Enough C grades not counterbalanced by A grades may trigger rescission. The UCs explicitly tell admitted high school seniors that they need to maintain at least a 3.0 GPA for previously-reported in-progress senior year course work, with no D or F grades. I.e. there is some leeway for “senioritis”, but the leeway is not unlimited.
But what may cause students to worry and panic is that a lot of colleges list vague conditions like “maintain your academic performance during senior year”. A student who previously got nothing lower than a single B each semester may be worried about getting one C or more than one B when seeing such a vague condition, even though it typically takes a much bigger drop to be rescinded.
@LeftofPisa. That article was very interesting and exactly why I told my daughter to try to take it easy and not follow the advice of some really annoying people who claim to be experts on college admissions who admonish seniors that they must " finish strong".
My D had a serious case of senioritis at the end of senior year. She still excelled in class, but the pressure was gone. And, at her high school, seniors finish class in April and don’t have finals. I think since the whole 13 years are geared toward college and they get their kids into the top schools, the last few months are geared to be easier. Of course this does not work for most schools.
Trust me, as a freshman at Yale she is back to the serious grind. So I do not begrudge her having a few short months at the end of her illustrious school career that she could actually enjoy prom and other senior activities.
@intparent, what I mean is that even though she is tired of high school, and looking forward to graduation in May, she is still going to do her very best and not let her grades slip due to “senioritis” (which has many definitions, IMO). This is just how she is, so be it. There is nothing wrong with adhering to a personal goal that she has set for herself.
Also,
I am not smug and don't like to be regarded as such.
My D in not an energizer bunny and she would never be described this way by anybody, although I'm sure there are kids in her class that are like this analogy. She is actually quite easy going.
My D of course knows how to take a break, and she does a fine job of it thank you very much!
http://blogs.wm.edu/2008/07/16/you-cant-spell-calculus-without-2-cs/ indicates that William and Mary considered 2 C grades or any D or F grade in senior year to be a chance for rescission (though they requested the student to write an explanation first). However, that blog post is several years old, so it is possible that their standards are either higher or lower now.
You have a habit of taking things out of context to suit your own emotion-laden purposes. I was directly responding to your statement about “going full speed at work your whole life”, which, I will point out to you, doesn’t have anything to do with a “senior in high school”, either.
Lol you’re going to say I’M taking things out of context? The rest of my post was about high school. Many people consider school to be a student’s job.
You seem like a peach. I’ll duck out of this pointless conversation now.
Let me make it more concrete. There are aspects of high school that are deadening. If you don’t turn in homework, you get a zero that is factored into the grade. If you don’t participate, you get docked points. There are silly reading quizzes in English, which for the most part, is not taught well at D’s school. This is the sort of busywork that’s pretty much irrelevant to success going forward. (Yeah, yeah, I know, people are going to chime in to quibble on how responsibility and speaking up are sooo important. IME, you get a lot more latitude in making those choices at the next level.)
I’ve urged my daughter not to concern herself with this, um, stuff so much and to spend more time developing the program she is working on for one of her main ECs, reading the books she’s been wanting to read, essentially setting her own agenda. I also believe that assigning more time to socializing and less time to homework is a good thing, perhaps because the work load has been so excessive over the past 3 years. There were too many late, late nights to make sure all the i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed. I don’t think it’s healthy for a freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior but I see that there’s something of a pass for seniors and I say, take that pass. Obviously, I’m not talking about doing nothing or getting Ds. That’s not my daughter’s personality anyway. I’m saying, relax, start to think about what and how YOU want to learn.
@3girls3cats I’m sorry, I’m still not getting how this relates to Senioritis. You seem to be describing how your daughter approaches her studies routinely. To me, Senioritis implies that something has changed in the Senior year.
I got to have senioritis 3 separate time:
HS-- got in the college of my choice and then went into cruise control for the 2nd semester
College-- got into the grad school of my choice and cruised 2nd semester (deciding to go to econ or go to the radio station was a regular occurance)
grad school-- got my job offer early and had 2 quarters of class to finish. I learned the miracle of pass/fail classes
@3girls3cats is clearly talking about senior year. She mentions that the “work load has been so excessive over the past 3 years. There were too many late, late nights to make sure all the i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed.”
