Last May, a couple of college-aged alumni from my high school visited in one of my classes. I was talking to a few of them, and when I mentioned I was a rising senior, one of them gave me this piece of advice: “The most important thing to remember about senior year is that it literally does not matter. You can do whatever you want.”
So… agree or disagree?
In my senior year, I took advantage of a statewide program that allowed me to take nine university classes without paying tuition. My transfer credit makes it possible for me to get two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in four years after high school.
I think senior year is the best time to take really hard classes. Colleges will see that you’re taking really hard classes, but they won’t see all your grades.
If your grades drop too low you can get rescinded from your college of admission, so yes, it does matter. And if you’re trying to become valedictorian it matters too. And apparently some colleges request mid-year senior grades, and they can affect your chances of admission. But I’m only a rising junior so I may be wrong.
As you prepare for college, it’s hard to buy into the notion that your final year doesn’t matter. If the alumni were trying to say that it doesn’t count for admissions purposes, that’s certainly inaccurate as your admission is often contingent upon successfully completing the course of study that you propose in your application.
If they were trying to say that it doesn’t matter in terms of preparing yourself for college study, you have to wonder about the quality of education they managed to get.
@dsi411 I think you’re right. My school doesn’t have a valedictorian, though, so maybe that’s why he didn’t care as much 
Also worth mentioning, said alumnus attended a fairly selective college. So it’s not that he was a slacker or failed his senior year or anything.
My guess is that it was intended to be more of a don’t-stress kind of notion. Because by senior year, there’s not much you can do to make bad grades look better. By then, you’ve pretty much done what you can.
In my opinion, first semester Senior year is going to matter the most. It will be the last set of grades that most colleges will see before admitting you. Your second semester could get you revoked if you do not do well. I think that a strong first semester of senior year is a plus if its better than your junior year and you’re showing an upward trend. If you take classes through your local CC, then it helps too because if they’re semester based classes, they will be submitted as a whole credit class along with your regular first semester classes. I guess it depends on the person you ask. To me, I view it as a last first impression before they admit you. I would say yes they do matter.
I would like to contend that it does matter. I took AP Euro during senior year to show course rigor that had lacked in previous years. I’d like to think that my senior year course selection (as well as my first quarter grades) helped me in some way. 