“Planning, preparation, execution”. Anyone who knew my father when I was growing up, knew this expression. In fact, when he served as the parent-coach for my middle school mock trial team, he had shirts made with this motto printed on it (it also had “knuckleheads”, but that’s another story for another day 😂). My father’s clever turn of phrase is a helpful framework anytime I’m working on any project, especially ones that require a more far-sighted approach. 

This couldn’t be more true when it comes to helping students make a 4-year course plan. It provides students with a map of what their educational journey may look like. It’s helpful to high school students who want to ensure they take certain courses by senior year. It’s useful to college students, ensuring they fulfill all course requirements for their major, minor, and core curriculum. It helps students to visualize the bigger picture, sorting through the various possibilities or “what if’s”, and positions them to pivot to alternative courses with less stress and anxiety. 

Create a Course Planner

In my experience when you are trying to synthesize a lot of information, it is really important to write it down. When it comes to academic planning, I have found using a chart is the most helpful tool. Whether a spreadsheet or table, it helps to map out and visualize each school year along with the corresponding courses. At the very least it should include your school year/grade, course category (either by subject or requirement), and credits. Once those elements are in place, you can get as creative and complicated as you like with your planner. You could include color coding, grades, teachers, and any other information you feel is important to track. Certainly you could create this on your own, or use the ones I have already built for high school and college.

Review The Course Catalog

With your handy course planner ready, it’s now time to start reviewing your school’s course catalog. The course catalog is a particularly dense and daunting tome to get through. It’s not truly meant to be read cover-to-cover. Instead it should be treated as a reference resource. With your planner at the ready, you will be able to navigate to the specific parts of the catalog that matter most to your student’s situation.

High School

High school students should focus on two areas. The first is what courses do they need to fulfill your school’s/state’s graduation requirements. Next, is considering what courses your student will need to be college ready. For example, if they are interested in studying engineering, then they need to be on track to take calculus. 

College

College students need to  core curriculum requirements, major requirements, and minor requirements (whatever is applicable to their situation). Oftentimes these requirements fall into two areas: specific courses and course categories. Just be sure you are clear on what coursework you need to complete in order to fulfill your degree requirements. 

Chart The Course Possibilities

After you have a firm handle on your graduation requirements, next students will need to use the course catalog to see what classes they can take to fulfill those requirements. Students should explore which classes they find interesting which also meet the requirements. Typically, there are more creative options in college than high school, though I am seeing more and more course options available to high school students too. 

This part of the planning experience also lets students figure out what their primary and secondary options are. Inevitably, a course a student wants or needs to take might be filled or might conflict with their schedule–in that case they need to be ready to pivot to an alternative class.

Review The Course Plan

As students start plugging courses into their chart, you all will start to see how their academic experience will fit together over the next four years. I feel it’s also important to consider the course plan a “live document”. Something that can (and should) be updated and adjusted as students move forward in their educational journey. In some ways it’s a to-do list and in other ways it’s a guide. Students will also find it helpful during their academic advising and course registration discussions, as it empowers them with the information they need to make course decisions that are best for them.

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