She then adds “I see that there’s something of a pass for seniors and I say, take that pass.” But she doesn’t want her D to get Ds. Can’t really see what is unclear about that.
What has changed is that it is okay for her daughter to let up a bit academically now and put more effort into an extracurricular. I concur wholeheartedly.
@3girls3cats - I am totally understanding you. I really enjoy CC so I tolerate the differing of opinions but some of them are so different from how I run my house. But, to each his own. My kid was straight A’s through a very rigorous high school. Last semester most of the seniors just stopped going to class. They finish in April anyway, with no finals. So, no finals, no real reason to keep working at a crazy pace. Time to relax, find a prom dress, catch up on the Walking Dead, only do a couple of hours of homework instead of 5-6. The teachers also have known these kids for years and would not do anything that would jeopardize their college acceptance unless the kid had an honor code violation - which they take very seriously - which would result in suspension or expulsion.
I saw this post and needed to vent a little. I teach AB calculus in a midsize affluent public school. 99% of graduates go to 4 yr. colleges and many of those are ivy/top tier. For years, I have had nothing but 5’s (and the occasional 4) on the AP exam from my students.
As more and more students are applying ED/EA, there is the rare student who has not been accepted at several places by mid Dec. and many “finalize” by January. The majority continue to work on assignments, attend class, and be engaged. A few though develop severe senioritis. The last 3 years have become a constant battle. Students work hard first quarter to show the colleges and then grades begin to slip. Last year 3 students were put on academic probation at their future colleges (not rescinded) because in each case at least 3 courses had dropped to D’s. One lost a hefty scholarship with straight C’s although her acceptance stayed.
Somehow, I become the bad guy when a student receives a C or lower. Case in point: A quite capable young man in my class was accepted to his dream school ED and recently was given a large merit award, which he has rightfully earned these past years. He received an A first quarter in my class. Second quarter he had 9 absences, failed to complete almost all assignments, and failed 3 of 4 major assessments. Despite my constant begging for him to see me for additional help, he refuses to come. I offered him some “makeup” problems, which he also refused to do. He constantly tells me that “it doesn’t matter…I’m in already.” His grade this quarter…a D. This joins 2 C’s in other courses also due to missing work.
Here’s the kicker…now his parents want a meeting with the principal and superintendent because WE are putting his college acceptance/merit at risk!!!
There are 6 sections of AB Calc and 2 BC Calc and in each one this year, there are some, not many, students receiving C’s though F’s because they just have stopped working/caring. If they feel they worked hard enough the first 3 yrs. and want a break, fine. Take non-Ap Calc, or Stats, Discrete Math, or the History of Math or other less demanding Math electives.
My final rant: We now evaluate a teacher’s effectiveness on how well the students do on a standardized test. Thanks to those who choose to put my livelihood at risk because they are in and don’t value their education any more.
Fwiw, there is a difference between not going full-speed ahead and completely giving up. It is not an either/or situation. Even with my senioritis, I got 5s on all my senior AP tests- even if I got a B instead of an A in the class (although, I still think I got As)
The parents are in the wrong there. Even though I think students should take a bit of a break, I think students should own the fact that they’re doing it. Parents’ concerns like that should not even be entertained by the admins. If you can provide proof that they’re skipping assignments and what not, that should be the end of the story. I’m sorry you’re going through that.
@eerboco Thank you for providing an educator’s viewpoint. I hope that it is only a very few parents who would expect you to reward a student for work not done. And in those cases, I would hope that the head of school would back you up unconditionally.
Going through senioritis right now but I’m keeping up my 4.0 UW. I will admit that I have very high 90’s in a lot of classes because most of my teachers consider me their favorite student and are willing to go the extra mile just to help me make up an assignment I missed being absent while they don’t spend as much effort with other students.
