Accelerating Success: How Piedmont Tech’s Dual Enrollment Program Helped Nadia Sanders Graduate from USC in Just Two Years

Nadia Sanders credits the Dual Enrollment Program at Piedmont Technical College (PTC) with enabling her to graduate from the University of South Carolina in only two years. “It was definitely the dual enrollment. If I hadn’t taken all those credits beforehand, I would not have been able to do that,” Sanders said. “I think doing this program is great. It was very helpful for me.”

Sanders finished her associate’s degree at PTC while still attending Laurens District 55 High School. She then transferred 60 hours of academic credits to the University of South Carolina, where she received a bachelor’s degree in political science in May. She is now applying to law schools while working as a legal assistant at The Greene Law Firm in Greenville.

Dual Enrollment is an advanced-credit program for high school juniors and seniors, offering various classes online, at the student’s high school, or on the PTC campus. There are four ways to participate in Dual Enrollment at PTC:

• Traditional Dual Enrollment courses taken at the student’s high school with their instructors.
• OnDECK classes offered on a PTC campus, allowing students to earn high school units and college credit simultaneously.
• A Middle College program that enables high school juniors and seniors to earn 48-plus college credit hours through partnerships with certain school districts.
• Early admission for students seeking to earn credit through PTC independently of their high school.

Sanders was among the first group of students at her high school to participate in the Middle College option. “The teachers were very helpful with office hours and meeting up in person,” she said. “And it also helped having students that were doing the program with me, you know, having study nights and meeting up to help each other out.”

Before applying for Dual Enrollment, students should be aware that college-level courses require more effort than typical high school classes. Since Dual Enrollment courses become part of a permanent college transcript, students must commit to the necessary work.

Sanders faced challenges in statistics and calculus during her Dual Enrollment experience. “I am not that good in math,” she admitted. “I wanted to stop because it was getting very stressful.” However, encouragement from her classmates and an academic advisor at PTC helped her persevere. “They helped me realize that I could keep going with it and it would be OK,” she said.

The Dual Enrollment program at PTC is designed to be affordable for all students. South Carolina residents attend tuition-free if they take at least six credit hours per semester (generally at least two classes) at their high school, on campus, or online.

When asked for her advice to high school students, Sanders said, “Take dual enrollment classes, even if you don’t take as many as I did. It’s a good experience to get your feet in the water—see if it’s something you really want to do, and also gain that credit without having to pay money for it. It is really helpful to just have that associate degree under your belt and have a foundation towards a career in something bigger.”