Begging for advice regarding my messed up schedule

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Right now, I'm in Austria doing a year of foreign exchange and right now I am a junior. Basically I told my counselor EXACTLY what courses I wanted months before I left, because I knew this would be a problem. She said fine, that isn’t any problem. Fast forward to now.</p>

<p>She did not call me, email me, or let me know in any single way that the deadline had passed or indeed that there was even anything wrong and some classes may not be available. What ticks me off is that she failed her job and now, whenever I call her, she gets all huffy and exasperated, like I am wasting oh-so-much of her precious time. </p>

<p>I got THREE out of the eight classes I requested, so now I have no English, math, science, or even GERMAN (considering I am in Austria right now, this is ridiculous). I have regular classes and 3 APs. Uh?</p>

<p>And I know some people say don't work so hard and things of that sort, but come on! This is ridiculous that my senior schedule is so damn empty. And I was looking forward to working my brains out, and now I’m mad because she failed at her job, and my schedule suffers for it.</p>

<p>This is the advice part. I am thinking MAYBE, in the fall, I can go to the individual teachers that teach the classes that I want to get into and try to persuade them to take on one extra student and/or appeal to the superintendent. </p>

<p>The two downsides are; I don’t know if this will work and if she finds out that I went behind her back about this and overturned her decision, she will be SO mad. I don't know if anyone else has this problem with their counselor but mine takes everything really personally (last year I tried to get into harder classes by talking to the teacher, director, and she acted huffy about it as well). Not that it matters, but it makes future dealings with her pretty hard (as well as recommendation letters)</p>

<p>What should I do? Or even better, does anyone have any advice on how to squeeze into a full class?</p>

2

<p>I wouldn't sweat it, unless you're trying to get into a really good college. If you are trying to get into a good college, that's a different story.</p>

3

<p>wow that COMPLETELY sucks. (Props on spending a year in Germany-I would LOVE LOVE LOVE that!)...you're getting punished for going above and beyond!! I would say to the guidance counselor like, I asked you for xyz, but it's come to the point where I really need to bring in the superintendent, etc. Bring in your parent to back you up, too. Most guidance things aren't written in stone, so I wouldn't wait until September.</p>

4

<p>Threaten to sue. ;)</p>

<p>No, that's a joke, but it may be useful if you can get your parents to bring some pressure on her. If she didn't do her job and is getting exasperated with you for calling her on it, some extra authoritative questioning might be necessary to get it fixed.</p>

5

<p>A similar thing happened with a friend who went to India for a semester. Because he missed class sign up he was put in all remedial classes such as PreCalc when he should be in Calc BC. His parents went personally down to the school and had an apparently heated argument with the principal until he got his schedule changed.</p>

6

<p>I am actually trying to get into a top of the top college. So sadly, it does make a big difference.</p>

<p>Thanks Anon! It's Austria but I would really recommend an exchange in college or whenever. It is sooo much fun and educational and all that fun stuff. And thanks for the advice, I've been sending emails to just about everyone in the district, heh. They're not going to get away with punishing me easily ;)</p>

<p>42, I agree but it's still a delicate situation. I do think the exasperation is a bit over-the-top, especially since I haven't bothered her for ages.</p>

<p>Freedom, thanks for sharing the story. It gives me hope that I can hopefully change this around.</p>

<p>I called our principal and he said he doesn't see anything else to talk about since 'the classes are full and you got passed over in the lottery'. Grrr, high school is so stressful.</p>

7

<p>If they can't put you in classes, can you take them at a community college? Or are they classes you HAVE to take at school? She failed at her job and you should definitely not have to suffer for it, it wasn't your mistake. Honestly, if she can't help you then she doesn't deserve to work as a GC. I say go above her head. Or, if you have any good teachers who would help you out go to them. You shouldn't give up your dream college due to your GC's mistake.</p>