How Many Classes Should I Take?

"How many classes should I take?" It is a common question that students are asking and, in all honesty, the answer depends.

A general rule of thumb for students planning to attend college is that all freshman, sophomore, and junior students should plan to take at least 6 classes each semester. All seniors that are on track for meeting their graduation requirements can decrease the total number of courses each semester due to the demands of other requirements such as college and scholarship applications, but should still plan to take at least 5 classes each semester.

If students are behind on earning their credits, then it may be necessary to plan on taking more classes for a semester or the year.

In order to progress forward with your class, all freshman students must earn at least 5.0 credits to be classified as a sophomore. All sophomore students must earn at least 10.0 credits to be classified as a junior. And, to be classified as a senior, students must earn at least 15.0 credits.

"But do I have to?" When we talk about the recommended courses, a lot of students will come back asking if they have to take 5 or 6 classes. The answer is no, but you will need your parents to sign off that they approve of you taking less than the recommended number of courses.

Graduation Requirements

The best place to kick off the registration posts is with the ultimate goal - Graduation! It is important to be aware of the graduation requirements as you plan your course selection.

Current Juniors (to be Seniors) have the following requirements for graudation:
- 4 credits of English (which includes 1/2 a credit of Speech)
- 3 credits of Math
- 3 credits of Science
- 3 credits of Social Studies (which includes 1/2 a credit of Government)
- 1/2 a credit of Physical Education (2 classes, each worth 1/4 credit)
- 1/2 a credit of Health
- 6 credits of Electives

Current Freshman and Sophomores (soon to be Sophomores and Juniors) have the following graduation requirements:
- 4 credits of English (which includes 1/2 a credit of Speech)
- 4 credits of Math
- 3 credits of Science
- 3 credits of Social Studies (which includes 1/2 a credit of Government)
- 1/2 a credit of Physical Education (2 classes, each worth 1/4 credit)
- 1/2 a credit of Health
- 5 credits of Electives
- All students must have had a year's worth of fine art coursework between grades 7 - 12

And, just in case any of you have younger siblings who are currently in 8th grade - their requirements are the same as the Freshman and Sophomore requirements with the additional requirement that they must have a course in Financial Literacy.

Speaking of graduation, current seniors, don't forget, tomorrow is the last day to order your cap and gown before the price jumps from $28 to $55! Go online and order it today!

I wanted to remind everyone that the online registration window is now OPEN! I also wanted to let you know that I will be out all day tomorrow for a meeting at central office.

All Things Registration

With the registration process for selecting next year's classes beginning last week and the online registration window opening tomorrow, I am going to spend this week highlighting different aspects related to all things registration.

Based upon the overwhelming number of e-mails and voicemail messages from parents, not to mention all of you who are stopping down trying to see me, I know there is a lot of concern about registering for classes. This is a very hectic time of year for me dealing with far more than registration, but I want to reassure you that I am aware of the anxiety and I will be able to help you make it through the registration process.

Let me try to put your mind at ease on a few issues. Yes, you do need to register online by next Monday (the 6th). I will also be double checking all of your classes and meeting with every student individually. We will be able to make any changes that are determined to be necessary at the time of our meeting or throughout the month.

Some people are hoping to set up appointments in addition to the individual meetings. I promise that I am more than happy to meet with you and we will work to find a time that is convenient, but it doesn't need to be before you register online because I can still go into the system and make changes to class requests throughout this month. Please go ahead and register with your best guess on classes that you would like to take and then when we are able to meet if changes are needed I can make them at that time.

I hope that eases your mind a little bit to know that it is not completely locked in stone after you submit your requests online! I am here to help you, but I do beg for you to try to be patient with me as having more than 350 students makes it hard to get to everyone all at the same time.

Dealing with Deferrals

One of the realities of the college admission process is that not every student will be accepted to every college. The waiting game can often be one of the more frustrating aspects. With family members and friends consistently asking, "Where are you going to college?" the uncertainty present with each "I don't know" response can be overwhelming.

Sometimes even when you hear back from the college, the answer still leaves you wondering where you stand. That is the case with a deferral. A deferral is not a "yes" and it is not a "no." It is what a college will do when they need more time to make a decision on your application.

So, what should you do if you are deferred?

One of the first steps should be to stop in and see me so that we can talk about the college decision and develop a game-plan for your next steps.

If I were trying to simplify the process, then I would suggest that you call the admisisons office and talk directly with the admissions officer who is in charge of our region. Talk to him/ her about where you stand and what they would like for you to do to be a more "ideal" candidate.

