The course selection process is a stressful time for any student. With COVID-19 still keeping a vast majority of students out of the building, the administration had to conduct the 2021-2022 course selection process remotely.

To many students, there was a lot of confusion over what required classes they had to take and how many credits they needed. With the course selection process being entirely remote, it was difficult to reach out for help. 

“Being remote made the [course] selection more complicated because we were not able to ask questions directly to staff. In previous years, we had help from teachers and other students,” junior Courtney Hauser said. 

This is not to say that counselors were completely unavailable. Students had the option to email their counselors and set up Zoom meetings with them to answer any questions. 

“Fortunately, I was able to set up an appointment with my counselor and the College and Careers counselor. They were very helpful in answering my questions and figuring out the route I should go,” Hauser said. 

In years past, the course selection process was conducted during school hours within the presence of multiple counselors. However, the absence of any sort of smooth process and direction greatly confused many students, despite there being videos available to help. 

“I think that the teachers could have taken a couple of minutes of class time to help students with course selection. They could have also helped the students work through adding up credits or helped us choose courses more specific towards what we want to do in the future,” sophomore Norah Garrity said. 

There were several complications with the course selection process as a whole, but there were some components of the process that were relatively easy for students. 

“The easy part [of the course selection process] was selecting the basic courses like English, math, and science,” Garrity said. 

Since most students completed the course selection process on their own or with limited assistance, errors were bound to happen. For example, students may have forgotten a required class or miscalculated credits. 

Because of the likely errors on behalf of students, the administration should be lenient to students in regard to these errors. With the course selection process being completed with minimal guidance from the administration, the benefit of the doubt should be given to students, as undoubtedly all of the errors were not malicious in intent. 

“There are bound to be errors especially if students did not reach out for additional assistance. These mistakes should not be overwhelming to students and can be easily resolved with the help of staff members,” Hauser said. 

The course selection process, like any other process, can be improved. This is, however, not to discredit the work that the district has done throughout the pandemic. 

The district has had some bumps in the road throughout the pandemic, but they have done their best to communicate to families and guide students and staff through these tumultuous times. 

Hopefully, the 2022-2023 course selection process will be conducted as it has been in years past. With about a year until course selection rolls around again, the district has plenty of time to make the process easier in case it ever has to be conducted remotely in the future.