352 students in grades 9-11 registered for classes using Google Forms on March 13 for the upcoming school year. 

Optional and elective classes are offered, students must choose one class per subject and one elective class per school year. Some of the advanced classes that the school offers require a prerequisite. High School Counselor Ana Isabel Garcia was in charge of registration.

 “I have taken 9 APs from the 17 that the school offers and next year I will take 4 APs. I enjoy that they have optional classes for each subject,” Estefania Henao, Grade 11, said.

College board offers 38 AP classes of which TCS has 17 of them. AP Language and Composition saw an increase in enrollment from 35 to 50 students. 

“When we had 37 kids in two years, to me, that was super extreme. I’m not really sure why that happened. AP Lit is a really interesting course. To me it would make complete sense that AP Lang would be a class that more students want to engage in.” Emily Butterworth, AP Literature and Composition teacher, said.

For the next school year 2 new AP courses will be offered: AP Art and Design, and AP Statistics. Both courses are only for 11th and 12th graders. 17 students enrolled in AP Art and Design, students from grade 11 can choose this as an option for the art course and students from grade 12 as an elective. For a first year offering an AP course 17 students is a lot. 

“I was the first student ever in TCS history to take an AP art course, besides that I love that the school is incorporating arts much more,” Sofia Soto, Grade 11, said.

For a second year in a row the English department is offering a level 3 optative courses for Journalism and Art of Fiction. Both classes have different focuses and activities, most students take these courses if they do not feel ready to hop on an AP English Class. 

“Students like that in the English subject there is to choose from multiple options and students feel that they learn English the way they want because they get to choose,” Garcia said.

English AP’s have a high level of difficulty which makes trends stay around the same number of students each year. Next year AP English Literature and Composition has 2 fewer students. AP Language and Composition helps students in their writing capabilities and most students take this course because they want to get ready to write their college essay.

 “AP Lit is more like if you have a passion for literature so to me it would make complete sense that lang would be a class that more students would want to engage in,” Butterworth said.

Two of the most popular AP courses for the upcoming school year are AP Human Geography and AP Psychology. AP Human Geography is usually very desired by students, mostly from grade 10 take this course. AP Psychology comes to be the second most desired, with an enrollment for next year that has grown notably. It is also offered to students in grade 11 and 12.

“The majority are grade 10 students that are taking AP Human to try to challenge themselves rather than going into the global citizenship class. Those kids need to start doing AP classes,” Brian Summers, AP Human Geography Teacher, said.

In the science department the amount of students wanting to join  both AP Chemistry and AP Environmental Science have fewer students enrolled. Ariana Sophiea, current AP Environmental Science teacher, is leaving. The enrollment for AP Biology has stayed around the same numbers by students who have an interest in science or related career. 

“Yeah. I wish the numbers would be higher. AP Environmental Science is a very good course.” Bill Beauchamp, Chemistry, Physics and AP Biology teacher.

 Lots of students want to be with their friends so they don’t really look at their career path and how it could impact them later on in life. The school offers a bunch of suitable options to help you with college credit but simply some students won’t take the advantage.

“There is the group of students that decide their classes because of friends but actually the vast majority decide their subjects based on what they like and want to study,” Ana Isabel Garcia said.