Fresh from winter break, students learned that they soon need to choose their classes for the 2016-2017 school year. The month of January at school is essentially dedicated to student’s course selection, but many wondered why students have to do it so early.

“We want to give students a fair amount of time to meet with us and have good conversations. We need to get a general sense of what students are interested in, which drives the decisions about what classes are going to be offered,” said counselor Randi Rosenberg.

Each counselor has roughly 300 students to meet with, so it’s important to give each student enough time.

“I speak for myself, but hopefully I speak for all of us in that we want students to do their research. Use the time that we give Elective Fairs [when students are given the opportunity during third period to learn more about the electives offered at West Potomac]  to research the classes,” she added.

Before meeting with your counselor to sign up for next year’s courses, you must come prepared.

“We want you to make sure the course selection sheet and your course recommendation sheet are filled out completely. People who are looking specifically for Honors or AP classes must have teacher signatures.”

If you are planning on registering for a course requiring an application such as Leadership, AVID or an academy class, you need to make sure you have the necessary documents needed beforehand.

“Having all of your documents ready and available when you come meet with us is extremely important,” Rosenberg explained.

She also stressed the importance of choosing classes you are interested instead of simply signing up for classes your friends are taking to avoid massive schedule changes at the beginning of the school year.

2016 Academic Advising Timeline

January 11: Academic Advising & Curriculum Night, 6:00-7:10pm

• Rising 9th Academic Advising Presentation, Springbank Auditorium
• Rising 10-12th Academic Advising Presentation, Kogelman Theatre

7:20-8:45pm

• Curriculum/Advanced Academic Presentations
• Electives Fair Open House

January 12: Course selection and teacher recommendation sheets to be handed out during third period along with academic advising video.

January 13: Electives fair during third Period.

January 14/15: Academic days of emphasis (when teachers recommend classes for the following school year, especially for honors and AP classes).

January 20: Academic advising meetings with school counselors begin.