<p>Oh, my daughter will go to Prom and Grad Nite. Two things that she will really enjoy!</p>
<p>Maybe because I have sons…there was no real drama senior yr. They both were accepted to their first choice college before Thanksgiving (rolling admits). S1 got the scholarship he really wanted. S2 was a starter on the conference winning best football team in school history. After that it was all about doing whatever it took to get through senior year and having fun with friends. </p>
<p>I hope senior yr. of h.s. was not the best of their lives because I hope they have lots of great years ahead of them but I can def. say Senior Yr. was the most fun year of high sch. for both my S’s.</p>
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<p>Wise words. Son seems to be on an emotional roller coaster. Can be quite pleasant at times but is often irritable. Thinks everything that comes out of my mouth is ridiculous. 
I think it’s part of the separation process - on top of girlfriend troubles! They say they come home from college a more relaxed child. I can only hope.</p>
<p>Not the best, but not the worst year either (that would have been 8th grade with lots of Mean Girls and an administration that didn’t seem to care). D has changed SO MUCH since September, probably due to the stress of college auditions, much more so than either of her two older sibs, and now she’s really ready to fly the nest. I’m not so sure I’m prepared to let her go in six months, though!</p>
<p>PackMom - I agree. I think there is somewhat less drama with boys. My older son is enjoying his senior year, but he is also ready to go to college. He is the only one of his friends going away to college, well more than an easy day’s drive. So, he knows that is going to be a little tough, but he also knows he can handle it.</p>
<p>Ah…just as I’m saying this…DS comes in with news of some “band drama” involving a senior boy. I gave him the “don’t get caught up in other people’s problems” speech, told to him avoid getting roped into any emotional drama in class tomorrow, and told him to remember that the younger band members look up to the seniors and that he needs to be a good example for them.</p>
<p>Now that I’ve done my motherly duty…I’m going to go get a glass of wine!!! ;)</p>
<p>S2 is ready to move on. He enjoys being in the jazz band and that’s about it. Not that he dislikes his courses (well there is one he hates), but he is just ready for it to be over. His GF is already in college so the big dances he attends with other girls (GF knows and approves) are not all that exciting. He is looking forward to accepted student days at the schools to which he has been admitted and, hopefully, to some from whom he has yet to hear. I doubt he would call it his best year of HS. Now his junior year, that was a different story. It was by far better than senior year.</p>
<p>“My D feels that she has outgrown her high school friends.”</p>
<p>tell your daughter that i first started going through that like 3 years ago :\ & just last month i had a big blowout with one of my best friends, & we’re hardly on speaking terms now. i really just don’t see eye-to-eye with the people i became friends with when i was like 8 years old. now i’m just waiting to get to college & start my new life. i really couldn’t care less about prom & the rest of my senior year.</p>
<p>I still remember some of the ups and downs of my own HS senior year so clearly. One of my best friends decided that since she and her BF would not be attending the same college she would have to spend every waking minute with the BF, and she basically vanished from my life early in senior year. We had both taken the same summer job before this “crisis” occurred, and when summer came, she was pleasant all day at work and vanished completely after work. The friend who became my closest friend after the other friend vanished became weird around april of senior year, and I have to say that by graduation, was also somewhat estranged. There was a bit of the why bother attitude there too, since we were going separate ways. </p>
<p>I think the hype that it will be a great year may make it stressful for quite a few.</p>
<p>No friendship drama, but when I asked D on New Years eve of her senior year what she thought, it was NOT good. OTOH, spring was good, and first semester in college was no picnic.</p>
<p>I abruptly left for college half way through my senior year.</p>
<p>Eh, quite honestly, I’m done with high school. All of the “fun” activities are ridiculously expensive (senior trip is $445, a prom ticket is $99, yearbook is $120, banquet was $85, etc.). I’m getting a free yearbook because I’m editor, and I skipped on banquet because it is like a repeat sweet 16 + smuggled alcohol, and I’m contemplating on whether or not to attend prom, as I will most likely be bored, and it’s such a waste of money.</p>
<p>Academically, I am bored to tears. Save for my AP classes, my day is repetitive. The work is dumb and worthless, and I literally have no homework. While this seems nice at first, I’ve become terribly unproductive and lazy, and my procrastination has only gotten worse. AP Lit papers are usually my only homework, and they are always left until 11 PM (I’m supposed to be writing one right now!). I constantly drool over college course catalogs, and planning my potential schedule for next year is of much excitement.</p>
<p>The social scene is quite terrible, too. I am one of the only seniors who does not own a car in my school, and thus I am left out of mostly everything. “Hanging out” here consists of going to the mall. Boring. Oh, and the drama! There is so much boyfriend drama here, it is absolutely ridiculous. Last week in AP Lit, two girls started arguing over whether one girl’s boyfriend could visit a supposed friend at a hospital. Honestly, it was quite immature. Both Facebook and Twitter cause ridiculous amounts of drama here. Room/bus selection for the Senior Trip was also wonderful. Thankfully, I found a nice room, but there were constant rumors flying around about how so-and-so ditched X’s room and is now in Y’s room, but there are too many people in that room, so she had to go to Z’s room, etc. I’m fed up with this. </p>
