Underclassmen Need More Time Selecting Courses

For freshmen at Campo this year, picking classes for the next school year happened much earlier than anticipated. The transition to high school for current freshmen was already challenging because of COVID, and now the transition to sophomore year has presented another challenge.

Many students are finding it hard to adjust to the new high school setting and believe they need more time to decide on their classes. I myself am having a hard time deciding without too much high school experience what classes I want to pursue in 8 months and if it will change during that time.

Freshman Max Roberts said, “I think it’s too early to pick classes, I think it should be later in the year, like March around that time because then you have more time to see what you like and what will be best for you in the next year”.

While rising juniors and seniors have had sufficient high school experience to make these decisions, freshmen have barely finished their 1st semester of high school. Freshman Brendan Baldelli said, “I think it is too early to pick classes because it just sort of came up on me, and I wasn’t really prepared. I haven’t really had much time to talk to see what are good classes to take and what are my friends taking. I think it should be in the last month of school [because] by then I’ve already figured out what high school is like and I have more time to pick out what I’ll find interesting for next year.”

However, freshmen believe a middle ground must be met. Roberts said, “In middle school, we picked our classes in the summer, and I don’t think that is a better time because it doesn’t really give you time to get mentally prepared for those classes.”

Brendan added, “I remember in middle school we picked our classes in the summer and I think that’s a bad time because I’m not at school everyday finding out what other people are taking. I can’t talk to counselors then to have them recommend what I should take, so I think it’s better if we do it in the last month of school where I’ve already figured out high school and know what I want to pursue next year”.

Freshman Kyle Ting, however, enjoyed the later selection time in middle school. “For middle school we picked our classes during the summer a couple weeks before school and I think that was a good time because we were going into something new and we didn’t know what to expect.”

He added, “It is still early because the 1st semester basically just ended and we don’t really know what the next year will really be about. I think we should choose classes a couple of weeks before school ends because our opinions could change during the 2nd semester on what classes we want for next year.”

I and other freshmen agree that course selection should be introduced earlier and discussed more so students have ample time to choose what interests them and fulfills Campo’s requirements. January feels much too early to make decisions for the following school year. Sometime in the spring would be more appropriate in giving students time to consider their options and to prepare for their course load. At a school such as Campo where taking challenging courses is normalized, this adjustment would be to the benefit of students.