Senioritis is Spreading
by Haley Spielberg
By mid-January, seniors begin sending in the last of their college applications, finally finishing the college process; the completion of this feat alone is enough for a senior to project early symptoms of the disease. Loss of motivation, lack of enthusiasm, procrastination—these symptoms appear in the minds of those holding a college acceptance letter in their hands; senioritis infects the mind slowly, but it soon spreads to consume a senior’s entire body and eventually, the entire school year.
What can be seen as a sort of Holy Grail to higher education, the College Board even provides teachers and counselors with advice on “recognizing and combatting senioritis.” Posted on the College Board website, some of its remedies for curing senioritis include “maintaining a challenging course load, committing to an internship, and keeping a calendar of important dates and deadlines.” Senioritis is treated as a sickness rather than what it is: a mindset—a shift in perspective.
Organizations that put a negative connotation on the term senioritis only examine the outward effects of the “disease”; they see the lackluster efforts made in the cafeterias to finish assignments that are due the next period and the laid-back attitudes of students during class. Those who associate senioritis with laziness fail to see the big picture: senioritis occurs because a student finally realized that high school is not the pinnacle of one’s existence; high school is a waiting room for the future stages of life—a buffer zone.
Catching senioritis can be considered a right of passage. To those who’ve worked hard their four years to get good grades, to get into a good college, to get a good job, senior year is about enjoying the last months of carefree youth. Senior year consists of the final block of months for a teenager to relish in “being a teenager” before one is forced to “be an adult.” “Having been accepted into college, I now feel a great sense of relief that all my efforts over the years have paid off. With my final days of high school drawing closer, I feel compelled to enjoy these last few months as much as possible. You only get to live through high school once, and I'd like my last memories of it to be good ones,” said senior and AP student Adam Jung.
Senior students of both advanced and regular are affected by the mindset, but they are most certainly not the only ones who notice the predicament. Teachers and faculty notice the change in attitude, too. Attendance records become increasingly tainted, “I understand what it means to ‘be a senior’ but [seniors] have to watch their attendance. If they’re going to exceed the amount of allowed absences, they should just come to school.”
Senioritis is a mindset with consequences, many of which are unbeknownst to seniors until it is too late. Participation in class may be up to par at the beginning of the year, but by the second semester, motivation for schoolwork plummets to rock bottom. Grades decrease not necessarily because seniors do poorly on tests; on the contrary, the detriment is rooted in lackluster participation and failure to complete homework assignments.
The true danger of being a senior with a bad case of senioritis is having all the work put into applications go to waste. If a senior’s grades drop significantly each marking period, colleges have the option to rescind that student’s acceptance. Even though this action is rare and mostly occurs under special circumstances, educators still threaten lackadaisical atmosphere of senior year with the “what if” of rescission. “There’s no such thing as senioritis anymore because collleges place a lot of emphasis on senior year grades that are sent out in February. However, because there are so many things going on during senior year that it is very hard for the students to stay focused,” said Guidance Counselor Mrs. Laudenslager.
But, senioritis is nothing new to students in schools. On the contrary, senioritis is known and felt by virtually all seniors in the United States, whether it shows or not.
Senioritis may also have consequences, but organizations like CollegeBoard try to help seniors treat senioritis by giving them various tips and advice. In addition, on the same website page that has those tips, there is a list of a few colleges that have used rescission, or the unmaking of a college admission. However, despite these helpful features, CollegeBoard unfortunately does not or cannot explain what senioritis exactly is and the reason why it exists.
Mrs. Ziegler, one of the two advisors for the Class of 2013, has known and worked with the senior class since the students entered New Hyde Park Memorial nearly six years ago. She has guided and led them through class events, homecoming float victories and of course, served as some of the students’ English teachers over the past five years.
“The seniors didn’t start at New Hyde Park in ninth grade like most high schools do. They started in seventh grade, and the two extra years change their experience a lot. Senioritis comes earlier and is more prominent especially here because the comfort level is higher in their classes,” said Ziegler. Many of the teachers in her department also agree: students feel comfortable enough that the classroom is no longer a setting where they need to devote themselves to work one hundred percent.
Some may also say that senioritis is merely an excuse for apathy. Regardless of the source, everyone who has ever been a high school student has felt it—teachers included. “We’ve watched the students grow from seventh grade adolescents into senior young adults. We want to treat them like adults—we were seniors too, once. The school knows about senioritis, and rather than make an attempt to punish it, we try to combat it with high-interest electives like Mass Media and Modern Novels, classes that allow them to keep them as motivated as possible,” said Mrs. Ziegler.
