Course Changes: East’s new course change policy doesn’t allow students the time to make informed decisions on their class schedule

When the school year starts, I can’t help but be overwhelmed with the syllabi and stack of assignments I take home with me that night. It’s too much, but whether it’s the class size, hour or workload, I couldn’t change any of my classes because of the new course change policy.

In past years, the first few weeks of school were like a trial run with my new classes. We could attend classes and get a feel for them before choosing to drop the class or not.

But this year, counselors implemented a new policy giving students a 10-day window for schedule changes from July 25 to August 4.

This process fails to easily allow students to truly be informed when deciding to change their schedule, urging students to commit for the semester to a course without even attending a single class. It’s like buying a house without even taking a tour.

While there are students who will only ask for a schedule change in order to switch to their friends’ classes or just to get certain teachers, some changes are necessary and beneficial for a student’s academic success.

For juniors and seniors, AP and IB classes come with a crushing workload. Students are already balancing multiple difficult classes, sports, clubs or after-school jobs and may decide that that one class is just too much after the first week.

The first week can be a wake-up call to drop or switch classes of that difficulty. But now anyone who didn’t make those changes before school even started may have to drop the class for study hall or lab aid, at the loss of class credits and detriment to GPA.

However, there are advantages to sticking to your classes and taking challenging classes is important for personal growth as it teaches you to adjust to the workload and become more organized. 

Also, scheduling classes and graduation requirements for over 1700 students is a difficult and admirable task for the counseling department.

With the influx of schedule change requests that come every year around this time — many students just trying to change their schedule for a class with their friends or a certain lunch period — the school’s new policy will cut down on potentially disruptive changes and lessen the workload on East’s support staff.

With many classes already full because of East’s large student body, even switching one class can have a ripple effect on someone’s entire schedule, with students switching hours several times in the first few weeks.

Nevertheless, schedule changes are made to benefit students.  When facing a new year and heavier workload, students should have the right to choose the classes they can handle for the semester without having to get stuck in study hall, even if it’s a few weeks after school starts.