With class registration happening, students have to think about their plan for the next school year. While students have many tough choices to make, one of the largest is the choice of PSEO (Post Secondary Enrollment Options). This opportunity allows students as juniors or seniors to take college courses either in-person or remotely. As a sophomore, the choice to do PSEO the following year is offered for the first time, and the decision to take it is often tough.
Sophomore counselor Kelsey Milne said the PSEO information sessions are very helpful to students, and even if students aren’t sure if they’re going to do it, they should still come.
“The PSEO meetings are probably about 50 minutes, and they go over everything and the details with PSEO, getting a bunch of students to go on if they’re considering it at all,” Milne said. “It never hurts to learn more information about the options available. We just want to give students every resource we can to allow them to be able to make the choices that are best for them.”
Sophomore Ben Hicks said he isn’t planning to do PSEO because of the challenge of commuting to college during the school day.
“I don’t really want to do PSEO because I don’t want to drive to a college every single day,” Hicks said. “I’d rather just stay at the high school and do normal classes.”
Sophomore Elliot Netoff said they don’t plan to do PSEO because they are doing the IB (International Baccalaureate) diploma, and it wouldn’t make sense for them to do any PSEO classes.
“I realized I would be taking five IB classes, and I felt that would be too challenging (to add PSEO classes). I’m doing the IB diploma instead,” Nettoff said. “I was thinking about doing it if it was only one class, but I didn’t really want to drive there or do a class online.”
According to Milne, the entire choice of doing PSEO or not is very personal to students and is made up of their preference and situation.
“I think it really just depends on the student and what they’re seeking, because there are a lot of students who don’t want to leave our building junior year; they want to stay, and they want to be with friends,” Milne said. “We have other students who are ready to leave junior year. Sometimes a junior might choose to do one PSEO class and then decide that they really like it and pursue more senior year. I’ve also had students decide they don’t like PSEO and decide to take all their classes here. It’s a very personal choice for each student.”
According to Hicks, he would rather be at school with his friends, and although it’s a good experience, he doesn’t expect to do it.
“I think PSEO is a good opportunity to help students have a chance to take college level classes,” Hicks said. “Personally, I would prefer to be with my friends and enjoy high school while I’m here.”
According to Netoff, the counselors need to do a better job of explaining PSEO and providing information to students about it and providing resources on how to learn more.
“When I was thinking about doing it, I wished there were a lot more resources on how to do it and how to get in,” Netoff started. “I also wondered how to go to talk to someone because I didn’t know if I wanted to do PSEO or not and wasn’t able to talk to anyone about it.”
