Rebecca Von Tersch

Students can view their schedules on Infinite Campus. “I just had to tell [my counselor] what classes I wanted,” Koester said.

As the second semester rolls in, students must select their classes for the 2021-22 school year. 

Freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are scheduled to have appointments with their counselors beginning in January and ending in May to determine their classes for the next school year. Once the student has their appointment, their schedule is sent to their parents to confirm, and then they are done registering for the next school year. 

Teachers will give recommendations for the next class a student should take, and the student will go over these recommendations with their counselor. A student can opt to take a different course than recommended. 

“I’ve always followed whatever my teacher recommended to me. Sometimes they would ask me directly during class, ‘Hey, what classes would you prefer to be recommended into?’ My science teacher last year did that for me. That was nice because they already had an idea of what I wanted to do,” said Mabel Sum, a junior. 

If there are no recommendations, the student will go over their options with the counselor. Some students go into the appointment with an idea of which classes they want to register for. Students who go into a specialized pathway, like Carlmont’s Biotech Institute, will have some predetermined classes. This is the case for sophomore Athea Koester, who is on the biotech pathway. 

“[The appointment] was pretty easy because a lot of my classes had already been decided because I’m in biotech. There were just a few things that I wasn’t sure about, and I felt like I didn’t get a chance to ask [my counselor] about them, I kind of just had to make a choice right then,” Koester said.  

If there are additional credits students wish to obtain or missing requirements that are needed for graduation, counselors will also discuss potential ways to address this in the meeting. Sometimes, a student can choose to take a College of San Mateo (CSM) class over the summer. 

“CSM has this concurrent enrollment program that you can sign up for, and you can take summer classes. You can sign up for classes as long as you know the Course Reference Number (CRN) of a course. You have to have an account with WebSMART, and it’s like Canvas. There are a few fees, but not a lot since the first 11 and a half credits for high school enrollment are free,” Sum said. 

Last year, some students had their appointments online after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The same goes for this year, as students are having their appointments via Zoom. Though some students had some issues with the process, many are satisfied with the overall experience online. 

“[The appointment] was basically the same as last year; I had some issues with connection, but [being online] was probably better for me because I didn’t have to miss class to attend my appointment,” said Milad Brown, a junior. 

Students rarely have issues at their appointments since they are meant to be quick and simple. However, with the goal of being a quick appointment, some students worry they might not have enough time to be entirely sure their selections were good. 

“I know they tell us what classes we can take, but that doesn’t really tell us what we would actually be doing in the classes. And for this year, I don’t know what I want to do, especially for electives because I feel like I didn’t get the whole class experience this year, so I’m not exactly sure what I should be doing next year,” Koester said. 

Other students have found the process uncomfortable, as they are not very familiar with their counselor.

“It’s kind of awkward because you’re talking to a person you don’t talk to all that often,” Sum said.

There are resources for students to help them plan what classes they want to take before their appointment, sent out in an email to students before their appointment. One of these resources, the program planning handbook, details what classes a student has to take to graduate and other options a student has for classes. 

Despite the online hurdles of distance learning, these appointments have been successful. The appointments are back to back, so students have to show up on time, but they have enough time to talk to their counselor about what classes they want to take. 

Carlmont’s counselors could not be reached for comment.