Article By: Norah Hutchison
Cover Image: Abby Conn
For college-bound students, higher education can be intimidating, from the rigorous coursework to the towering tuition costs.
But there are shortcuts for motivated students.
Epic Collegiate Academy sets students up for success by allowing them to obtain dozens of hours of general education college credits online and cost-free.
Students emerge better prepared for college and stand out to admissions departments. Moreover, they complete general education credits, which allows them to focus on major-related courses when they enroll as freshmen.
Perhaps most important, however, is the tens of thousands of dollars students can save by completing coursework while in high school.
Concurrent enrollment has seen a lot of growth in recent years. From fall 2022-23, the concurrent enrollment across Oklahoma has gone from 13,713 students to 15,382. This is a 12.2% change.
What’s driving the growth?
With concurrent enrollment, students have the opportunity to independently take classes at universities that offer concurrent enrollment, and they receive high school and college credit at the same time for those classes. This opportunity allows students to have college credit by the time they graduate high school. There’s no cap on hours, and some students have earned the equivalent of an associate degree.
Angel Icenhour oversees concurrent enrollment for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Concurrent enrollment has been growing nationally and the state regents have a goal of expanding concurrent to all students, she said.
Instead of it being limited to those who tend to take advanced courses such as AP or IB courses, Icenhour made clear that concurrent enrollment is accessible to all.
“I know that it used to … only be for high achievers and college-bound students. But they were kind of looked at as programs of privilege. And we’re trying to move away from that,” she said.
After all, the draws of saving money and time, and potentially getting an associate’s degree early could be valuable to any high-schooler with college ambitions. And the extra work they put into college-level classes gives them a leg up in the admissions race.
“It shows them they already have success in college,” Icenhour emphasized.
Epic Collegiate Academy
Epic Charter Schools has taken this a step further via Epic Collegiate Academy.
Like traditional concurrent enrollment, ECA offers Epic students the opportunity to earn dual high school and college credit by completing college-level classes.
ECA includes a structured plan for students to complete a year of college (30 credit hours) or an associate degree in general education (60 credit hours). ECA’s partnership with Oklahoma Christian University, the school providing the college credits, ensures that students earn widely transferable credits, giving them a solid foundation for any school they wish to attend.
Epic Collegiate Academy is structured to give students flexibility with a self-paced, online curriculum, allowing them to balance high school responsibilities while earning college credits. Additionally, Epic covers all expenses through the Learning Fund. These concurrent classes offered through ECA are completely free.
Yes, free. You read that correctly.
The program not only saves students thousands of dollars in tuition but also provides them a head start in completing general education requirements before ever stepping foot on a college campus.
Angie Lee, Epic’s TEL special programs specialist, described her role in supporting and advocating for ECA students by helping them if there are problems with the curriculum platform or if they need to contact their professor about grades.
Lee assists students with orientation, by making videos for students so they can learn how to use the Canvas platform before they start. Overall, she helps set students up for success.
ECA began in spring 2021. It came about because Epic was looking for innovation to give college-bound students an advantage over other students outside of Epic. Through this process, Epic connected with TEL. TEL is an online program that works with colleges to fill in some of the classes so students do not need to physically go to a college campus. Oklahoma Christian University (OC) joined this partnership, and together Epic, TEL, and OC created a way for Epic students to use TEL classes to obtain an associate’s degree.
The partnership with Oklahoma Christian is significant to the program.
Lee explained how the partnership works.
“They are accredited by something called the Higher Learning Commission, which is the top accrediting board in the central part of the United States,” she said, going on to explain that many well-known colleges use this same accrediting board such as the University of Tulsa and the University of Oklahoma.
“Essentially, like the powers to be in higher education say these are high-quality classes that can transfer over to any other school,” she said. “If you don’t have that high level of accreditation, you can run into transfer issues, but we don’t have that with Oklahoma Christian because they are accredited by the best.”
The partnership helps ensure a smoother transfer of these credits.
There are currently 414 students enrolled in ECA as of this year; in June of 2021 there were 75 students. ECA has grown by 209 students. Additionally, the retention rates have been growing, and fewer students are dropping out of ECA, according to Lee.
