Snow College and seven area high schools are co-sponsoring a program they call concurrent education.
In layman's terms, concurrent education means that qualified juniors and seniors in the seven schools can obtain Snow College credits for courses they take while still enrolled in high school.The college level courses count toward high school graduation and qualify for Snow College credits. And those credits are also transferable to other higher education institutions in the state system, according to Mel Jacobsen, Snow's director of Continuing Education.
Students can earn up to 16 hours of college credit through the concurrent program while still enrolled in high school, Jacobsen said, in pointing out that that's about equal to a full quarter's work at a college.
The student who enrolls in the program must meet certain requirements, however: a grade point average of 3.5 or better in all his classes and a grade point average of at least 3.0 in the subject for which he's applying, if it's an academic course like English or math, and a grade point of 2.75 or better if it's a vocational subject like drafting.
Students must also have the recommendation of at least one teacher and are required to pay college tuition. About 28 high school students are now enrolled, Jacobsen said. They attend Manti, Gunnison, Delta, Millard, North Sanpete, South Sevier and North Sevier high schools and are taught classes such as college English, college algebra and world civilizations. The classes are taught by the regular high school teachers.