As the scheduling window opens, NA sophomores find themselves with a unique problem: trying to navigate a nearly overwhelming array of course options to choose from for junior year.

For the current sophomores at NAI, there is a significantly increased amount of options when selecting core classes. While in previous years the main decisions were deciding between honors and academic courses, scheduling for junior year is more complicated than that. There is a larger amount of College in High School (CHS) classes and Advanced Placement (AP) courses available to the rising juniors. Sophomores have to decide how many advanced courses they can handle with little to no experience with CHS and AP classes. 

The core class with the most significant increase in course options is science. While other subjects have higher level options for the course, science has a variety of courses at all levels. There are multiple academic, honors, and AP course options. Some courses are only available at AP level, while others can also be taken at academic and/or honors level.

Sophomore Rachel Reubi explained how all of the options create stress for students. Reubi says, “I’m not really good at making decisions and especially ones that will help with my future, so having a lot of options to choose from made it very overwhelming.” Reubi brings up the point that sophomores are making decisions at ages 15 and 16 that will have an impact on their future.

While science has many more options to choose from, the amount of available electives expanded significantly for rising juniors. Many students choose to take a language to fill application requirements from colleges and pick other electives to make a more well rounded resume. Some students choose their electives to make their college applications look better, but others choose electives for enjoyment.

Sophomore Lorelei Schreiber says, “I don’t want to stretch myself too thin and I would like to have at least some kind of break during school.” Most high school students agree that junior year is the hardest high school year, so students like Schreiber are utilizing all of the new elective course options to help ease some of the stress that will come along with the upcoming academic year.

Some sophomores have changed their plans for their junior year based on the experiences they have had this year. Reubi says, “The classes this year were a lot harder than I expected them to be and they caused [me] so much stress. I don’t think I will take all the more advanced classes I wanted to take because I don’t want to be under this much stress again next year.”

The program of studies has a plan ahead sheet that allows students to plan out what classes they want to take throughout their four years of high school. However, the transition from hybrid learning to full in person learning has been an eye opening experience for many students. Many other rising juniors like Reubi have realized they might not be able to take as many advanced classes as they had originally planned.

The large variety of course options that are now available can be utilized by students to take courses that will help them achieve their career goals, or to reduce school related stress. Sophomores have until the end of February to contemplate and decide which way they want to build their junior year schedules.