Debt Dumpers 2026

[DanceDisney23]

For all you who have kids heading to college soon, I stumbled across an Instagram account called Collegeinhighschool. Apparently there are a number of classes you can test out of at a lot of different colleges for $25 to take the class and if you're happy with the score it's $400 to solidify the grade within that school. I haven't looked toooo far into it because my oldest is just now 10, but it's definitely something I'm going to keep in the back of my mind since we considered dual enrollment type of situation in the next 6 years or so.

Is that the same as Clep?

Our high school offers dual enrollment with a number of colleges around here. DD is dead set on staying close to home, so that would be nice. But she’s also only in middle school. Who knows where her path will lead her?

 

[barkley]

Is that the same as Clep?

Our high school offers dual enrollment with a number of colleges around here. DD is dead set on staying close to home, so that would be nice. But she’s also only in middle school. Who knows where her path will lead her?

dh was the king of the clep tests i couldn't believe how many classes his university allowed students to clep out of, granted it was all general Ed stuff which I thought/think is a waste of time for most freshman/sophomores when they could concentrate on their actual majors (as a high school student I would have killed for the running start program our state offers-'do my last 2 years of high school as my first 2 years of college all on the state's dime? yes, thank you-sign me up now').

 

[Tygerlilly]

Is that the same as Clep?

Our high school offers dual enrollment with a number of colleges around here. DD is dead set on staying close to home, so that would be nice. But she’s also only in middle school. Who knows where her path will lead her?

As far as I looked into, which isn't super far, I think it is? But I saw you can start taking them as young as 13. I don't think my daughter will be ready to start anything in the next 3 years, but I'd love nothing more than to knock out the annoying Gen ed classes before she even steps foot onto campus as a student.

 

[CGB]

She is a national merit semifinalist and if she gets finalist then a lot more scholarships open up to her. She’s on the small scholarship hunt now so USC and Yale are her top 2, USC gives merit and Ivies do not. USC tuition is surprisingly more expensive than Yale however and board in SoCal is more than New Haven. She wants to be in the entertainment industry so USC is the best choice for her due to the connections to the industry it has. I’m sad because it’s so far from FL but she’s fiercely independent so I’m not worried about her. If she stayed to go to a state school instead she would literally get paid to go to school with a full ride scholarship with extra for books and supplies too.

I'm glad the college discussion came back up because I wanted to reply to you. Our son was that kid and I knew he could pull a full-ride. When it came to college I encouraged him to apply to his dream schools, but I also insisted that he apply to a couple of our local universities. I knew he was thinking about the Ivies, so I told him to pick one. He chose Yale. In total, he applied to 7 schools (yes, it was a lot paying for application fees & sending ACT scores). Yale contacted him and he interviewed with a local alumni. Apparently, they decided he wasn't a good fit. (Yale's acceptance rate is one of the lowest of the Ivies.) The dream colleges didn't really offer much money. The local universities invited him to interview and then offered the most: the public offered a free ride and the private offered a vice-presidential scholarship (about 50% tuition). In the end, he chose the local public's free-ride on his own. After his undergraduate years, he stayed for his masters while working as a paid graduate assistant. In the end, he earned two bachelors and a masters with no debt. Today, he's really happy with the college choices he made. And I'm really happy with his career and financial standing.

I wish the best for your daughter. It's a really exciting yet stressful time of their lives as they make their choices.