Well I guess my four years at high school are done, but was it worth it at MCHS? I mean I got a good education, a bunch of insight from counselors and teachers, and met new friends along the way, but it just doesn’t feel memorable. If you’re reading this then you probably go to Middle College High School. Now that I am a senior, here are my final thoughts regarding my experience at MCHS.

This year I’ll be “graduating” with six Associates Degrees which is the most anyone has gotten at our school. Sometimes I wonder if it’s even worth it, to be completely honest. Kaneko always makes an analogy that A.A. degrees are just halftime in comparison to B.A. degrees, which are full-time. He says that the score at halftime doesn’t matter, but full-time does. I pushed myself to get these six degrees, but does it really matter though? 

I plan on being a teacher, but I’ve never seen anyone with an A.A. degree that’s a teacher. Apart from that, I’ll need a teaching credential. Basically, there’s no point in me obtaining these degrees. But why did I strive to get them? To be honest, I don’t really know. I guess it was to have something to put for my college applications. I mean it worked, as I got accepted into five of the eight schools I applied to. However, there’s a problem with these college applications. They only look at stuff that’s on paper.

With academics, comes the overall quality of education. Honestly, I feel like you can learn everything equally as good at other schools. That’s my personal opinion. Don’t get me wrong, the teachers here are amazing, but subject criteria can be taught at any school. 

Apart from academics comes the extracurricular activities. At our school there are practically none. Yes, we have sports (soccer, football, and basketball) but that’s about it. Even with these sports, we have training once a week for about a month and that’s it. We play one game during the entire school year against two or three other schools. Additionally, clubs at our school eventually die and if they do manage to survive, then they are mostly inactive or unheard from. The lack of consistency from these clubs is the main reason why they die off and the school doesn’t feel connected at all.

The last point I would like to touch on is school spirit. Coming from personal experience, I don’t really see anybody at our school participating in spirit weeks. Even some ASB members themselves don’t participate. Pep rallies should be a way to get students from our school pumped about our sports teams. Yet during each pep rally, there is a gloomy atmosphere that doesn’t give us any support at all. If anything, it’s just ASB members supporting us, but it’s because they have to.

Usually when someone asks me what school I go to, I respond with MCHS. The responses I get back make me rethink if coming to this school was a good choice. All I hear is people saying, “That school is for nerds” or “I heard it’s wack over there.” These are the two most common responses I get and at times I don’t even feel like defending my school because I know it’s true.

So was coming to MCHS worth it? Well in my opinion, yes and no. If you solely care about academics and wish to obtain a few A.A. degrees and some certificates along the way, then yes it’s worth it. MCHS partnered with Santa Ana College gives you an amazing educational experience. However, if you want to have a true high school experience, then coming to MCHS is not worth it. From the lack of sports, school spirit, clubs, and overall enjoyableness at this school, it’s not worth it. From my own perspective, I’m thankful to have gone to MCHS and achieved what I have so far, but if I would have known it would be like this, then I would have gone to another school.