It’s time for the underclassmen at WHBHS to choose their classes and electives for the upcoming year, and many are struggling. The upperclassmen shared advice and opinions about WHBHS electives. 

A Westhampton Beach senior, Emily Galovic, who is attending Syracuse University next year, recommends AP classes for students. She said, “If you have taken AP Seminar I think taking AP Research as a follow up elective is perfect.” 

AP seminar is an English 10 class to prepare you for public speaking, college presentations, and college essays.  AP Research follows AP Sem, and allows for deeper research.  

Emily continued, “It is only one paper for the whole year and you get to choose exactly what you want to research. Writing a research paper is a good skill to have going into college.”

AP World History and AP Research teacher, Mr. Rupertus said, “AP Research is a full-year course that is open to juniors who successfully completed AP Seminar. Over the course of the school year, students pick a topic of interest and complete original research in order to answer a research question. This culminates in a 15 pages paper and 20-minute presentation. Many graduates of WHBHS who took AP Research have said that Seminar and Research prepared them more for college than any other course they took in high school.” 

Mr. Rupertus added, “My best advice if you signed up for an AP elective is to make sure you have self-motivation and don’t procrastinate all the time. There are weeks in which you will be working by yourself at your desk with nothing due for 10 days. The students who can be productive every day are successful without any issues.”

Many other electives are offered which will benefit you in the future. Mr. Rupertus said, “I am definitely biased toward the Social Studies department electives; however, if I picked one outside of it, I would go with public speaking. In high school, it was one of the best classes I took in terms of real-life help.” He also recommends taking psychology (either regular or AP), sociology, and criminal justice. 

While Social Studies classes tend to focus on history, these classes are more about people and how we function in society. WHBHS sophomore, Aidan Arrasate agrees with Mr. Rupertus to pursue public speaking. Aidan said, “Public speaking is a great class because it will benefit your future especially if you’re performing in AP classes which you have to present.”

Besides AP electives, there are also many more fun and easy electives to choose from. Junior Frankie Derby said, “A follow up class of studio art, Ceramics, is a fun and relaxing course because you can create anything you want. It also helps with your creativity and is a break from the difficult classes.” 

Sophomore Morgan Giacchetto said, “Criminal justice is a super cool and fun class. You are shown very interesting documentaries on murders and crimes, guest speakers come to the classroom, and you attend multiple field trips while learning a lot.”

Choosing electives can be a struggle but receiving opinions, recommendations, and advice on class selection from various teachers and upperclassmen is key.