When I graduated from HS 30+ years ago, it was the tradition to spend the week after down the shore (S. Jersey shore as I grew up in Philadelphia). Now it’s my D’s turn for Senior Week. Many of her classmates are renting places in Myrtle Beach and the Outer Banks while others are camping out at the Firefly music festival in Delaware. Niece is headed to Wildwood (NJ) for 2 weeks.
I mentioned these plans to my SIL who’s from the midwest and she had never heard of such a thing. (And while she’s too polite to say so, I think she thought other SIL and I were crazy for allowing it). So I started to wonder: Is Senior Week “a thing” everywhere? How do grads from different areas celebrate?
Here in the NY suburbs kids go to the beach for a long weekend following prom. But no senior week. Partly because at that point schools are all closed and the price of a beach house is very high. But i know my nephew in Maryland did the senior week thing. I think the seniors got done before the rest of the schools, but here graduation cannot be any earlier than the last day of school. Definitely regional.
No senior week here. Many students spend one night after the senior prom at the beach…but that is it.
Who is renting places for these 18 year olds…because most places will not rent to this age group…alone.
And as an FYI, I wouldn’t let my kid do this. And I certainly would not pay for it. My kids had to work the summer before college…and a beach party for a week or two was not part of the plan.
Never heard of senior week. All sorts of parties her in So Cal during that time and plenty of kids go to Disneyland whenever the designated “senior night” takes place
Senior week is a thing here. I wasn’t allowed to go 30 years ago, and I won’t let my kids go. I’ll offer any other week at the beach to my kids, but not that one. It doesn’t matter if your kid is perfect, trouble happens at senior week. Sort of like house party weekend in college, only with less structure and younger kids.
We had “senior Week” at our HS in NH 40 years ago, but it was completely different from the OP’s. It was DURING school, and involved the senior banquet, an awards assembly and early dismissal. Shortened classes and early dismissal, after which many of us went to a state park for the day to swim. Kids renting beach houses and vacationing alone for a week is not something I’ve heard of. I wouldn’t allow my kid to go if it did exist here.
The seniors in my older D’s class went to work or took classes at one of the CC’s around here or helped out at home. Nothing fancy. Younger D’s school parents raise funds all year to send the entire senior class (quite small) on a supervised night away. I will let her do that.
Grew up in the midwest. Have lived in Southern California, Hawaii, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, panhandle of Florida and Maryland as an adult. Maryland is the only place where Senior Week AKA Beach Week has ever been mentioned.
Here’s an old thread talking about it.
It is common around here because we are a few hours drive from the Atlantic Ocean.
I went back in the 80s, but to my friend’s family owned beach house with kids that were not planning to party.
My kid was headed to her camp job right after graduation so it was not an issue thankfully.
Wow… I’ve never heard of it in AZ. I know kids in NJ who do the night after prom thing at the beach (parents make kids pay for it). But, I can’t imagine sending my 18 yo to a week long party. I don’t like the idea of FL, Mexico, Lake Spring Breaks either. I certainly wouldn’t be footing the bill. Sounds very expensive!
Never heard of it here in Oregon either. Don’t think beach proximity has as much to do with it as it is seems to be a NE regional tradition. We have grad night at our high school… kids are bused to a chaperoned all-night event off campus.
I was the mean mom who wouldn’t let my kids go in high school. Instead I offered a family trip. One kid was pretty mad but got over it. I was not going to sanction a week of drinking, trouble causing and hook ups. Now fast forward and we have retired to one of the resort areas frequented by the senior week crowd. It is miserable for 2-3 weeks in early June. If parents had any idea how their children behaved…
I think it’s more school or area specific. I graduated from a HS right on the NJ shore and we didn’t have Senior Week, but the school primarily served lower middle class families. Having colleagues in the FL panhandle I’m familiar with Senior Week issues down there. None here in the midwest (from HS, they do from a local college).
Not something that happens in my area in the midwest. They have a senior skip day tradition in the local schools. Senior week sounds like a bad idea to me - too easy for the kids to get MIPs and get in other trouble.
We didn’t have such thing in any of the Midwest places I’ve called home, but it is a huge deal in Maryland. And, as @lenny2 notes, a terrible idea.
Drunken bacchanal at the beach. A couple years ago the Attorney General got in hot water for apparently condoning it (as the father of a high school senior).
For honors students, our high school basically shuts down after the AP tests. We have senior skip day. We have senior skip week (yes, they go to the beach). I don’t think it’s even the last week of school, but I also don’t think they ever go back to school after that, it’s kind of understood that nothing is happening and then–we even graduate the seniors before school is over! An entire month of school is down the drain for anyone taking classes with upperclassmen. And then our AP teachers all say they don’t have any time to teach things that aren’t on the AP tests.
I graduated from high school more than forty years ago. I went to an all-girls boarding school, and so we had nothing like “Senior Week,” although I invited a group of friends to my family’s summer house. Many friends in my hometown did have party rentals on Cape Cod in May, once the seniors completed their coursework. The legal drinking age was 18 at the time, though.
It’s called Beach Week here in the Washington DC suburbs and yes, it is a big thing. I allowed my DS to go and he had a great time. Parents took turns chaperoning a few days at a time. There was no trouble and he formed great memories with his very tight knit group of friends.
Although I let him go, I only did so if they chose a single family home in the Outer Banks. I said no to places like Dewey, Rehoboth, or Ocean City. The atmosphere at the Outer Banks is geared towards families and there is no boardwalk, strips of bars, or an easy place for hordes to congregate.