As students worked to finalize their academic schedules last week for the 2025-26 school year, some EHS juniors and seniors were informed that they could only request seven and six credits, respectively. This information, which was presented in the advisory slides, left some students confused.

The Hive asked the EHS principal, Mr. Van Nostrand, about the course request procedure.

 “There are no limits on how many credits juniors and seniors can take, although there is a ‘maximum’ number of credits that rising 11th and 12th graders can initially request,” Van Nostrand wrote by email. “This is a change from past practice.” 

The new procedure does allow students to add these extra credits during an individually scheduled counselor meeting where students review course requests. 

“It was not communicated very clearly and made many people think they couldn’t sign up for more classes,” junior Eli Glasser wrote. “They should have just communicated that you can change it with your counselor when they first told us.” 

Some students are still finding out about this new policy.

“The majority of our 11th and 12th grade students take fewer than 8 credits a year,” Van Nostrand wrote. “Asking them to request 8 credits, to then just drop 2 credits in the fall has a significant impact on the number of course sections we offer and a burden on the system.”

Van Nostrand provided data to explain the problem. 

“Of the 327 students currently in 12th grade, only 8 of them are taking 8 credits,” Van Nostrand writes. “There are only 12 students in 11th grade who are taking 8 full credits. This has been consistent for the last several years.”

Still, Van Nostrand assures that students can fill their schedule. 

“We want all students to take as many classes here as they can,” Van Nostrand writes.