High school is known to be either the best or worst years of some people’s lives. Junior year can be the turning point when in high school. As it is known to be one of the worst or hardest years within peoples high school life, but at the same time it’s also where more options and opportunities are available to the students. Students can experience major stress within their junior year but they can also have a great fun year while they are starting to get ready for college. 

   Counselor Scott Robinson is the main sophomore counselor this year but he is an grade level counselor and has worked quite a bit with juniors in the past. Robinson has said that juniors tend to be stressed or overwhelmed because of the workload they put on themselves. 

   “Some of the students will bite off more than what they can chew and start struggling a little bit with their time and grades,” Robinson said. 

   Robinson has said that students just mainly over step what they can take with the AP and dual credit courses. With those courses starting during peoples junior year some students tend to just jump the boat and take all of what they can. So what Robinson does for them is try to figure out what they want to major in or what they are wanting to do in their life. Based on what that student is wanting to do within their life he may or may not take him out of some classes and put them in some normal classes to help with their stress load. 

   “We take a look at what their goals are, where do they want to go and then if we need to pair some of their new classes, maybe drop or do a regular class instead of a dual or AP class and take some pressure off of them,” Robinson said. 

   There are also some large stereotypes about how junior year goes and how it affects students mentally. One of the most common ones would be that junior year is the hardest year that anyone is gonna have. Robinson has said that he doesn’t believe that it’s the hardest year, he just believes that it’s a hard year because of the massive transition from doing classes that are your grade level to more difficult classes. 

   “You may be in some regular classes and then in your junior year taking some advanced classes, you’re taking harder classes and that’s a transition,” Robinson said.  

   So Robinson believes that the transitions in a main factor into why students have a harder time in their junior year, but he has also said that he believes it can be a fun year if you don’t try to overload yourself and for your more advanced classes try to make sure they go along with what your wanting your future career or major to be. 

   Junior Elizabeth McGinnis is actually new to the high school this year. McGinnis has said that when she first became a junior this year she wasn’t as prepared as she thought she was. She also said that she was extremely overwhelmed and she got stressed really easily this year. 

   “Kinda overwhelmed, because I knew it was gonna be a lot more work than my other two years,” McGinnis said. 

   Being overwhelmed is normal when starting a new year and when people have their rough time during school. While with the advanced classes McGinnis is actually talking four of them this year. While she says she’s doing a good job at handling them, not everyone will. Everyone has their own ability to take on certain classes and just because McGinnis can have all advanced classes doesn’t mean everyone should do that many. 

   McGinnis said that she has heard of the stereotypes about junior year and she said that they can be true. She has said that junior year can easily become the worst year of highschool for students because of the amount of stress people put upon themselves. The stereotypes can also be false in ways because if you work on your studies and just keep your grades up McGinnis has said that you’re gonna have a great junior year. She has also said to not do too much during the year. The classes can bring down your GPA a little and if you’re wanting a 4.0 GPA you’re going to want to not take all college classes.

   “So I probably wouldn’t do as many college classes because it’s lowering my GPA to like a 3.8 but if you want to stick to a 4.0 then definitely make sure you balance out your classes,” McGinnis said.