<p>Thankfully, most of the colleges that I’ve applied to have no other applicants from my school. Hopefully the one I attend in the fall will share this attribute! </p>
<p>Sorry for the seemingly immature ranting. I’m trying to appreciate my last few months at high school, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Oh, how I wish it was June already!</p>
<p>Senior year is going well for my DD because we ,as a family, planned it that way. Last year was miserable for her because of academic pressure. She was struggling with her foreign language, taking advanced honors math and two APs in addition to participating in a very time consuming sport. She would come home and sleep all the time. She was frequently crying and her grades were collapsing. </p>
<p>So my hubby and I and my DD had a conference with the guidance counselor last February. DD wanted to take 3 or 4 APs to be competitive for college and we put our foot down and said no. We encouraged her to dump her foreign language that she hated. Instead she is taking a culinary arts class that she loves. She did not want to do a fourth year in her sport and we encouraged to try totally different ECs (or none at all if she wanted!) We wanted to make sure she had enough time to sleep, enjoy her friends, pursue a hobby and keep on top of her homework and college applications.</p>
<p>Some of my friends were concerned that she was hurting her college chances badly. And I admit I was somewhat worried. But the other day she said, “Mom, this has been the best year in school I have ever had!”. (Losing a week of school due to snow certainly helped!) And she has been admitted to 6 of the 8 schools she applied to.</p>
<p>^^I, for one, am extremely impressed that you, as parents, were able to do this…kudos to you and your daughter!!</p>
<p>This week’s article from NYTimes Magazine asks, “Why not eliminate the self-indulgent, debauched waste that is the senior year of high school?”</p>
<p>[The</a> Way We Live Now - Class Dismissed - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28FOB-wwln-t.html?ref=magazine]The”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28FOB-wwln-t.html?ref=magazine)</p>
<p>a relevant excerpt:
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<p>^YES, please :]</p>
<p>^That would be quite awesome. Perhaps make senior year mandatory for those who actually need it, and send the rest of us off to college? I’m going to graduate with 11 more credits than needed, and if I wanted to, I could have taken two classes + gym to fulfill my graduation requirements.</p>
<p>^Same. I had the the credits to graduate with an Advanced Diploma last year. Now I’m just coasting…</p>
<p>Our high schools have several wonderful choices for seniors. They can participate in a dual-enrollment program and take community college classes in additon to their remaining high school work. They can participate in a work study program that enables them to work part-time during the day and receive class credit if the job is relevant to an elective they are taking and the employer is willing to verify hours worked and the quality of the work. They can participate in tons of great electives (Korean, culinary arts, digital film-making, automobile mechanics, computer certification., etc) Our school also allows seniors to volunteer as tutors or instructional aides, to man the attendance office, assist in the guidance office or computer labs.</p>
<p>The point is our system has great transitional opportunities. It is also very strict about chronic tardiness or absentiism. Each year several kids actually fail to graduate because they skipped class!! If kids choose to “coast”, it is their loss and I believe it does impact how they do their freshmen year at college. If we eliminated 12th grade, universities would be stuck with kids that are even more immature than the ones that are there now!</p>
<p>I feel this way. I’ll probably get my first ever C this semester because I’m up against a wall academically (took math/science courses at an AP level when I’m more humanities-oriented) and don’t care enough to deal with it, since I know high school grades really only matter at this point if I flunk out anyway. I’m still in a bad mood a lot because my inner perfectionist is battling my inner slacker. Plus I’m worried about my college decision and fitting in in college and whether I should go to prom and such and other social drama.</p>
<p>My d was accepted ed to her first choice in December. Now the only thing she finds exciting about school is hearing about where everyone else is getting accepted! What even makes it worse is that she found a group on facebook of everyone who would be her college classmates-- they started communicating and some even met over vacation. </p>
<p>The only thing I think she is looking forward to at high school is prom-- if she finds someone she wants to go with!</p>
<p>The only reason she continues to get good grades is that she is afraid of her admission being rescinded!</p>
<p>My opinion (as the lowly mother) is that she is enjoying herself more now because the pressure is off-- junior year was a total nightmare!</p>
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<p>I know my son would agree with this. He has complained about this since the end of last year. We kept him back a year in kindergarten because his birthday was right on the cut-off. This year is the first year I have ever wondered if we did the right thing. Academically, it worked out well but he is bored out of his mind and is emotionally ready to go on to college.</p>