As a result of efforts to expand access to a Georgia Tech education for students across the state of Georgia, dual enrollment programs grew 160% percent in the past five years, from 680 students in 2020 to 1,772 students in the 2024-25 academic year.
Tech offers three dual enrollment programs: Distance Math, Distance Computer Science, and on-campus dual enrollment. Distance Math and Distance Computer Science take place online, while on-campus dual enrollment encompasses all in-person classes.
Distance Math
In 2005, the Distance Math program in the School of Mathematics became the Institute’s landmark effort to enroll high schoolers in Tech courses. As described in the recent celebration of 20 years of Distance Math at Georgia Tech, the program came about to support high school students who completed all available math coursework at their high schools.
What started as 32 students, connected to a Georgia Tech classroom via broadcast, has grown to 1,100 students in the 20th cohort, asynchronously viewing video content from across the state.
More impressively, the 2024 cohort grew 50% from 2023 after additional seats were added to meet the needs of every qualified applicant to the program.
Why Support Dual Enrollment?
There is often a question of why Tech continues to serve high school students in addition to undergraduates. The answer is that it continues to be a service to the state, allowing young minds to expand beyond the rigor their high school is able to offer, and experience classes at a top-10 public institution.
“Dual enrollment is not about Georgia Tech, it is all about how we can serve Georgia students,” said Laura Simmons, director of non-degree programs in the Office of Undergraduate Admission, which oversees the admission processes of Tech’s dual enrollment program. “It allows students who have exhausted other options at their own high schools to continue with more rigorous courses.”
Simmons has managed dual enrollment programs for Tech since 2015. This was the same year that Move on When Ready became law, which provided state funding for Georgia students to dual enroll at public institutions across the state. With this funding came exponential growth for dual enrollment programs across the state, including at Tech.
“It was like drinking from a fire hose,” said Simmons. “In a lot of ways, we had more interest than we knew what to do with.”
In 2019, Simmons’ management of dual enrollment went from being one part of her work as a member of the first-year admission team to being her full-time focus. This allowed Undergraduate Admission to meet demand for growth from various school districts across the state.
Distance Computer Science
It was during this time that the Distance Computer Science dual enrollment program in the College of Computing came into development. It ran as a pilot in 2020 and 2021, before being offered more widely in 2022. With just a few years in offering, the program serves more than 500 students this year.
Distance Computer Science consists of two courses, to be taken in separate semesters: CS 1301 and CS 1331. The goal of this program is similar to Distance Math: serve students when equivalent options may not be available.
On-Campus Offerings
For students taking on-campus dual enrollment courses, available courses vary — dual enrollment students get lowest priority for course selections and may not always get the courses they planned. This, combined with a commute that can pose challenges, keeps the on-campus programs small, but impactful.
For Sofia Vempala, now a second-year computer science student at Tech, dual enrollment courses played a key role in her growth as a student and influenced her decision to attend Tech for her undergraduate degree. Vempala participated in both Distance Computer Science and on-campus dual enrollment courses.
“I fell in love with Tech during my time doing dual enrollment, and that experience is what convinced me to stay for my undergraduate,” she said. “I felt that the connections I made in under a year were truly unique and too valuable to give up. As a first-year, I was able to come in already knowing which classes I wanted to take, which professors I wanted to work with, and all about campus life. I would encourage anyone who can to participate in dual enrollment.”
Looking Forward
As interest in dual enrollment climbs, so do the opportunities for growth. Undergraduate Admission continues to work with faculty and staff across campus to determine potential courses to add and how to serve more students. Dual enrollment programs would not be possible without the support of the School of Mathematics, College of Computing, the College of Lifetime Learning, and many other campus partners.
The goal for the 2025-26 academic year is to maintain the number of seats across all three types of dual enrollment. The application for Fall 2025 dual enrollment will be available from May 15 – June 16. Students can learn more about the requirements to apply here.