For more than a generation, Bates College has permitted some seniors from area high schools to enroll in a tuition-free college class on their campus and now other colleges are doing the same. For the last several years, the state of Maine, the University of Maine System, and the Community College System have appropriated funds to allow high school juniors and seniors to enroll in tuition-free college courses on their campuses and the program is rapidly gaining in popularity.

The impact on students has been transformative. According to the Mitchell Institute’s report on early college issued in January 2008, the benefits of early college include: increasing the academic rigor of students’ coursework, access to elective courses not offered in students’ high schools, increasing the aspirations of students who do not see themselves as “college material,” allowing students to experience the expectations of college professors before they begin their college freshmen years, and reducing college costs by earning tuition-free credits while still in high school. Early college classes are now offered to a wide spectrum of students. While top students may certainly enroll in the courses, the program is especially powerful with students with grades that do not accurately reflect their academic potential and with young males. By enrolling in an early college class and earning an A or a B, students demonstrate to college admissions officers that they are capable of doing college-level work when their grades and test scores may not indicate this to be the case. This is especially true of students who describe their high school classes as boring and too easy. As one student quoted in the Mitchell Institute reported: “I grew up a lot. Since it was a college course, I never wanted to blow it off. I matured as I made sure I was at class on time and always did my assignments.”

Early college classes are offered at multiple sites in central Maine. For more information, including application packets and brochures, visit the College for ME-Androscoggin Web site www.collegeformeandroscoggin.org and click on the Early Study tab or e-mail [email protected] To read the entire Mitchell Institute report in its entirety, go to www.mitchellinstitute.org/pdfs/MIEC_Summary.pdf