It’s that time of year again! Rising seniors, juniors, and sophomores began to receive papers for the 2014-2015 school year. It’s time to choose classes.

As a rising sophomore, most classes are pretty standard, as students aren’t finished completing their requirements for graduation. The two big options for sophomore year are Humanities, which is a track that takes the place of the English and History courses, and the elective. Choices for electives are plentiful, ranging from music courses to art classes, and even engineering!

As a rising junior, your choices expand. For sciences, you can choose to take Environmental Science, Forensic Science, or Anatomy. Languages expand to include conversational courses, culture and civilization courses, and Advanced Placement courses. As for AP courses, students can choose from many opportunities, including AP US History, AP Government, AP Environmental Science, AP Art History, and Parallel, which is a combination of AP U.S. History and AP English.

As a rising senior, I personally am almost overwhelmed by the choices that are offered to me. It’s helpful that I know what I want to major in for college, but even so, I’m not sure of the choices that I want to pick for next year. Is it more helpful for me to take AP Environmental Science or AP Biology? Should I take an extra math or an extra history? The choices here are plentiful, but can seem almost insane at times. This is where the college counselors step in. As juniors and seniors, the college counselors spend a semester with each of us. Girls work individually with the counselors in order to pick the classes that are best for them.

Even as freshmen, the classes that girls pick could eventually influence classes for junior and senior year. However, everyone can agree that the most important part of choosing classes for next year is making sure that the classes you choose will challenge you, but not overwhelm you. Thankfully, NDP faculty and staff are there to make sure that you make the right decisions for you.