<p>I got “senioritis” any time I got towards the end of the year and my grades were looking to be pretty safe where they were. This happened in junior year as well as this year.
And, honestly, I only get senioritis in classes I simply don’t care for. In physics and calculus, I always do my work, because I really enjoy the classes. This year, I’m still working fairly hard in physics, calculus, and economics (although I suppose you could argue that this is due to the upcoming AP tests, many people purposely didn’t take them because of senioritis, so the fact I’m taking them at all says something). English I work in but I don’t attempt to retain anything like I do in my other classes. Same thing with world cultures.
This is all very anecdotal though. I think the focus on getting into college rather than actually learning is something that isn’t great… but not unique to the US. South Korea tends to perform very well on tests, but that’s due to the extreme pressure put on kids to do well to get a job. They CAN’T slack off, because South Korean employers look at EVERYTHING. I doubt many of the children there love learning, I’d say they’re more likely terrified of it.
Tl;dr: Maybe some countries don’t get senioritis because the educational system doesn’t allow it, not out of some innate love of education.</p>
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<p>Uh not really…first of all, the whole point of high school is to prepare for college or the workforce, so that’s not anything new…wouldn’t calling it “kissing up” though, I would call it trying to be competitive for admissions in today’s academic environment. </p>
<p>Secondly, I think you overlook the fact that there actually are many kids who enjoy learning…maybe not everything they learn, and maybe they don’t appreciate that they have to get up and go to school every day for 5 days straight, but they do enjoy learning.</p>
<p>I don’t know why you guys are disagreeing, the whole thing is 100% true. Nobody’s going to retain anything from their high school duration unless it’s of value to their major. I’ve forgotten 90% of what I learned in French and Geometry.</p>
<p>I’ll just side with the original poster…
I feel like I’m in the same boat as not caring anymore. I was rejected, barely missed top 10 and most of the other end of the year awards.</p>
<p>What value now is there in showing up for classes I’ll never use again and continuing to load up on homework (they set it up perfectly)? ~Of course, I’d be in fun classes pertaining to my major if it didn’t hurt my GPA/Berkeley admission etc, and there is regret to some of the classes that I decided to enroll in (or I should’ve dropped some of them while I could have) But I didn’t get anywhere with those classes did I? I tried and persevered my whole high school life, just to crash at the end.</p>
<p>I look forward to my future major which I view as all exciting and at least I know I’m going somewhere… Maybe I could’ve prepped for it (and had fun doing so). APs are nice to prepare for college, but there is a point when they become unnecessary (sort of hypocritical on the college credit I’m getting, but yes)</p>
<p>7 more weeks until I can put all of it behind me and what I do then actually will count again.</p>
<p>Taking advanced classes whose general topics don’t even interest you to impress colleges is the same thing as kissing up to colleges. Volunteering when you don’t even care about the people you’re helping is kissing up to colleges. Memorizing geometric theorems, geometric postulates, and algebraic formulas to utilize them on a test, essentially to get good grades on the transcript that will be sent to colleges, and never applying these concepts to real-world situations is kissing up to colleges. Joining or a creating a club you don’t even remotely care about means kissing up to colleges.</p>
<p>Having said that, I believe that, in general, high school students go through their time in high school unquestioningly following a systematic, often inconsistent route that misleadingly guarantees them happiness. Yes, I do acknowledge the fact that there are students who genuinely enjoy high school in terms of academics, but what is your point? I guarantee you that the majority of students who made it into UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and the Ivy League schools were rather apathetic about what they were learning, only learning just for the sake of impressing colleges. I guarantee you those same students were the ones who faced the most boredom at school during the second semester of senior year.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, congratulations to those who were admitted into these top-tier colleges with low acceptance rates. I just hope you realize what you yourself want to pursue for the right reasons, not for superficial factors such as social status or money. With that being said, I really think there are many doctors out there who could care less about their patients. Ask yourself. Would you volunteer to go through YEARS of extensive study and practice to become a doctor who doesn’t get paid in any way whatsoever? You don’t want to help people. You want money and social status, both going hand-in-hand with each other.</p>
<p>“With that being said, I really think there are many doctors out there who could care less about their patients. Ask yourself. Would you volunteer to go through YEARS of extensive study and practice to become a doctor who doesn’t get paid in any way whatsoever?”</p>
<p>I actually wouldn’t go through years of schooling to do something just for the money - or at least I wouldn’t finish all those years of schooling. Every day would be awful, and after awhile I’d just give up because it wouldn’t be worth it. I don’t think that many people who don’t genuinely want to be a doctor for reasons other than money actually make it through medical school. </p>
<p>“Taking advanced classes whose general topics don’t even interest you to impress colleges is the same thing as kissing up to colleges.”</p>
<p>Well, yeah, by definition doing something to impress a college = doing something to impress a college.
