ISU will begin offering dual enrollment courses on-campus

High school students in Pocatello will have the chance to start their college education early. Starting this fall, Idaho State University will be offering dual enrollment courses.

Dual enrollment in universities is nothing new, but what makes these courses different is they will be taught on-campus. This is the first time ISU has offered dual enrollment on campus.

The goal for ISU is to encourage more students from the Pocatello area to attend ISU after graduation. The university feels that giving them a taste of life on campus could help encourage that.

The approval for the dual enrollment was given to ISU’s College of Arts and Letters, who will be offering the courses.

Ninety seats are open to high school students. There will be 30 seats open to each of the area’s three high schools: Century, Pocatello and Highland.

“Studies show that when students take a class at a college and they’re on campus, the likelihood is that they will come back to campus and take their courses,” said Melissa Lee, coordinator of marketing and recruiting with Arts and Letters. “And so hopefully, our goal is to get more than 50 percent of these students coming back to ISU and enrolling as freshmen.”

For one semester, students will be taught exactly like their college classmates. They will get a taste of higher education.

“They get to know the professors and so when they come on campus, they kind of know someone,” Lee said. “They have a relationship with a professor so they’re not kind of lost.”

Courses offered range from history and philosophy to theatre and art. Lee said ISU tries to offer courses students couldn’t get at their high school. The courses are part of ISU’s core objectives and would count toward general education requirements once students are admitted to ISU.

“They get to take these upper level courses and see what a college classroom would be like so they know how to better prepare,” Lee said.

The course fee for the classes is $65 but students don’t have to pay the course fee. The school district has a Fast Forward program fund for opportunities like this. That is where the money will come from. Lee said there could be small fees associated with the class itself for things like materials. She said the university is still working out some details on how to work that out with students.

Students from the high school who are interested just need to talk to their principal or guidance counselor. Students have to be nominated by the principal to be eligible to take the courses.

Parents who are interested in learning more about the courses and how it works can attend a public meeting at ISU on Monday night. The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. at the Rendezvous building.