“That was a big issue when I first came on. There were a lot of students interested in the program, but for various reasons they didn’t stick. And so we have systemically been trying to address all of the problems that caused students to exit, and we’re really seeing the results,” Lee explained.
What makes students choose ECA in the first place?
Said Lee: “The biggest one is that they want a head start on their future, so it is a fabulous opportunity to earn a lot of college credit.”
She explained that this is largely from the student’s perspective, and she offered another perspective: why families choose ECA.
“Families like ECA because there is no out-of-pocket cost,” she said.
Essentially, with a student’s learning fund they get their tech package and any high school curriculum they choose to use. Then the remainder of their learning fund goes toward funding ECA. This pays for part of ECA. For the rest of it, “Epic picks up the tab.”
Lee said there is nothing like this program in traditional brick-and-mortar schools. While it is possible to earn enough credit for associates in other schools, it typically is very difficult. And there are out-of-pocket costs for the families.
Another feature of ECA is how early it lets students start this program. ECA allows ninth graders to start in the program, which allows them more time to pace out their courses throughout their high school years, so they are carrying a lesser load each semester.
In traditional brick-and-mortar schools, concurrent enrollment is typically only available to juniors and seniors, which limits the amount of credits they can earn before they graduate. With this earlier start, ECA students can gain more hours — even an associate’s degree — before they graduate.
This program is a major feature of Epic, and a tool for high-achieving students to utilize in their preparation for their future.
“A vast majority of students are planning on a four-year degree — a bachelor’s or higher. So when they graduate because they have received all of this credit, when they start at their four-year school they are able to get immediately into their major classes,” she said.
Further explaining, she said: “So every college has a lot of general education requirements, and this program knocks out a significant majority of them depending on the school you go to; sometimes it knocks out all of them.”
This is a big plus for college-bound students.
“This is a huge advantage. It allows you, whatever you are passionate about in terms of your future career, you’re opening the doors wide to jump right on into that. There are a lot of statistics out there that show that students get bogged down by general education requirements and they don’t go ahead and graduate college. And so with this program, you are able to launch right out of high school into the subject you are most interested in,” she said.
The ideal student
Any student can take advantage of this opportunity offered by Epic, but who is the ideal ECA student?
Lee said that since these classes are self-paced, students who are good at time management and are self-starters tend to see success in the program.
“In TEL, the stats are clear. If students make it all the way through the classes, ECA students pass with high grades. In almost every instance we have of students not succeeding in classes, (it) is because they have too many zeros. They didn’t get it all done. So if you get through it, it’s very rare that a student does everything and fails,” she said.
One thing students should know before signing up is that these are real college classes. They come with college expectations. Hence, students should expect these classes to be more difficult than the average high school class.
Since ECA classes cover a lot of general education requirement classes, they go over a broad range of subjects, from US History to college algebra to English comp to biology.
Not every class will be a student’s favorite, but it is important to see an open mind and remember that this is setting you up for your college career, so you can have these classes completed by the time you set foot on a college campus.
Lee said she has heard from students that TEL classes helped them prepare for college, and it was easier than they thought it would be.
Lee stressed that she is here to advocate for students. Students have a support system behind them every step of the way. Students can receive support with questions they may have or even help with course assignments from researching topics to editing papers.
While discussing the ECA program, Lee also brought up another track students can take in ECA. Instead of earning a full associate’s degree, they can do what is called Plus One. On this track, Epic students still earn college credit through TEl; however, if they do not want to commit to earning 60 credit hours throughout high school they can opt for the Plus One track and earn 30 credit hours.
That’s equivalent to one full year of college.
With this option, students do not need to take as many classes and have more flexibility in which classes they decide to take. Both options benefit students greatly and can offer a unique head start in their future.
Epic Collegiate Academy is giving students a unique opportunity to jump-start their college education while still in high school — without the burden of cost. By earning college credits early, students can save time, and money, and stand out in the competitive college admissions process. Programs like ECA are paving the way for a brighter, more affordable future, empowering students to succeed both academically and financially. As more students take advantage of this game-changing opportunity, Epic continues to support them in reaching their higher education goals, one course at a time.