High schoolers have opportunities to jump-start postsecondary education and save money on college by participating in dual enrollment or Advanced Placement coursework. Students and families in a large Maryland district need to decide which pathway offers the most financial gains given academic and demographic characteristics when offered both early college options. The study's purpose was to examine student performance in both early college programs to ascertain if one pathway provided more financial benefits than the other. The theoretical framework of cost-benefit analysis was used to glean which program saved more money given pass rates and the overall cost of participation. Five research questions were generated to determine pass rates in each early college program and then compare pass rates based on demographic characteristics (gender, race, and socioeconomic status) and academic performance (grade point average and state assessment scores in English). Purposive sampling consisting of students who participated in both programs was necessary to address confounding variables while allowing direct comparison of pass rates in each pathway in a nonexperimental design. A variety of statistical tests were completed using IBM SPSS version 27 software package to explore relationships between predictor and criterion variables. Additional analyses on the relationship strength and significance with inferential statistical tests, like a one-way Analysis of Variance, were used to flag significant differences between the student groups using Tukey's posthoc reports. Results favored students taking Advanced Placement coursework to save the most money per course; however, students were more likely to pass dual enrollment coursework given each program's pass rates. Due to the limited sample population, additional research in the future should examine long-term, overall degree earning savings by participating in early college coursework in high school. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]