What’s behind all these issues that seem to be rising to the surface as many students’ Senior year progresses? The precipitous drops in academic performance for students who seemingly did well in their previous 3 years is frankly, surprising. A number of these students are putting their college admissions and scholarships in jeopardy.
I always thought we joked about Senioritis as a feeling of anxiety, boredom or maybe anticipation of graduation, but I didn’t realize how much it can affect programs.
What is it?
A feeling that they don’t “have to” work anymore? Tired of exertion?
Are more rigorous Senior schedules beginning to sift some students out?
Too much time spent on college applications?
Anticipation of college makes HS seem pedestrian?
??
I had a full blown case of senioritis.
By senior year, I was burnt out. It seemed like I had just worked my tail off for 13 years just to get a letter and once I got it, there was a huge feeling of relief. It felt like I could just kick back and relax a bit. So I did- and it was WONDERFUL. I had an awesome senior year.
The VAST majority of “senioritis” seniors are not putting their admissions or scholarships in jeopardy. It is an extreme outlier that does that.
Why are you even asking this? This question can’t possibly benefit you in any way. What can you possibly think it is? We’ve worked out butts off for 7 semesters for the ultimate goal of getting into college. Mission accomplished. Now, whats the point of working anymore? School in America is designed to reward students for their grades and not for the knowledge they gain. I don’t understand why are you asking this question though? I feel like the answer is so obvious…
I’m not sure how long you’re been out of high school, but senioritis has been around awhile. We worked our butts off for 3 and a half years to get where we are now, and we deserve to have some liberty to enjoy ourselves. After college acceptance letters come in, seniors tend to be more laid back and fall just one grade below our average grades. Of course, there are outliers, but this is the rule of thumb.
Our scholarship and college education are NOT at risk. Colleges understand senioritis and are very lenient. They will only rescind you if you fall to the D and F range. After college admissions, scholarships are our number one priority, so don’t think that we are falling behind the rest. By “our,” I’m referring to the lot of seniors.
But the answer is so obvious and known. You are asking a question that has no possibility of involving some kind of intelligent conversation. When you write, “This might be a good time for you to at least hear that not everyone does things solely to benefit themselves”, I respond by agreeing with you precisely. But the question you asked benefits nobody except for yourself who for some reason enjoys going onto a forum meant for teenagers to discuss higher education opportunities.
If this is how you are going to face college, career, etc.; as something without value to be grimly gotten through for some disappearing finish line, you are in store for an unhappy life.
As a senior, I’ve found that most of the “senioritis” (at least for me) has come as a result of the teachers. I’m still working my hardest to keep my grades up in a very rigorous courseload but the teachers have (for the most part) began to lighten up. My AP curricula are wrapping up, and my non APs don’t seem to be bound to a specific guideline. Once we get to quarter four, we learn no new material in APs (straight prep at that point) and I’m actually let out of every class effectively with the exception of English, where we put our work on hold to write our senior paper and speech.
I do see those who are severely succumbing to senioritis and I agree–it’s a terrible mindset to develop before entering college. For some like me, it becomes a teacher-perpetuated construct but doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped trying
Senioritis was present in our household last year. It was very difficult for me as a parent. Our daughter is a very high achieving student. I didn’t like the bout of senioritis but I understand it, actually in hind sight it is much easier to be objective about it.
For the high achieving students who have been competing for class rank, dealing with standardized tests, AP’s, college applications and essays the work load and pressures are intense.
They are beginning to see themselves as already done and moving on to the next stage of their academic careers. A bit of a let up is okay and healthy, these kids do deserve it. It really is a matter of how much they let up, a little is okay, a lot is not.
As I said it wasn’t easy for me, but we came out the other side no worse for the wear. Add to that a first boy friend in the mix and I thought our little girl had lost her mind completely! Ah, the joys of parenting!
@GreatKid ~ sounds alot like us, especially the first boyfriend part. When D started dating her BF at the beginning of the school year, we had a sit-down chat about how far she has come and how to balance a BF and academics her senior year at the home stretch. I feel lucky that he is very studious and family oriented as well and has his sights on a couple of great engineering schools so they both have lofty goals. I am also somewhat happy that she will have some experience dating before she goes away.
I’m not sure if these snow days this week, Tues-Th and maybe tomorrow, will hurt or help. She’s been staying at a friends’ house since Monday near all her other friends (she goes to school about 12 miles away) so they could go sledding and hang out without driving. I asked her how much studying they’ve done and she said zilch. Apparently, they all plan to catch up on homework and projects today. Procrastination isn’t really her thing, so I blame it on senioritis
The AP teachers - especially for those courses that were almost all seniors definitely had senioritis. They played a lot of ping-pong during lab time in Physics C! My younger son slacked off seriously in some of his AP classes when he realized that Tufts was never going to give him credit for more than 5 of them and he already had enough credits. He didn’t slack off that much though - his GPA was the same, just the AP scores went down a notch for the straights 5’s he got sophomore and junior year.
So what is considered a “safe harbor” against admission rescission?
Obviously, “no D or F grades” is generally considered necessary, though it is probably not sufficient. The same goes for not changing previously-reported in-progress courses work to less rigorous options without informing the college.
But what about general grade results? I can understand a college not worrying about a 3.9 GPA applicant dropping to a 3.5 GPA for senior year courses, but dropping to a 2.5 GPA for senior year courses may not be too pleasing to the college.
This question seems crazy to me given the pressure that is on today’s high school students. Honestly, I could not possibly keep the schedule and level of performance that my kids and a lot of other kids keep in high school. Good for them to coast a little – does it MATTER very much how they do 2nd semester of senior year? In life, it doesn’t matter one whit. Let them have a break, as long as they don’t get rescinded.
Hasn’t affected my senior, but maybe that’s because she hasn’t had college admissions as her motivation for doing well for the past three years and frankly, didn’t seem to kill herself over grades and such even before. Yeah, she’s certainly glad that all apps are submitted, but if anything, that has left her more time to kick BUTT academically. I guess she’s just weird.
She IS ready for college and says so repeatedly, but she also adores her school and is just trying to savor the few months she has left with friends and mentors that she only got last year.
How is that any different from coasting through senior year of college, or a class at medical school or the last two weeks of residency or the Friday with easy cases just before Big Game?