Draft a letter with any updates and information that you can share with the admissions staff. In particular, let them know that of any new experiences that you have had or recent accomplishments that they weren't previously aware of when you first applied. Updating them on your new activities and accomplishments is important because it is your effort to help give the college a reason to select you and add your application to the "accepted" pile.

Send them an updated copy of your transcript.

If you re-took your ACT or SAT exams and haven't forwarded your most recent scores to the college, request for the scores to be sent directly to the college of your choice.

Consider other outreach efforts to communicate your strengths with the admissions office such as an additional teacher recommendation letter.

Although no one likes to be deferred, remember that this is not the end of the world and there is still plenty of time to communicate your strengths to the admissions committee so that you will be accepted to their school.

Registering for Next Year's Classes

As you heard during today's homeroom, all students currently in grades 9, 10, or 11 will use the online registration system to select the classes you would like to take next year.

Over the next few days your teachers should continue reviewing the different classes offered within their departments as well as talking with you individually about the courses they would recommend for you to take next year. Please be sure to carry your registration materials with you so that you can get your teacher signatures on the course recommendation form and can make any notes about other classes of interest. If you'd like to hear more in depth information directly from the teachers who teach particular courses, please set up a time to talk to the teacher. Let me know if you need help finding a teacher during one of their off-periods.

After you have determined which courses you would like to take, please talk it over with your parents and then log in and register. (The online registration system will open Mondayafter you have received your teacher recommendations.) You will register on the portal at http://www.worthington-portal.org/ and it will prompt you for your username and password which you should know from school. If you have any problems, using the online registration system, please stop in and let me know so that I can try to fix it.

Remember, your math teachers indicated the math course that they are recommending for you to take next year online already so you will not be adding a math class. Also, as you are completing your online registration, don't forget that you can leave me a note in the request comments section. If you change your mind after completing your registration, simply log back in before February 6th and make your changes. After February 6th your course requests will be locked.

Don't forget to save your signed course recommendation forms! You *MUST* turn those in during your meeting with me. Freshmen will meet with me during English classes on February 8th, Sophomores will meet with me during US History classes on February 9th, and Juniors will meet with me during your individually scheduled appointments. I will send out individual appointment slips, but I am waiting a few more days to see if their are any other parents wanted to join in on the meetings before I assign everyone whose parents haven't already signed up for an appointment slot. Please don't lose your appointment slips since they are your only reminder and your pass if you need to leave class. Don't forget that your classes need to be submitted online before our meeting! (Don't worry, we can still make changes if necessary.)

News and Notes

A quick (last-minute) reminder that tomorrow we will be on an extended homeroom bell schedule. Freshmen, sophomores and juniors will be receiving information about registering for classes next year. I feel like I should know the answer to this, but I have no idea what the seniors will be doing during the homeroom time. (Sorry.) I'm sure that there is something planned to keep you occupied.

The homeroom bell schedule is important to remember if you have late-start as it means 2nd period will start earlier than normal. :-)

I also wanted to pass along a few articles that might interest you regarding Social Media and it's impact on college admissions. Please make sure that you are making good choices when online!

College Admissions Officials Turn to Facebook to Research Students

Can facebook get you rejected from college?

The low-down on Social Media and College Admissions

Kilbourne Counselor Website

Have you been to the Kilbourne Counselors website lately? Should I ask if you have been at all? :-) If you haven't, I hope you will take a moment and visit the site. The address is http://www.wkhscounselors.com/.

The website is still a work in progress, but every week we are adding more information and resources that I think will make your life a little easier. I will be the first to admit that the site is very simple and lacks pictures to help keep things entertaining, but that will come in time. Right now, I am just excited about the fact that we have a website at all to post information that I think you will want to access.

Considering the fact that I know absolutely NOTHING about creating a website, I am pretty proud of it. I am also learning that it is better to leave something on the site that you didn't really want rather than delete it only to figure out that you deleted the wrong item and then spend over 2 hours trying to recreate what you had wanted to have on the site. :-) Yes, that is how I spent most of my day today!

Today, a few of the items that I was able to get posted on the website are the scholarship offerings that we are aware of currently as well as summer camp program offerings for the coming summer break.

I have a list (4 pages, typed, single spaced) of things that I would like to do and add to the website to continue to improve it, but if there are things that you think of when you go to visit the site that you feel are missing that would be helpful, please let me know so that I can be sure to add it to the list.

The website is only useful if people are visiting it, so please, take a moment to check it out and then bookmark the site for future reference.