For my sophomore courses, my selections were relatively simple: I filled my schedule to fulfill my graduation requirements. But starting in junior year, and most definitely senior year, these course options will expand by a very large degree. Each choice you make regarding your courses will have to be made with careful thought. In fact, my junior and senior course decisions will shape not only my schedule but my entire academic experience.
In freshman year, you do not have much freedom with your courses. All freshmen, with rare exceptions, are required to take the same subjects, and the only way my course can be different from yours is if you are taking Proof and Problem Solving and I’m taking Algebraic Concepts. Between sophomore year and senior year, however, you have a lot more freedom. And since it is impossible to take every class that sparks your interest—5.5 credits is not a lot of credits—it is crucial that students make thoughtful, well-informed choices.
Right now, we depend mainly on reading the course catalog, having conversations with teachers, and hearing advice from our peers. While useful, these sources are often insufficient in sharing the full picture. The course catalogue provides only brief descriptions of the courses, leaving out important details such as workload, grading style, and the types of projects involved.
“I often found myself feeling lost because of how unclear the course descriptions were in terms of what courses and teachers were actually like,” Raphy Rufino ‘27 said.
On top of that, tracking down the right people to talk to can be incredibly time consuming, and another layer of stress is added to the already-difficult decision making process as a result.
Therefore, Milton should host department-specific course exhibitions in the weeks leading up to selection deadlines. These exhibitions could take place during class meetings, which are already built into the schedule. Utilizing existing blocks ensures that extra time is not taken away from students. After one department has its course exhibition one week, another department could do so the next, and the others could follow consecutively. This way, students will not be forced to prioritize one department’s exhibition over another.
Course exhibitions should be more comprehensive than those often found at club fairs. Club fairs, although certainly helpful, have limited abilities: only after attending meetings would you be able to find out whether the content, level of commitment required and atmosphere match your expectations. These exhibitions reduce this gap by displaying sample assignments, reading lists, past projects, and even course syllabi to give students a clearer sense of what the day-to-day and long term experience in a class are like. A course exhibition addresses this problem by offering Q&A sessions with upperclassmen and project displays that are similar to the informative Science and Computer Science Symposiums.
To make sure that every student has the opportunity to explore and learn about the full range of course options available, the school should make the exhibition mandatory for all students.
The administration should consider departmental course exhibitions to reduce student confusion with course selections. With course exhibitions and the firsthand information they provide, students will not have to rely solely on secondhand information from the course catalog. Ultimately, course exhibitions will reduce stress and more help every student design an academic journey that reflects their true goals and passions.