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Schools

Scheduling: The First Taste of Senior Year

A Dublin High junior discusses the scheduling process taking place now at Dublin High and the challenges of choosing a schedule for senior year.

I’m sitting at my kitchen table, staring at the blue piece of paper that will decide my senior year, ready to pull my hair out. There are check marks scratched out and re-written and scratched out again all over the paper because for some reason, I continue to use pen while I try to piece together my classes for next year. Every time I think, “This is my final decision,” the next day there are even more scratch marks.

It’s stressful and frustrating and every year it’s the same. Almost. This year is different for several reasons. For one, this is the last time I will be filling out a schedule request for (a thought that half excites and half scares me). For another, the top half of my schedule sheet is much smaller than it has been in the past.

The top section of the schedule form is for “required courses.” In past years, it has included subjects such as English, math and history, with many options for each. This year, however, there are only three subjects: English, CHEE (Consumer Health and Employment Education) and social studies. There are four options for English senior year. CHEE is pretty straightforward: either you’re taking it or you’re not. If you are, you pair it with another semester class. Social studies includes civics and economics, both semester classes with an AP option for each.

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That section was pretty straightforward for me: I love English, so I was planning to take AP Literature and Composition. Because I didn’t take health my sophomore year, I have to take CHEE in order to graduate. And AP Government and Politics and AP Microeconomics both sounded pretty interesting.

The electives are truly the hard part. Because although math or science don't seem like electives, I’ve already fulfilled my graduation requirements for those classes, so I don’t have to take them my senior year.

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Eventually, I settled on a good balance of classes I should take with classes I want to take. It was not easy by any means. Being limited to six periods a day can make scheduling a little more challenging, especially since for the past three years I haven’t able to take fun classes such as advanced drama because there just wasn't time.  

Hopefully, my senior year won’t be too booked. It’s meant to be fun and I’m hoping that’s how it will turn out. I’m nervous and excited about college applications; it’s hard to believe graduation is a little more than a year away.

It will be an emotional year, and even though I can’t quite comprehend that I’m more than halfway through my junior year already, it also feels like my senior year couldn’t come any faster. Scheduling can be stressful, especially this year, but it’s my first taste of my last year of high school. 

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