Wednesday, March 27, 2019

A Tough Schedule For Senior Year



As one school years begins to wind down, it is time to look ahead to the next. For some students, this means selecting classes for their last year of high school, and if that’s the case the strategy might be a little different than what was done during the other years.


This is especially true for students who intend to go to college. The appearance of a strong and rigorous senior schedule is extremely important and is something colleges look for. They want to see that a student is continuing their pursuit of knowledge and is continuing to challenge themselves. Many seniors will have met their most strenuous graduation requirements and might not be required to take courses in some core subject areas However, that doesn’t mean they should not. A college-bound senior would do well to take challenging classes in language arts, math, science, and social studies.


Here is the bigger secret; who cares how you do in the classes? Well, to a point. I tell my college-bound students that as long as meet the minimum GPA required to graduate I don’t have much interest in their GPA at graduation. I am most interested in the GPA they have at the end of their junior year because that is the one they will present to colleges on their applications in the fall of their senior year.


To put this point another way, a student applies to college before their senior grades have a chance to take hold. What this means is that the courses listed on a senior schedule are magnified. The colleges are going to be forced to recognize the strength of your senior schedule before they might have the opportunity to see a result. This means a senior can and should be less conservative in the courses they select their senior year. They can take a class that might be a slight a reach for them because that is going to look good to the colleges and if they don’t do as well as they would like, the consequences are not as severe.


Now, the disclaimer paragraph. Colleges can do send what is a called a letter of rescission. This is when you get accepted, the college gets a final transcript which is terrible, and they send a letter rescinding your acceptance. Some times, this can even come after you’ve spent a semester at a college. Letters of rescission are an awful thing to receive. In my point above, I think seniors can afford to do a little worse than they are used to. They can’t afford to bottom out and I’m not suggesting it’s okay for a student to fail or make Ds in their classes. I just mean you don’t have to necessarily maintain your GPA exactly where it is through senior year. Students can take in a larger mouthful than what they are used to it, but they should not bite off more than they can chew. Senioritis is also a real thing too, so my greater point above is working with the assumption that a senior is a good student and has the will to continue to try to be that for the duration of their senior year.

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