As the last months of the school year come into view, freshmen, sophomores,

and juniors have to make the stressful decision of what classes to take next year.

Students are sent home with an elective sheet, where they mark their top choices

and alternatives for non-core classes. There are already four core subjects that

students must take, until they receive the required amount of credits, including:

math, science, social studies, and english. This leaves them with three other options

for classes to fill in their schedule. During their english classes, they go to the

auditorium to set up their schedules for next year.

In some ways, there are trends among the classes that students take. It has

been noticed that, generally, “students who have already taken AP courses tend to

take them again,” Ms. Walker, a new guidance counselor to Freedom, said. In terms

of how important these AP courses are for college, it has been noted that many out-

of-state colleges do not accept the credits that students earn in high school, while

most, if not all, in-state colleges and universities do. She has also stated that in

many cases, students with a 3.5, or higher, GPA are the ones that tend to take AP or

Dual Enrollment courses.

For a lot of students, taking AP classes is necessary to prepare for college and

earn the credits before applying to their chosen university, so many this year are

signing up for these courses to take in the upcoming year. Olivia Murrin, 10, said

that rather than taking honors classes, she, “would rather take AP classes because

it looks good on the transcript and gives me practice for what I need to be ready for

in college.” A large number of students are opting to take AP classes over honors, in

hopes of increasing their GPA to get a better chance at being recruited by four-year

universities.

Still, many students believe that it’s not vital to take higher level courses and

would rather stick to honors, balancing out this trend. “I would rather take honors

[classes] because the workload’s not as heavy,” Glynn Morgan, 11, said. Plenty of

people partake in out of school activities, so the workload of Ap and Dual Enrollment

classes do not work for them. As for which electives might be the most popular,

Morgan stated that he thinks students across the school take “AP World History, AP

Human Geography, and culinary, because many other students do.”

Whether or not a student takes AP/ Dual Enrollment classes or just honors

courses, scheduling is very important for counselors and students alike. This

process determines what classes the students will be enrolled in and what teachers

they will have for the upcoming year.