My daughter is enrolled in an early college program while still in high school. It’s a great way to save money on tuition.

As a 16-year-old, my daughter spends her mornings like any student, taking traditional classes at the local high school. But by the afternoon, she is bused to a local educational technology center where she takes college courses.

She’s enrolled in our Michigan district’s early college program. In this program, students can graduate from high school with college credits that can then be transferred to another school of their choice. The program allows up to 60 credits, which is enough to earn an associate degree.

The program extends high school to a “13th year,” meaning that instead of graduating as a high school senior, students in the early college program continue taking full college course loads for free after their senior year.

After the 13th year, they graduate with a high school diploma and the credits they have accumulated in the program. In our area, high school students even have the opportunity to spend their 13th year in a dorm on a college campus, with housing covered for free as well.

I’m thankful my daughter chose to do the program because it gives her more time to figure out her life’s path — all while saving money and avoiding student loan debt.

The program is demanding

My daughter is just finishing up her junior year of high school and her first year in the program. This year, she has taken composition and critical thinking, college algebra, and public speaking.

She is a year-round school athlete and works part-time as well. While she finds the schedule demanding at times, it’s manageable. She told me that she’s overall pleased with her decision to enroll, especially if it saves her money in the future.

Of course, there are possible drawbacks to the program. My daughter won’t graduate with her class, and the program takes her off-campus for half of the day, which means she misses some events her peers participate in. Also, because early college courses aren’t weighted like AP classes are, her GPA is affected.

The early college program helps her and our family

My daughter isn’t completely sure what she wants to major in, so early college makes sense for her to earn credits for free while she discerns a career path.

Plus, we are a family of seven, with five kids. She’s our oldest, so we aren’t quite ready to let her out into the world just yet. The 13th year means she’ll be spending one more year at home with us. She’s happy about that fact, too, especially because she’s unsure where she wants to go to college in the future.

Most importantly, the program is helping her save money. With five kids to put through college, we can’t afford tuition. Her decision to enroll could mean she earns as much as two years of college completely for free, which is also two years without racking up student loans.

We hope it will be worth it in the end

We won’t truly know if the program was worth it until our daughter figures out her future path, but for now, we’re all happy with the decision.

Our daughter likes the variety of getting “out” of school and traveling to the college center, where she has several friends in the program and the added flexibility.

While we don’t know exactly what the future holds, we all know that she’s exactly where she needs to be right now.

I’m not in a hurry for her to rush off to an expensive college if she’s not sure what she wants, and this gives us a little more time to discern her next steps.

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