College in the Future

College Savings for Dual Enrollment Classes

By Deborah Williams

The cost of college continues to rise, and parents are wondering if their children will be able to get a college degree.  If parents had the good fortune and foresight to save for their children’s college educations, they established and contributed to a college savings plan, also called a 529 Plan.  The advantages of preparing for this significant expense are many, such as, little or no college loan debt and tax advantages, for example, but parents may not be aware that they can use some of the money while those children are still in high school.  Education Week blogger, Carolee Adams reports on the College Bound blog that money from a 529 plan can be used for high school students enrolled in college courses.  These dual-enrollment, or concurrent-enrollment, students don’t have to wait until after their high school graduations to offset the expenses for their college courses, which are often called Advanced Placement (AP) courses.
This can be an effective cost- and time-saving measure for families.  First, dual-enrollees pay a fraction of the tuition cost for a college course.   Second, these students reduce the amount of time needed to complete a degree when they successfully