I opened my first acceptance letter and the realization that in just a few short months I will be done with high school and in less than a year I will be in college has hit hard. I keep thinking about how much better college will be and it is seriously affected my mood in my classes. Science Olympiad is the only thing keeping me from dreading going to school every day. This problem is just magnified by the fact that I’m taking four AP classes this semester. Anyway, to get to the actual point of this post, how are all you other seniors dealing with the intense workload of AP classes and extracurricular activities in combination with senioritis?
NGL this has been a mood. But on the bright side, I’ve just been thinking about the fact that this is the last year of public school! Once I finish this (only 1/13th of my entire k-12 career) I’ll be able to study what I want and live where I want! You can get through it! Only one semester left!
In no time this semester will be over and high school will be behind you. Hopefully your AP credits will be accepted by the college of your choice and the credits you earn will open up your future schedule to take some classes you might enjoy.
Our HS guidance office sends seniors a package of actual letters from colleges (with names redacted) that rescind acceptances, put students on academic probation, ask for explanations of poor senior year performance etc. That usually wakes people up!
Don’t let your senior year grades sag to the point that your admission will be rescinded. Your admission letter should include conditions that you need to meet. If there is only something vague like “we expect you to maintain your academic performance”, don’t earn a D or F grade or have a large drop in GPA (e.g. 3.9 to 2.1 is likely to be risky).
You are preparing for college!! Remember this. College is much harder /faster then high school. Many students go down a full grade or more their first semester /year or worse.
You have the summer off and enjoy it.
Be as prepared for college as you can. You’ll thank me next year… Lol
I’m a perfectionist and one of my teachers gave me this advice… I tend to try really hard and make sure my grades are near-perfect… my teacher told me to spend no more than a certain amount of time on each project or HW assignment (20-30 min or an hour or something) and be OK with getting an 85 or a 90 instead of a 98 or 100. That way you aren’t using hours of your time and energy to make sure everything is perfect. You got into college, and once you know where you’re going or have been accepted to the places you want to go, it’s okay to embrace the senioritis and chill out a little! Things become bearable in the middle of second semester because you’re excited about where you’re going, etc.
Knowsstuff has it precisely right.
My kid is a college sophomore, and she is so grateful that she aced her Senior APs. Different colleges have different policies as to how they’ll let you use your AP credits. For my D, the advantage was that she skipped intro courses in 4 subjects, which means that she was able to pick and choose from the higher level courses to better suit her interests. My D is finding that there are so many interesting courses in college and there is simply no way she can take all the courses she’s like. If she had to start at the intro level, she’d really be missing out.
I hope others post about what the AP credits enabled them to do. For me personally, it enabled me to graduate college in 3 years, which saved me a lot of money!
@melvin123. Right back at you… My son took 6 APs his senior year (and aced them all ?) with Multivariate Calc 3. This was his way to prove to himself and colleges he was ready. His schedule screwed up Junior year and he could only take 2 APs. Rest of his courses were honors
So he couldn’t use all of them but he is on tract in theory to graduate a semester early. BUT as you said soooo many interesting classes that students now don’t understand. I wish I could go back to college ?.. But in engineering it will enable him to have a major, a certificate and a minor all related to engineering and his proposed field. He is still taking 16-18 credits a semester but if he just wanted his degree and nothing more he could be taking just 12 credits a semester (3 classes people) from junior to senior year… And having a pretty easy time of it. But of course not since there are soooo many classes of interest to take.
My attitude is we’re paying for it might as well get exposed to as much as possible. Once college is done… People do regret not doing this or that…
But trust me I get it. But do really good students really stop being who they are? I mean maybe don’t pull an all nighter to study or finish a paper (shouldn’t do that anyway). Ya took the AP classes now own it ?.