As the second semester drop/add period ended on Jan. 18, an unprecedented number of students requested to make changes to their spring schedules. While the typical times of year for schedule changes remained similar, the number of requests has increased throughout the past few years.

Academic Dean Tom Anderson said, “I’ll get a wave of changes right after I send out an email. There’ll be … other communications about the start of school, and then I’ll get another wave of requests. It’s just the amount is pretty extraordinary.”

The process to change courses begins with student requests made through a Google Form before the start of a semester and a physical form, which requires teacher signatures, after the start of a semester. Then, Anderson works on rearranging schedules based on students’ course rankings, class period availability, and waitlist priority.

“It’s not like the system needs changing. It’s just that people need to know that they can ask and then sometimes they get what they want, and sometimes they don’t,” Anderson said.

Anderson described three main waves of students seeking to make schedule changes: one in August as soon as school started, the second in November, which consisted mainly of seniors, and the third in December and January with students across all grades.

A common reason for schedule changes can be attributed to the block schedule system. Because students may have a “hard day” and an “easy day” due to the distribution of classes, it’s not uncommon to try to create a better balance in their schedules. However, Anderson emphasized the wide range of motivations to drop or add classes, which can include taking more classes with friends, hearing about new class spaces as students drop courses, and more. Additionally, seniors often make course requests based on class rigor and alignment with their future educational plans, two factors that many colleges take into consideration.

“Everyone has their own individual reason for doing what they’re doing. And it just seems that in recent years, there’s been more and more students who are working really hard to get things exactly the way they want them,” Anderson said.

While course change requests have grown to be very common, schedules often do not work out perfectly for a variety of reasons: limited periods for certain classes, hitting student capacity, or limited class equipment being just a few.

“The good thing is that kids here really care about what they take, and I really enjoy getting kids the classes that they are most interested in,” Anderson said. “But at some point … sometimes you just can’t get everything that you want.”

Requests for the 24-25 school year will begin in April.