Syracuse University Project Advance (SUPA) is an enhanced concurrent enrollment program linking Syracuse University with secondary schools.

Through this partnership, high schools can offer qualified seniors the opportunity to enroll in SU courses for university credit. Teachers who have qualified through SUPA as SU adjunct instructors teach enhanced concurrent enrollment university courses in high schools during the school day.

Curing Senioritis

SUPA began in 1972 as an attempt to address “senioritis,” the tendency for seniors who have completed their graduation requirements to relax rather than prepare for the transition from high school to college.

SUPA’s cure for senioritis was to develop a concurrent enrollment (sometimes called “dual enrollment” or “dual credit”) college readiness program. Project Advance does not offer advance placement exams. Surveys have shown that advance placement programs have lost their luster, with too much emphasis placed on a single exam.

By contrast, SU courses offered through SUPA intellectually challenge students, requiring them to deeply explore and thoroughly interact with college-level subject matter. Dual enrollment not only better prepares students to transition from high school to college, it gives them course credit that 90% of SUPA graduates receive recognition for at destination colleges.

Expanding Horizons

Since its official launch in 1974, SUPA’s professional development programs for high school teachers have helped more than 750 educators become SU adjuncts. And the first six pilot schools have become part of a community of more than 200 schools across six states and abroad, enrolling approximately 12,000 students every year.

Today, Project Advance offers over 50 SU courses from 22 academic disciplines, with new courses added annually. These university courses for high school seniors are identical in all important aspects to courses offered to matriculated SU students—they use the same syllabi (where appropriate), materials, textbooks, assignments, and assessments. More information on courses offered through Project Advance can be found here.

Program Mission

Project Advance’s ongoing mission is to:

  1. offer innovative and challenging Syracuse University courses to qualified high school students at their local high schools, during their regularly scheduled high school day;
  2. increase students’ college readiness by providing college readiness tools, programs, and services;
  3. provide continuous professional development for teachers and ongoing dialogue between the University faculty and the high school teachers;
  4. conduct extensive ongoing research and evaluation in support of systemically improving instruction and smoothing the transition from high school to postsecondary education.