Striking the Right Balance when Choosing Your Schedule

As we’re quickly approaching the end of the 2nd trimester in Upper School, thoughts are already turning to plans for the next school year. Next week, teachers will present course previews and very soon Mr. Jones will begin meeting with the Class of 2025 to take course requests for their senior year. Students have been trickling into my lab or stopping me in the hallways for a few weeks now asking which science courses will be offered and for advice in creating a schedule that will meet their needs and their desires. I love these conservations. It’s exciting to plan for the future and very satisfying to find that so many students are looking to extend their Science and Technology transcript beyond what is required for graduation. Sometimes, though, this planning can be a little tricky. 

It’s important always to consider the student experience holistically when advising a course schedule and to ensure that elective/additional courses are added for the right reasons. We want our students to be successful in their academic endeavors but also able to sample a variety of extracurriculars to enrich their Upper School years. Students should be preparing for college with courses that provide a reasonable amount of challenge and they should be choosing classes for which they have genuine interest. We have so many great ones! Often students need help navigating this process because they tend to try to overload their schedules, especially in Junior year. For example, students who have been on an Honors track in science will generally move into Honors Physics this year, but they’re also now thinking about college plans and may view doubling up in science as an important factor in that preparation, especially if they’re considering a STEM major like pre-medicine or engineering. Trinity students regularly do this successfully, but I want to share some general thoughts for consideration. 

Doubling up on a core class is already going to increase workload; it doesn’t also have to be unnecessarily onerous. Science students choosing to add an honors or advanced topics course to their schedule need to consider what is a priority for them and what is manageable. Case in point, I recently advised a junior to change from Honors Physics to the on-level class in order to accommodate his strong desire to concurrently enroll in Advanced Topics in Biology (our highest-level life science course, which is offered in alternating years). For most of our students, two advanced science classes written into an already full schedule that also includes Honors English III would be untenable, and early on this student-athlete was feeling the stress. It was a very straightforward conversation to have. I asked the student what he was interested in and what he liked. He shared that he was hoping to go to college for an advanced degree in nursing, he loves biology, and he doesn’t care for physics nearly as much. Dive deep into what really and truly interests you! It’s always the right answer, even in high school. Fortunately, this student and his parents agreed with my assessment and so he adjusted his Physics class to provide relief in his workload and allow him to lean into his passion. It was absolutely the right decision. He’s still fully prepared by Mr. Lafarelle’s alternative course and enjoyed and even excelled in Advanced Biology, which will provide excellent preparations for his planned college courses.     

Students who wish to graduate from Trinity are required to complete Biology, Chemistry, and one additional year of laboratory science. Our college counselor advises students headed to STEM majors and those applying to more selective universities to complete four credits instead of three to be competitive. We offer a good selection of courses (both full-year and trimester length) to satisfy these requirements and also provide our students with 3 levels of computer science classes to serve as additional technology electives. With this in mind, I decided to dig into some data in recent weeks to ascertain the number of our graduates who are exceeding our graduation requirements, and by what measure. A quick glance at recent graduates reveals that 98% of our students exceed the 3-credit graduation requirement and a full third of our students have 5 or more science credits when they leave. Further, a little more than half of this population has completed at least 1 full year of computer science. Considering Science and Technology classes together, 39% of Trinity grads earned between 4 and 6 credits, while nearly a quarter (24%) have 6 or more. Trinity students love their science classes! As an Upper School faculty and administration, we are committed to helping them find the right mix of courses for their happiness and success.