Junior Grace Bush:

Course selections are more complicated this year due to the process being strictly online. Many students, including myself, are still confused on how to complete the application. I scheduled a meeting with my counselor to try and figure it out and I’m still not 100 percent sure what exactly keeps our schedule choices in place. A friend even asked me to add to my list of questions to ask my counselor because not everyone has time to see them. My counselor has even admitted they do not know exactly how ClassLink is working. 

An email went out to the parents/guardians once you submitted your schedule so counselors could approve of the schedule and act as the signature. The email claims we are ‘trained’ in how to learn School Links which is absolutely not true. It took me the duration of my fourth period to find out how to send my mother the code she can use to approve my schedule. 

The other two years that I have chosen my schedule, it has been on paper. It used to be simple, you’d get your paper, put a few check marks, get your guardian to sign it, and turn it in. 

Sophomore Lucian Steube-Lintner:

Using School Links is incredibly stressful for everyone involved and, to be frank, I haven’t a clue on how to properly use the website. Using an online course selection also has left me feeling as though I have less time to think truly about what classes I’d like to take next year. School Links was also a source of a rather large argument between my mother and I as I had spent the better part of an hour trying to explain how to confirm class selection and she simply couldn’t understand. Truth be told, the online choice wasn’t necessary as of right now, and the school could have waited until they found a way to make the website much less confusing. It also seems as though the school counselors don’t have any idea on how the website works as well, despite having questions I got no answers for any of them.

Freshman Bethany Mann:

Since the school has switched to doing course selection online through School Links, I have found myself very confused. I have had my sophomore year classes planned since seventh grade, and I know I am signed up for them, but not being able to physically turn in my course selection, makes me feel like I have lost control. I feel like the counselors have not properly communicated with my class on our options for next year and future years. Any information I have about class rank, GPA weight, AP classes and electives is all through my mother, an English teacher here, and my sister, a current senior. Online course selection has caused extra stress to myself and other classmates.