The 2024-2025 school year at Jones College Prep began with some challenges related to course scheduling. Some students who did not submit their schedule requests in April were unable to enroll in their first-choice classes.

“I think it’s kind of unfair that they claim to prioritize seniors, I know multiple Juniors that got this class as their first option and I didn’t,” said Rowan Boyle ‘25. 

Boyle is one of many students who feel unsatisfied with this year’s scheduling process. Students are frustrated because they were kept out of classes that they were passionate about taking.

“I want to be a philosophy major so that’s all reading and writing and I want to be a Spanish minor. One of my favorite subjects is Spanish, I want to be proficient so those AP’s align most with my interests and goals,” said Boyle. 

Though students felt that they were being ignored by their counselor due to their schedules not being ideal, counselors actually have a very minimal role in scheduling. 

“So at the start of the school year when students submit a course change request, the counselor reviews that request just to make sure that it’s in line with the student’s graduation requirements and does not create any issues on that front. That’s actually where the counselor’s role ends, right there,” said Brian Coleman, Counselor Department Chair.

Despite rumors that the schedule-changing process became more complicated and in high demand, nothing has really changed.

“In the number of overall requests overall not a significant change it has been pretty consistent with what we have had in prior years,” said Coleman. 

It turns out Aspen has the biggest role in making schedules. 

“Then counseling provides that information to our school programmer who puts it into Aspen and the Aspen program determines based on the request if it can work with that student’s schedule given the other classes that a student has given and the current number of students in each class,” said Coleman. “We were processing all the requests we got on a daily basis.”

Counselors are on the students’ side of wanting to support them and their goals when it comes to schedules.

“It can be a pretty frustrating process where we know that you really want to make that change and we really want to make that change for you and we don’t have any power to do that,” said Coleman. 

Course schedule changes looked different this year as students were not allowed the opportunity to submit change requests in the spring for the upcoming year. Therefore, students rushed at the beginning of this school year and over the summer to try and change their schedules. 

“Counseling was prepared to have a course change window at the end of last year as communicated to students and families and then through ongoing consultation with our new admin it became clear we weren’t in a position at that time to accommodate schedule change request because at that time based on the structuring and preliminary programming of classes, there wasn’t going to be much movement available to students,” said Coleman. 

Many students are upset over not being able to enter a class they know people have dropped despite the many factors that go into how many students are in a class. 

“There are limits on the amount of students that can be in a class and classes max out at 28. Let’s say if a class is already full and a student drops out then the class is already maxed,” said Coleman. 

Teachers have noticed the influx of students moving in and out of class, but they stay faithful that students can succeed. 

“I feel like there are a lot of students who get stuck in a class and maybe it’s hard for them but they are forced to do it and then they quickly realize they can,”  said Jonathan Smith, AP United States History and Government teacher. 

Even though the first two weeks of schedule changes are hectic for students going in and out of classes, teachers value the hard cut-off date.

“I do feel like it’s better to have a hard cut but it’s better because there used to be this system where transfers could happen like a month into school. I think the hard deadline makes students make choices and forces them to decide and then stick with it,” said Smith. 

The biggest advice counselors have for students is to do their research during the original schedule picking time so they are not surprised come fall.

“It’s very significant for folks to do their due diligence to really investigate what the classes they are looking at, what’s the course rigor, and what their flexibility is going to be that following fall to try to make as informed decisions as they can,” said Coleman. 

The job of counselors and teachers is to be here for students who are stuck in classes or choose classes that they are struggling with. The power is not in the hands of counselors to be able to change a student’s schedule with every request, but they can act as a support system. 

“And if students are feeling “stuck” them it’s really important to talk to your teacher about what way they are struggling,” said Coleman.