The clock is ticking for students who want to apply for Advanced Placement or Special Programs classes next year. They have until Monday, Jan. 14 to turn in their applications.
Parents and students flocked to the AP/Special Programs Night, which was held Monday from 7-8:30 p.m. Crowds were heavy despite the fact that the BCS National Championship was unfolding in Miami.
“Tonight is the kick-off for registration,” Principal Audrey Toney told a packed Willie Duke Auditorium. “This provides a base for how the master schedule for next year will be formatted.” After Toney’s introductory remarks, students and their parents, with application packets in hand, sought out the teachers who would be teaching these classes and sat through 15-minute information meetings where they could ask questions and seek additional information.
Some classrooms, like those of AP Language teacher Nancy Close and AP U.S. History teacher Charlotte Robinson, were overflowing into the halls for the earliest sessions.
Students have a lot to think about in the next few days. They can choose from among 15 AP classes across nine disciplines. Some of those classes are AP Government, Macroeconomics, Music Theory, and Psychology for seniors. For underclassmen, mainly juniors, there is AP Biology, Environmental Science, and Statistics. Student can also appy for a variety of Special Programs classes such as Journalism (newspaper or yearbook), Entrepreneurship, Introduction to Teaching, and Painting and Printmaking. Students, however, have to qualify for these programs.
To get into an Advanced Placement class, a student must qualify one of two ways, either automatic or standard qualification. In order to be eligible for automatic qualification, students must have a 95 or above in the feeder course for the class they wish to take and get two teacher recommendations. Students who apply through standard qualification have to also submit two teacher recommendations and, for some classes, produce a sample writing during a timed writing session.
The dates for the timed writings, which will be held in the Media Center, are 3:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 11, and 7:15 a.m. and 3:30 p.m Wednesday, Jan. 16 and Thursday, Jan. 17. Students should plan to arrive a few minutes early and stay for the 45-minute block.
Students can opt to take up to three AP classes but can take four with special permission from the principal.
According to Toney, the reason students have to make their decisions about next year’s classes so early is because it takes a long time to process all the paperwork.
“The best advice I have is to turn the applications in as early as possible,” Assistant Principal and Registrar Sandy Martin said. “This way there will be less stress on the students to get the forms turned in on time.”
All applications must have a parent signature or they will not be accepted, Martin said.