Senior Year
Building the Best Schedule for Eleventh Graders Going into the Twelfth Grade
- Going from the junior year to the senior year is one of the most important in terms of building an effective schedule
- We need to be sure seniors have a strong, full course load – finding a balance between a schedule that looks rigorous enough to the colleges, without being too overwhelming for the individual student
- Placement is not just a matter of what a student can handle academically/cognitively – it is a matter of what a student can handle emotionally
- When a student has a schedule with courses he/she can not deal with academically and or emotionally, it becomes a very unhealthy situation with the student’s self-esteem being crushed
- Students need to also be aware that within the past few years, colleges have begun to re-calculate the GPAs
- They take out all the core subjects from the student’s four years and refigure the GPA using only those major subjects (English, math, science, foreign language, social studies)
- Even if the student is applying to an art/theatre/dance/music school, etc., the college still has a tendency to re-calculate the GPAs
- As a result, students need to be sure to have core subjects during the senior year they can handle – rather than too many “elective” courses that are considered non-academics to colleges
- Again, the balance has to be made within the student’s schedule of core subjects coupled with a few elective courses the student feels creative in/interested in personally
When guidance counselors check over the course selection sheets for seniors, they are always checking to make sure:
- Students have the appropriate units for each content area class for graduation ( 4 English, 4 Religion – unless student transferred, 3 Science, 3 Social Studies, 3 Math, 3 Foreign Language – unless student has a language waiver and takes Sign Language instead, 4 PE/Health, 1 year of the arts)
- Students have the appropriate number of credits for graduation
- Students have the appropriate prerequisites required for each class
- Students can handle the course load they have signed up for
- Classes with insufficient enrollment are not run for that particular year
- When the master schedule is made, we make sure every student has a class in each period
- Once, for example, it is clear that every senior has a class Period A, then no other senior class will be scheduled Period A
- This is why, over the summer for example, when students try to change their schedules, there may not be a class they can take during a particular period
Please click here to download a Course Request for Current Juniors to Seniors form.