With a new administration this year, BSM has seen many changes. The biggest one is course selection for the next year. Along with requiring 8 courses (including a free period) for all grades, and no preferential course selection, they are now adding a new requirement where students’ courses for next year are final at the end of this school year. This means no changing their courses unless there’s a scheduling problem or it meets specific criteria. Hearing this, a lot of students are worried about the strict scheduling and worried about their future schedules.

Students taking year-long classes, including AP classes, are not allowed to change out of their classes, unless they meet certain criteria. In the BSM Course Selection Guidelines, students are expected to finish an entire course, and it’s implied that any changes or needs will need to be applied to certain criteria. “It’s gonna be really stressful to be in a class that you don’t want to be in, especially if you want to switch out of an AP and you realize the workload is too much for you, and you can’t switch out. That’s really stressful,” junior Charlotte Stegner said.

However, the changes to the course selection stemmed from a different idea, according to the counselors themselves, as reported in an interview with Micah Wimmer, a brand-new counselor at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, he outlined the primary goals of the new change. The goal of the change is to put less strain on everyone, counselors, teachers, and students included. When they set classes, they set them based on registration, which just happened in March. Without this new rule, if 20 students dropped out of the same class the first week of the school year, there would be no point in having the class. The change is meant to prevent this from happening, so the school doesn’t waste resources. “The goal is to hopefully make it easier for everyone, even though I know it can be a little bit of a frustration point,” Wimmer said.

Students at BSM know that the administration is doing what it can to lessen the pressure and stress that students tend to be under. A new rule like this, however, could backfire greatly, creating greater stress for everyone. The counselors at BSM are ever accommodating and ready to assist anyone with the new change. In the interview, Mr. Wimmer explains how changes for next year regarding courses and scheduling will only come from the teacher themselves who need a student moved out of a class if its not a good fit. “there are not going to be level or elective changes unless it is within the first four weeks of the semester, a level change initiated by a teacher,” Wimmer said.