Most high school students are looking forward to their years in college and are excited to get a head start on the course load. For many students, signing up and taking the college classes offered through the Southwest Area Technical College is a no-brainer. It is a great opportunity to earn college credits while getting high school credit at the same time.
High school junior Courtney Jepperson said that she would recommend SWTC classes like speech to incoming students because it is an easy class, and much easier than taking it and speaking in front of a class full of peers. Speech is a class offered through our high school but is often favored through the technical college because of the college credit appeal. It is always a good idea to get as many college credits out of the way as possible while the school is paying for them. It is going to save a lot of time and money in the future.
Senior Natalee Fried has a similar opinion, saying that the courses will save you a lot of time by taking them in high school while getting the credit for college as well. She also brought up the point that these classes teach you many valuable skills that you will use in the future. She took the Written Communication class and said, “I learned a lot in that class and it taught me good writing skills.” Gavin Wunderlin, who also took that class, said that the workload was manageable as long as you “do your stuff on time” and not put it off.
Time management is a skill that you will need to develop before you go to college. This is a skill that you not only need to have in high school and college, but you need it for the rest of your life. It is extremely important to have these skills before beginning your life outside of school. Each student I interviewed who is beginning their college career early agreed that the course load is different from the one we are used to in high school. Getting a feel for this course load is going to make the transition easier when the time comes for this year's seniors to begin their full-time college careers.