By mid-January, seniors begin sending in the last of their college applications, finally finishing the college process; the completion of this feat alone is enough for a senior to project early symptoms of the disease. Loss of motivation, lack of enthusiasm, procrastination—these symptoms appear in the minds of those holding a college acceptance letter in their hands; senioritis infects the mind slowly, but it soon spreads to consume a senior’s entire body and eventually, the entire school year.
What can be seen as a sort of Holy Grail to higher education, the College Board even provides teachers and counselors with advice on “recognizing and combatting senioritis.” Posted on the College Board website, some of its remedies for curing senioritis include “maintaining a challenging course load, committing to an internship, and keeping a calendar of important dates and deadlines.” Senioritis is treated as a sickness rather than what it is: a mindset—a shift in perspective.
Organizations that put a negative connotation on the term senioritis only examine the outward effects of the “disease”; they see the lackluster efforts made in the cafeterias to finish assignments that are due the next period and the laid-back attitudes of students during class. Those who associate senioritis with laziness fail to see the big picture: senioritis occurs because a student finally realized that high school is not the pinnacle of one’s existence; high school is a waiting room for the future stages of life—a buffer zone.
Catching senioritis can be considered a right of passage. To those who’ve worked hard their four years to get good grades, to get into a good college, to get a good job, senior year is about enjoying the last months of carefree youth. Senior year consists of the final block of months for a teenager to relish in “being a teenager” before one is forced to “be an adult.” “Having been accepted into college, I now feel a great sense of relief that all my efforts over the years have paid off. With my final days of high school drawing closer, I feel compelled to enjoy these last few months as much as possible. You only get to live through high school once, and I'd like my last memories of it to be good ones,” said senior and AP student Adam Jung.
Senior students of both advanced and regular are affected by the mindset, but they are most certainly not the only ones who notice the predicament. Teachers and faculty notice the change in attitude, too. Attendance records become increasingly tainted, “I understand what it means to ‘be a senior’ but [seniors] have to watch their attendance. If they’re going to exceed the amount of allowed absences, they should just come to school.”
Senioritis is a mindset with consequences, many of which are unbeknownst to seniors until it is too late. Participation in class may be up to par at the beginning of the year, but by the second semester, motivation for schoolwork plummets to rock bottom. Grades decrease not necessarily because seniors do poorly on tests; on the contrary, the detriment is rooted in lackluster participation and failure to complete homework assignments.
The true danger of being a senior with a bad case of senioritis is having all the work put into applications go to waste. If a senior’s grades drop significantly each marking period, colleges have the option to rescind that student’s acceptance. Even though this action is rare and mostly occurs under special circumstances, educators still threaten lackadaisical atmosphere of senior year with the “what if” of rescission. “There’s no such thing as senioritis anymore because collleges place a lot of emphasis on senior year grades that are sent out in February. However, because there are so many things going on during senior year that it is very hard for the students to stay focused,” said Guidance Counselor Mrs. Laudenslager.
But, senioritis is nothing new to students in schools. On the contrary, senioritis is known and felt by virtually all seniors in the United States, whether it shows or not.
Senioritis may also have consequences, but organizations like CollegeBoard try to help seniors treat senioritis by giving them various tips and advice. In addition, on the same website page that has those tips, there is a list of a few colleges that have used rescission, or the unmaking of a college admission. However, despite these helpful features, CollegeBoard unfortunately does not or cannot explain what senioritis exactly is and the reason why it exists.
Mrs. Ziegler, one of the two advisors for the Class of 2013, has known and worked with the senior class since the students entered New Hyde Park Memorial nearly six years ago. She has guided and led them through class events, homecoming float victories and of course, served as some of the students’ English teachers over the past five years.
“The seniors didn’t start at New Hyde Park in ninth grade like most high schools do. They started in seventh grade, and the two extra years change their experience a lot. Senioritis comes earlier and is more prominent especially here because the comfort level is higher in their classes,” said Ziegler. Many of the teachers in her department also agree: students feel comfortable enough that the classroom is no longer a setting where they need to devote themselves to work one hundred percent.
Some may also say that senioritis is merely an excuse for apathy. Regardless of the source, everyone who has ever been a high school student has felt it—teachers included. “We’ve watched the students grow from seventh grade adolescents into senior young adults. We want to treat them like adults—we were seniors too, once. The school knows about senioritis, and rather than make an attempt to punish it, we try to combat it with high-interest electives like Mass Media and Modern Novels, classes that allow them to keep them as motivated as possible,” said Mrs. Ziegler.
