Senioritis: A Deadly Disease

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Every year the new seniors start off strong but their flame of motivation tends to trickle out as time moves on. This falling action and decrease of grades is commonly known as Senioritis. In order to fully understand Senioritis one must go to the root of the problem and figure out why it is caused.

In response to being questioned about Senioritis, Ms. Engdahl, AP Psychology teacher at Leesville Road High School, wrote in an email:

“It is a condition that typically sets in during the second semester of a student’s senior year. It is particularly strong with students who have either been accepted to the college of their choice or have settled on a post-high school military or career path. The symptoms include; a general lack of concern for a student’s grade. This leads to extreme procrastination, limited studying, and excessive socialization. Depending on a student’s exam exemption potential, this also significantly affects attendance.”

When asked what could be done to prevent Senioritis, Ms. Engdahl said:

“That is a million dollar question. I think the exam exemption policy helps in courses where that is a possibility. I started giving a cumulative test as the last test in AP Psychology. The test is designed like a final exam, and seniors who wanted to maintain exemption had to to well enough to maintain their average. Another option would be for colleges to hold their admissions decisions until June and include the final transcript in their decision making process. I am not confident that there is much that can be done to manage senioritis once we hit May, up to that point any strategy has the potential for success.”

When asked what their opinion of what Senioritis is, how it has affected them, and what they are doing about it, if anything, students had a variety of answers:

Haley Rae, class of 2015, said, “Senioritis to me is just coming to school and doing my work but not doing it 100% because I’ve already gotten into college, um, and I just don’t really care anymore and to try and heal my Senioritis I am trying to pay attention as much as I can and still coming to class everyday and trying to do my work, but it doesn’t work out very well”.

Brooks Mixon said, “Senioritis to me is my life… It affects me by sleeping and not doing anything… I’m doing nothing about it like I’m doing everything else because I have Senioritis”.

Another point of view is the view of Samantha Beauregard, Class 2015. Samantha said, “So senioritis is when your done with school because you’re on your last year and you’re ready to get out because it’s terrible and I want to leave it right now. Um, how has it helped me? Well, you see, I’m super excited for friday because its my last day of the semester then I’m done, but I’m gonna be super sad when we start our next semester because it will be torture all over again. What have I done about it? Nothing, absolutely nothing”.

Overall it appears that students see Senioritis is when they have already gotten into college and are mentally finished with high school. Most students are not doing much, if anything, about their Senioritis.

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