The Early College Program gives students the opportunity to earn an associate’s degree and a high school diploma simultaneously by attending Frederick Community College (FCC) full-time during their junior and senior years. The program was created to increase participation and completion for students from populations historically underrepresented in higher education and is open to all Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) high school students. Students would graduate high school, already having their AA degree and two years of college fulfilled.

The program started with dual enrollment; Oakdale High School (OHS) was the first school to implement it. At OHS, college classes are offered, but more students were interested in getting college credit while in high school. Those credits are free as well.

The Early College Program is an in-depth application process and that’s one of the things that they really emphasize at the information session. They will look at grade point average and there are recommendations for certain courses and there’s an interview process as well.

Dual Enrollment offers high school students a chance to take college classes while they’re still in high school. So right now, OHS offers about six Dual Enrollment classes including English 101 and English 102 so conceivably a student can get six college credits while taking the dual enrollment classes.

Dr. Ed Schoder first started dual enrollment at Oakdale High. “I first talked to Ken Kerr who’s now a state delegate. I talked to him in February of 2012 when our oldest students were juniors and in the spring of 2013, Oakdale high became the first school to offer English 101 as a dual enrollment class,” Dr. Schoder said.

FCPS students can apply to Early College during their sophomore year of high school. At the Information Nights, members of the Dual Enrollment Team will go through the details of the Early College program and acceptance process, and they will answer questions from interested students and families. When asked why students should go, Counselor Ms. Polce answered, “I would say if you’re a highly motivated student and you’re ready to begin that college process now and you enjoy being challenged academically.”

The dates of the information nights are December 5, 2023, at FCC, January 25, 2024, virtually, February 21, 2024, at FCC, and March 12, 2024, virtually. All events are from 7:00 to 8:00 P.M. Attendance at one of the information sessions is required for application and can be found at tiny.cc/earlycollegenight. After registering, a confirmation email will be sent to the email address that was applied with, with further information on the program.