Counseling

Course selection

Picking meaningful, relevant courses that serve you well in the future is highly important. Learn more about the process.

When does course selection begin?

Typically, course selection for the next year begins in February. Your course selections are confirmed in May. You may change your course selections before then, but you may not change course selections after the last day of school.

Can I change my courses in the summer or when school starts?

If you are missing a core class or credits needed to graduate, then yes. Otherwise, no. Dropping a Pre-AP or AP course will need to be done between the 15th and 20th day of school.

Where can I find the courses that I can take?

See the Academic Planning Guide for details.

I don't know which course I should take.

There are several things you can do to make the right choice.

• Talk with the teacher that teaches it. Tell them about your situation and your goals. They will be able to gauge their course's difficulty for you. See the faculty directory or ask a counselor if you don't know who teaches what.
• Think about your goals and apply them to the APG. Want to be a nurse? Look under the health sciences seciton of the APG. The same principle applies to any elective course. Don't forget to take Health and Communications classes to graduate. Ensure you have one Fine Arts credit, one PE credit, and two foreign language credits. Want to learn more about Pre-AP and AP classes? See the below quesiton.
• Take courses that your future career or college will need. If you're becoming an engineer, taking AP Calculus will help you more than taking AP Statistics. Choose the right course and learn for your future.
• Select courses that raise your class rank. Texas public colleges will guarantee admission based on their class rank cutoffs. That means you could be automatically admitted to the University of Texas at Austin (UT) or Texas A&M University (A&M) if your class rank is in the top 7-8% or 10%, respectively. (UT cutoffs fluctuate year-to-year; please see this link on the UT Austin website for details.)

Academic/Core, Pre-AP, or AP?

Finding the right academic difficulty can be difficult. The difficulty of classes will affect your weighted GPA and therefore your class rank.

AP classes are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they are very good for your GPA and class rank if your grades are high and you do well in them. But if your grades are below 80 in an AP class, you no longer have a GPA benefit. Below 70, you are failing your class, even if the same level of knowledge and difficulty would get you a passing grade in an Pre-AP or Academic/Core class. This is extremely dangerous, because failing any class means you will need to take it again to gain the credit for it. Some credits are REQUIRED to graduate.

While selecting AP classes without regards to their difficulty will hurt you, it is also important to realize that if you feel a class is too easy and you have no room for improvement, or if you think you need to challenge yourself more, taking an AP class is a good step towards that.

Remember that if an AP class isn't working out for you, you can drop out of AP classes between the 15th and 20th day of school, at the end of the first quarter, and at the end of the semester. Also remember to try as much as you can. It is possible to struggle with an AP course at first but then get high grades at the end. There is an "adaptation" process to each course.

Of course, at the end of the day, learning is the most important thing. Choosing the right class for your feature is also strategically important.

For more information concerning AP courses, see Advanced Placement. The beginning of the Academic Planning Guide also has pertinent information relating to AP vs. Pre-AP vs. Academic courses.