In terms of planning, freshman year is probably the most important year of high school. It’s the foundation upon which you build your high school career. Depending on who you ask, you will get tons of advice and it can be really overwhelming to try to plan the next four years of your life. But that’s why you’re here: to get the low-down on how to plan for the rest of your high school experience.

The first thing I would recommend is making a four-year plan. A four-year plan is essentially a list of the classes you want to take each year from freshman to senior year. Anyone can use this method, which I find extremely helpful to keep track of the credits I’ve already completed. In the spirit of planning for the future, sophomore Aanya Kapoor said, “I would double up on both chem and bio in ninth grade because then you can advance to higher sciences earlier and do more courses over the four years that you’re in high school.”

When it comes to selecting your actual classes, I can not stress enough how important balance is. Remember you MUST take an English and math class every year. Also keep in mind that requirements to graduate include health, gym and art credits. Make a list of electives or what I like to call “fluff” classes that you can use to balance your harder classes. If you notice that your schedule is too full, especially with graduation requirements, remember that you can take care of some credits like health over the summer. “I would take courses which you think you can handle and I would also figure out a way to divide your time well and use your weekends up because you can’t study throughout the week because you have practice and don’t overload yourself,” Kapoor said.

On a similar note, many people plan their schedule trying to complete all their graduation requirements in the first two years. However, “it shouldn’t be that you take seven AP’s in one year because they’re going to run out of time, but at the same time they want to make sure that if they do have any kind of unique electives they take those early so they have room junior and senior year for things like dual enrollment and internships. If you want to do early college someday, it’s very difficult to do P.E at MC. Sometimes it’s nice though, signing up for yoga in senior year and just relaxing,” freshman counselor Ann Redman said.

On top of your schedule, it’s important to make sure you’re well-rounded with plenty of extracurriculars. But, when signing up for new clubs it’s important to remember quality over quantity. You want to have leadership roles or consistency in the clubs you’re passionate about rather than being an inactive member of 1,000 different clubs. Instead find a few that you’re passionate about or that focus on something you’re interested in pursuing and try to succeed in those areas.

“They [freshmen] should think about what they want to do outside of school when they graduate. So they pick classes that match their passion. Second, they need to have a balance in their life. So everything is not about academics; they should be enjoying high school. Join the theater productions, be a part of the marching band, be on the soccer team, whatever it is because colleges like that too,” Redman said.