 classes on your registration form. Scroll down to “Things to Know” when deciding if dual enrollment is right for you.

IMPORTANT: While there is no deadline stated, you need to fill out the registration forms at least 3-4 weeks before the Dual Enrollment Registration Date given on the SFUSD website. This includes registering online to be a CCSF student, emailing the confirmation to SFUSD Early College, then filling out the Parent/Guardian Consent form which also asks you for your course selections. After that, it could take up to two weeks for everything to be approved and for you to get the email with your CCSF Student ID# and instructions for accessing the course registration website when it opens.

SFUSD Website on CCSF Dual Enrollment

Enrolling in a California Community College Class:

If you are enrolling in a class yourself (not through dual enrollment/SFUSD), then follow these instructions:

  1. Get permission from your high school counselor, who may ask you to fill out a permission form like this Non-SFUSD Course Form.

  2. Open an "OpenCCC" account on the CCCApply website (choose a community college on the right side drop down menu, which will take you to the “Create an Account” page). This allows you to then apply to be a dual/concurrent enrollment student at any of the California community college. Before applying to college you must first have an OpenCCC account. The OpenCCC single sign-in account allows you to access the online services of the California Community Colleges.

  3. Go to the Community College’s website and follow the school’s instructions for registering as a dual/concurrent enrollment high school student. For example, the instructions for Skyline/CSM/Cañada Colleges are here and involve a docusign being emailed to your parent and high school counselor for electronic signatures. CCSF instructions are here.

  4. After the class is over, bring the official community college transcript to your counselor if you want it added to your high school transcript and included in your GPA. But if you don’t do this, on your college application you would still include it.

Things to Know Before You Register for a Class:

  • While shopping for classes, you can look up professors on www.ratemyprofessors.com to see what their students think about them

  • When you start a class, make sure you look at the class drop date and withdrawal date in case you change your mind. If you drop a class it won’t be on your record, but a “withdrawal” will show a “W” on your transcript. Depending on the class, you might have the option to change your grade to Pass/Fail after the drop date.

  • Whether you choose to have your counselor add the completed class to your high school transcript or not, it will be on your official community college transcript. On college applications, you will need to add it as a “college attended” with the course name and grade.

  • Unlike high school, your parents/guardians can’t contact the college or professor on your behalf.

  • If you are interested in in-person classes, just consider the fact that you’ll be in classes with people older than you.

  • At City College of San Francisco (CCSF), you need to have completed sophomore year of high school to become a dual enrollment student so freshman and sophomores take classes at other community colleges.

  • If you plan to apply to the UCs (University of California) for college, check out their website on dual enrollment classes.

  • If you end up going to college not at a UC/CSU, however, they may not accept the dual enrollment credit but it still looks good on your college application and can show the college you’re interested in a particular topic (which is a positive thing if it’s related to your intended college major). Also, some colleges let you test out of classes so, for instance, you could use what you learned from a community college class to pass one of these tests (e.g. foreign language, science, math) and skip to the next level college course.

    Non-Dual Enrollment (when you enroll by yourself, not through SFUSD):

  • Since these classes are outside of SFUSD, be sure to get approval from your high school counselor before enrolling! Different high schools have their own rules regarding needing permission to take outside classes and may require you to fill out paperwork (typically this Non-SFUSD Course Form) and get it signed by your counselor. They may not let you take a community college class if the same class is offered at your high school. We recommend deciding which class you want to take at least a month prior to the end of school to ensure you have time to get approvals from your high school.

  • Before asking your counselor for permission to take the class, double check that it is a UC-approved class if you want to add it to your high school transcript and have it counted as credit if you end up attending a UC/CSU for college. The websites for the class usually notes if a class is approved by UC, CSU, or both.

  • At City College of San Francisco (CCSF), you need to have completed sophomore year of high school to become a dual enrollment student so freshman and sophomores take classes at other community colleges.

  • You aren’t required to only use your city’s community college. Popular community colleges for SF students are the Skyline College/College of San Mateo/Cañada College group, Foothill, and De Anza.