This year, Fairfax County has implemented course selection into StudentVUE (SIS), so students can now directly enter in their course selections without the extra step of turning them into their counselor and the counselor putting them in SIS.

Instead, students will submit their preliminary preferences now. Then they’ll meet with their counselor, who will adjust the course requests and validate what’s in SIS. 

“I think it’s a lot more convenient and accessible to everyone. And I also think that making it digital makes it more direct because you don’t have to print anything out,” junior Tammy Ding said.

The timing is especially important for finding appropriate and adequate staffing for the following year.

“This process is the same as before. This is [just] an added ability for us to get an earlier idea of what you’re thinking about so we can get the teachers – March is when we secure staff. So we have to be careful about what you want to change, when you want to change, and why you want to change it,” Kosatka said.

This year’s course selection will not only give counselors a head start in finding teachers, but it will also give students more time to consider their options.

“We’re trying to get you guys to think about your course selections now, because everyone thinks they can do more than they can do. And then they get overloaded and overworked and overstressed, and it doesn’t end well. So we’re trying to get it to a point where you guys are thinking about it and making decisions,” Kosatka said.

He emphasizes that students should be upfront about what courses they want to take.

“The more we know earlier, the better we can plan and try to accommodate the requests,” Kosatka said. “It’s not a series of deadlines, its an organic process that always changes.”