Only three months into the school year, students are forced to register for next year’s classes. This is far too early and has been proven difficult for many students.

Students feel as if they are rushed into the new year before they are even half way done with the current one. “I don’t like that I have to make decisions so early because I am still settling into my current classes,” junior Angela Barney said.

In mid-December, it is always surprising to see the counselors in classes with those colored class registration cards. It is difficult for students to grasp the fact that even before winter break starts, they are enrolling in classes that they will be taking in a year.

“Initially counselors were trying to resolve scheduling conflicts in the summer, so when we get this done earlier we could get things resolved before the students left for summer vacation,” resource counselor Robert Lambert said.

This is understandable because it is important to have time to make schedule adjustments before the school year ends. However, earlier does not necessarily have to be December; some time in the spring is more reasonable. While it’s a huge task, having a full seven months to adjust a schedule seems a little excessive.

Although counselors say that early class registration prevents problems in the summer, some students who register early still have scheduling conflicts that are resolved after the school year ends. Senior Steven Nagiel said, “I was excited to take horticulture because I had such a positive experience with the teacher, but when I got the list of classes I signed up for over the summer, it said that I was taking forensics instead, a class I was not interested in.”

This is frustrating for students like Nagiel because they sign up for classes three months into the school year and with seven months left in the school year are still only notified in the summer about changes in their class selections.

Another reason to delay registration are teacher recommendations, which are very important for registering for classes, especially advanced ones. It would make so much more sense to have class registration later in the year.

Later registration means that by the time students are signing up for classes their teachers will have known them for over half a year as opposed to three and a half months. The better the teacher knows a student, the more valid the recommendation will be and the more likely the student can suceed in the class.