As a four-year AVID student with two siblings of the same title, I consider myself an avid AVID extraordinaire. I can’t speak for my siblings, but in my four years I have seen some students who seem to enjoy it and some students who loath it.

My believe that the program has limited its own potential because the problem is not the people inside of it but rather the material.

AVID has many benefits that do not come into effect until senior year, but this is also problematic as three years of grinding and working burn students out before the payoff.

AVID is restricted by its own curriculum and therefore limits its potential, which leads students to stress and boredom rather than valuable class time. Yes, we should be taking plenty of notes in class but that doesn’t always equate to 15 notes every two weeks to pass the mandatory note check.

All students learn differently and therefore should take notes differently rather than be forced to conform to a system set as the AVID standard.

There is a large potential for AVID to live up to its intended purpose, but it’s never reached when personal and meaningful student-teacher interactions are rare if at all. I had a really hard time in AVID in my sophomore year because my former teacher stuck strictly to the program’s curriculum.

Not surprisingly, when creating our end-of-year portfolios, someone still asked, “why are we doing this?” I know my teacher wanted the best for us, but she could only answer “it’s a part of the curriculum.”

AVID is meant to hold students to a higher level of accountability for their school work, but teachers pushing homework deadlines on time is counterproductive in helping relieve academic stress.
AVID decides rather than give us each the tools we need to succeed they will give you academic detention and leave a struggling student hanging.

Much of the time in AVID feels wasted, and not without reason: I’d say 80 percent of the time is wasted doing busy work.

The path to becoming an AVID senior has hurt me more than it has helped. I have constantly reminded myself of the final payoff, that “things will get better.” So I waited and I waited and I waited while constant TRFs, Cornell notes and grade checks pushed me more and more, everything seemed like busy work twenty four-seven.

AVID is not always cloudy skies, though. AVID’s benefit is its assistance in getting students ahead of the game by teaching about “real life,” such as the common app, letter of recommendations and increasing our college eligibility by assigning a number of community service hours complete each year.

There are days where we fill out important registrations for the SAT or ACT, learn about FAFSA and research different colleges. The problem is that these lessons are what AVID advertises, but in reality they are few and far in between.

AVID is only useful when it upholds its promise to familiarize students with the college process, which in most cases is so infrequent that it can’t alone redeem the program’s habitual busy work.
What AVID excels in so far is that it uses high expectations and repetition of material to ensure its students’ high grades.

I do, however, find it ironic that AVID is supposed to be there to help you keep up your grades in other classes, but instead adds extra stress.

I see AVID’s hypocrisy in how the preparation it promised never manifested for me – it actually arrived flipped upside-down and instead confused me and made school feel like work.

When it comes to AP, AVID leaves you no choice, as you are forced to take at least one AP class both junior and senior year.

Now for some that may not make a difference but for others it may be the dealbreaker. AP isn’t for everyone, I’ve hated my AP experience. The workload placed on our shoulders is the definition of “unrealistic standards.” AP classes are far from easy and AVID contributes to a stressful environment by enforcing them.

However, AP didn’t hurt me on paper, in the long run it boosted my college eligibility, in which AVID comes in handy: college applications are not easy and AVID is an excellent resource for finding scholarships and other application opportunities.

Senior year has just barely begun and the benefits are already shining through the cloudy skies. Though they may not seem as benefits, we are already beginning to research scholarships by grades and through constant class time devoted to such.

When we do sign up the SAT/ACT, both junior and especially senior year our counseling staff has been able to obtain fee waivers for all students in the class. The ends just barely justify the means.
Truth of the matter is that, like AP, AVID is not for everyone, but for those who persist will benefit from the program.

When its time to graduate, I’d say AVID four out of five times is the major factor that helped students get into college.

The program is flawed, and no one student will have the same experience personally; however, each student will undoubtedly benefit regardless their experience.