Transferring schools can be a big change. It often means new friends, new teachers, and adjusting to a different environment.
This year I was fortunate enough to transfer from Big Sky to Hellgate. The reason I transferred, as many do, is for the sports and clubs at Hellgate. These activities at Hellgate provide a great community and many more opportunities for development academically as well as in track and debate.
Hellgate is known for being good at many clubs and sports including cross-country, soccer, basketball, speech and debate, and many others. This tends to bring in a large population of transfers like myself.
There is also a wider and more inclusive array of clubs at Hellgate. This variety makes Hellgate feel like an easier transition and allows students to foster and find new passions.
Not only is there a wider variety of clubs but as well as classes. Many classes at Hellgate aren’t offered at Big Sky, like philosophy, AP seminar, Arabic, and more.
The student body also does many more things to stay involved like making The Hellgate Lance, Zoo Crew, and other forms of student involvement.
Another great aspect of Hellgate is having both AP and IB, making it the only school to do so. Sentinel only offers AP, and Big Sky only offers IB, which felt unfair when attending Big Sky.
While having AP and IB is an amazing aspect of Hellgate, every school has its problems. One of these is class sizes.
At Hellgate, the classrooms are much smaller than those at Big Sky. In some of my classes, there is barely enough room to walk between tables, which was never an issue at Big Sky.
I also never had a class with more than 25 students at Big Sky. Most of my classes had around 20 kids, thanks to the higher number of staff per subject.
At Big Sky, there was never any competition for getting into the classes you wanted. When I first started at Hellgate, I wanted to take AP Chemistry, but I couldn’t because the only class was full. This wouldn’t have been an issue at Big Sky.
One thing I find way better is the campus. It is organized into subjects which is way better than the organization at Big Sky, where the classes were more spread around with little grouping.
The area around Hellgate offers better options for lunch. At Big Sky, we mostly had WinCo, but here at Hellgate, there are plenty of healthier and tastier options.
Despite challenges like smaller classroom sizes, the improved lunch options and vibrant community at Hellgate create an excellent place to develop.
At the end of it all I can confidently say Hellgate is the better school. Between a larger array of sports, clubs, and academic opportunities, including AP and IB programs at Hellgate, as well as an involved student population, Hellgate was the right choice.
