Eligibility Requirements

Admission requirements

Students have to meet a few requirements to enroll in dual credit at KCTCS. Some of the requirements are set by the state, while others fall under KCTCS policies.

State Requirements

Kentucky’s dual credit policy requires dual credit students to:

• Be enrolled in a participating secondary school. Exceptions may be considered if you are recommended by the school faculty and approved by the college’s chief academic officer. Colleges may also provide dual credit to eligible students in private secondary schools and home school settings.
• Meet the college’s dual credit requirements for admission.
• Be admitted to the participating college as a dual credit student.
• Meet the requirements for placement into college credit-bearing courses or courses in programs of study that align to a career pathway.
• Complete the college’s application for admission and a dual credit form.

KCTCS Requirements

To participate in dual credit courses at KCTCS, you will need to:

• Complete the application for admission.
• Meet KCTCS Assessment & Placement requirements for dual credit high school students (see below for more information).
• Fulfill the prerequisites for your courses.
• Be admitted to the college.
• Enroll in one or more eligible dual credit courses.

Homeschooled Students

If you are a Kentucky homeschooled high school student, you can enroll in dual credit courses if you meet the Dual Credit Assessment & Placement requirements and submit a transcript showing your current grade level. Once you’ve completed your senior year of high school, you are no longer eligible to enroll as a dual credit student.

Assessment & Placement

Students must meet KCTCS Dual Credit Assessment & Placement requirements before you can enroll in one or more dual credit courses. The requirements vary depending on whether you’re taking general education or technical classes.

To help maximize high school student success in dual credit courses and subsequent college/university coursework upon high school graduation, and to maintain the integrity of college-level coursework, this policy has been developed to assess and place 9th through 12th grade high school students in dual credit classes. All KCTCS Colleges will follow these guidelines as written, which align closely with the CPE Admissions and Placement Regulation and align with but do not completely match the general provisions of the KCTCS Assessment and Placement Policy. Limited admissions programs such as Early or Middle College programs will follow those program admission requirements.

Dual Credit Assessment & Placement Policy

As per KHEAA policy, the Dual Credit and Work Ready Kentucky Scholarships may not be used for a course which previously received a scholarship. So, if a student earned an E, F, I or W, they may not use either scholarship to repeat the course. Note that KHEAA success policy is different from KCTCS dual credit course success practices as shown below.

Requirements for enrollment into Dual Credit Courses

Dual credit students must meet the CPE college readiness indicator appropriate for any course for which they enroll AND any course-specific requirements noted in the KCTCS course catalog. Students can use their unweighted GPA or an approved assessment, such as the ACT, to meet the enrollment requirements. (Additional placement tests are listed below.)

¹AND any course-specific requirements noted in the KCTCS course catalog

² MAT 116, 110 and 105
³ MAT  126, 141, 146, 151 and 150 with 100 corequisite 
Exception: Dual credit students in the 12th grade who assess/place into an English, Math or Reading course with a supplemental course may enroll in that option if offered by their KCTCS College for dual credit. Both courses are eligible for any available dual credit tuition waiver and dual credit scholarship. All other students must meet the established readiness indicators to enroll in an English, Math, or Reading course.

3.3 Addendum for Enrollment into Technical Education Dual Credit Courses: Students who do not have the minimum unweighted cumulative high school 2.0 GPA the KCTCS Assessment and Placement Policy requires for enrollment into technical course work may enroll in technical courses through:

• An ACT Composite Score of 16
• OR ACT Mathematics 16 AND Reading 16;
• OR any accepted equivalent from the KCTCS Assessment and Placement Policy
• AND any course-specific requirements noted in the KCTCS course catalog

Ninth grade students who do not have a GPA may enroll in one technical course per semester that does not have a placement requirement with the recommendation of the High School Administrator.

Approved Placement Tests:

• ACT
• Accuplacer
• ALEKS PPL
• EdReady
• KYOTE
• SAT
• Wonderlic

Visit the full KCTCS Assessment & Placement Policy to view placement levels in Section 3.3 for common assessments. Note: individual colleges may accept additional assessments for placement.