There you are, standing in the hallway of your high school staring at your schedule. It doesn’t take long to notice that the school enrolled you in a class that you didn’t ask to take, and a class you need in order to fulfill your credit requirements isn’t listed, but what actually goes into making that schedule change happen?

That process begins with a form filled out by the student requesting a change. Students are allowed to request the form at around noon on the first day of school once the school has a formal count of the students in each class. From there, the counselors determine whether or not the reason the student requesting a change is a valid explanation according to the Kiltie. What one would think is an easy process from there then moves on to affect multiple different aspects.

Counselors receive over schedule change requests from 500 different students each year, due to incorrect placement in courses. This winds up taking over the majority of their work load during the first few weeks of school; accordingly, some students still don’t receive approval. Sophomore Victoria Taverna, who is involved in multiple pre-AP classes, experienced an error in her schedule which has yet to be fixed. Taverna has already had her schedule adjusted three times, and the problem still has not been fixed.
“I can’t swim for all of swim season, basically, which is a little frustrating,” Taverna said. “I have to keep swimming, but I’m also in color guard which takes up a lot of my time, so I can’t really practice as much as I could’ve.”

Taverna believes that having to change her schedule so many times will ultimately affect her relationships with her teachers in the present and future, and is still distraught over the fact that she will not be able to participate in swimming until the upcoming spring semester.

Another student had to adjust his schedule in order to take AP Photography and, in the process, had to sacrifice taking Spanish 3 PAP a class which is essential to graduating with a more impressive application and take up a study period instead, ultimately putting him behind in his original plan.

“This is one of the tightest master schedules we’ve ever worked with, and a lot of classes are closed. So, we’re trying to find where we can place a student in a class that’s still open, and how that could affect the rest of their schedule,” Taryn Knott, a counselor at Highland Park, said.

At this point in time, the initial schedule changes are almost over, and the application to request a level change will be available for pick up in the counselor’s office Friday Sept. 12.

“With regards to the level changes, we require them to stay in the class for at least three weeks,” Knott said. “We want to give you that time really determine if that’s the right fit for you… And we’ll make those based on seat availability as well.”

Obviously this is a very time consuming process, so in order to avoid the possible mishap of not getting into the correct courses or level placement, counselors advise that students pay close attention to the form they fill out during the spring semester that regards signing up for the courses they’ve decided to take the following year. Parents should also supervise the choices their kids make in order to insure the student fully understands the commitment they’re making by signing up for those specific courses.

In addition, when applying for a schedule change, keep in mind that the process affects multiple other students as well as teachers. In some cases, classes will be full and the request may be denied despite the reason.