I don’t think apathy about learning really has a lot to do with college admissions - you’ll find that mentality everywhere. Some of the people who don’t care about learning will care about college admissions (which, really, is an aim just as shallow as wealth/power), and some won’t.
As far as taking classes we’re not interested in…we are seventeen years old! Most of us have no idea what topics could interest us - partially because we ourselves are changeable, but also because we’ve only seen a small part of all the disciplines we could be studying. I don’t think high school students should stick only to classes they think they’ll be interested in, and I think it’s good that people are being encouraged to take a wide variety of classes, regardless of their initial motives.</p>
<p>Why are you being so defensive?</p>
<p>You don’t think there are people who would go through anything to make money and have a good reputation? Let’s be honest here. Money is the only motive for a good number of people aspiring to be doctors. One of the things we’ve been taught about communism is that it’s unfair in that everyone would get paid the same, so people wouldn’t be motivated to become doctors when they can make the same amount of money as a janitor.</p>
<p>Well, of course an apple is an apple and an orange is an orange. People try to kiss up to colleges by doing things they wouldn’t even do if colleges didn’t care about such things. I know many people gave up on all their volunteer work and internships after they were finished with their college applications.</p>
<p>I hope I’m not offending any students. I’m just saying all attempts to get us genuinely interested in academics failed drastically.</p>
<p>“Money is the only motive for a good number of people aspiring to be doctors.”</p>
<p>That’s true, but I assume most people aspiring to be doctors don’t get anywhere near actually becoming a doctor. What I’m saying is that the people who actually succeed at becoming medical doctors after years and years of college generally have some kind of interest in it outside of the money, or they wouldn’t have made it that far. </p>
<p>“People try to kiss up to colleges by doing things they wouldn’t even do if colleges didn’t care about such things.”</p>
<p>So, for some people, not caring about college would mean never doing anything productive. Caring about college allows them to be productive and exposes them to things they might actually find interesting (internships, volunteering, etc). I don’t see what’s wrong with trying to impress colleges, if that’s what motivates some people.
(I would never have done extracurriculars if I hadn’t begun to care about college, because I was too shy and I didn’t see a reason to put myself out there if there wasn’t a clear benefit. “Do it for college” became sort of a catalyst for me to get involved in activities that I otherwise would have avoided - not because of lack of interest, but because of anxiety and nervousness over trying new things and talking to people.)</p>
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money is a major motivating factor, but it can never be the ONLY factor. if you’re going to study and learn something so in depth, you have to at least be able to sort of like it.</p>
<p>if you absolutely hate a subject, there is no way the thought of money is going to get you through it</p>
<p>The issue with our school systems it he peer-pressure, vulgar behavior, immaturity, propagation of drugs and lack of respect for rules, conduct codes, and integrity, as well as the fact that bullying is a major factor. The tendency for special education to be thrown at people as a punishment and people to be forced to have a diagnosis of ADHD is also a critical issue. The lack of proper development and dispute resolution is a major factor as well.</p>
<p>But senioritis is not.</p>