Picture this, it’s nearing the end of the third quarter and you must choose your courses for the next school year.  

Students go through this process every year of their highschool career, with the exception of seniors. The reason behind their choices come in a wide variety, from how it will affect their GPA, to what best suits their future career path. When speaking with the Triton Voice, several students expressed the desire to take AP classes to boost their appearance for college. 

“Yeah I am taking a bunch of AP classes next year,” said ambitious junior, Sam Mollineaux. “I want to finish high school with a 4.0 GPA”

Many students want to take classes that will boost their chances of being noticed by colleges. This becomes more prevalent as students get older and think about the next step in life. Whether that be for GPA, or so they can get the experience they will need for their job after college. 

“I’m going to take AP bio and am taking AP environmental right now so I can go to school to be an environmental scientist,” said junior Sidney Golbitz when asked what she wants to do for her senior year and why. 

Despite college obviously being the most important end goal, many people will choose the courses that they find interesting or will enjoy. This can of course, be what they want to go to school for but could also be more of a hobby. A class they can enjoy just for the sake of enjoying rather than something vital for their future. 

“I prefer choosing courses for fun.” said junior Ben Rasmusen. “I like taking art, it is a laid back and relaxing class.”

A popular opinion on the topic is that it should be a healthy balance of both enjoyment, and academic rigor. According to U.S. News, highschool is the perfect place to experiment and test waters. If you wait until college, then  it will be too late. Alternatively, when you go to college, you will have to cater your courses in a way that fits your future goals. So by balancing your career aspirations, and your enjoyment, you can get the most out of high school. 

Dr. Erik Champy, a guidance counselor at Triton believes that students should choose the course that best suits their interests, and that by doing so, it will provide the best outcome, which is a main goal of highschool in general. 

“It has been historic that when they choose courses that they’re interested in, they tend to do very well.” said Champy.