The Senioritis Epidemic: Is There a Cure?

Are you in 12th grade, feeling lazy, tired, dejected? You might have senioritis. Image: Midwood Argus via Midjourney

By TAMMY CHAN

Areli Chantes Galindo threw her backpack on her chair and flopped onto her bed. The numerous Google Classroom notifications on her lock screen were a constant reminder that she had work to do, but the feeling of motivation was not there. She sighed deeply and told herself, “Later. I’ll do them later.” Hours passed and it was now 10 p.m. Chantes Galindo looked at the countless assignments and tried to look for reasons to do them, but the urge to sleep was much stronger. “Tomorrow. I’ll just hand them in late,” she thought. She crawled under the covers and went to bed.

This is a reality for a lot of high school seniors: the lack of motivation to do any school work, also known as senioritis. “It’s a mental mindset that tends to be the downfall for many seniors, but as long as you’re able to control it, I think it’s fine,” said Walden Mai. 

“I thought the fact that I was going to have so much time [with a lighter senior schedule] was going to cure my procrastination tendencies, but it did not,” said Paola Valentin.

Khadija Monet Fall was surprised to get hit by senioritis. “I've been dedicated to school my entire life and have always worked extremely hard towards getting good grades,” she said. “But being a senior and knowing in such a short amount of time I'll finally be done with high school and move on to the next chapter of my life completely changed me. I can't bring myself to care about school nearly as much as I did last year, or in the past two years, or ever in my life. I know I'm not actually out of school yet, but it really feels like I am.” 

One of the reasons for this common disease is how close seniors are to finally getting out of high school. “I think it's just really tiring,” said Kaitlyn Tran. “Senior year is the fourth year of high school, right? So we're like this close to getting out and the second semester just becomes pointless, so the motivation is gone before you know it.”

Another reason is that seniors focused so much on grades their junior year that it has caused mental fatigue. “Everyone works really hard to maintain their high averages and extracurricular activities during junior year,” said Jin Wei Lian. “At the end of it all, you’re somewhat burnt out.”

Furthermore, seniors have to pick colleges, so they focus most of their energy and time on that. They also have fewer classes, so their already distracted minds only continue to stray further away from school. “It makes your mind go, ‘Oh, I only have blank amount of classes, it should be easy,’” said Lian. “The other part of us thinks that it’s senior year, we should focus on picking and getting into colleges, and not so much on school because it’s not as important.”

Notable symptoms of senioritis include stress and dejection.

“I don't do my work, which makes no sense, and it’s been making me feel sort of in a slump,” said Valentin. “I have too much time, but somehow I don't do anything productive with it. It’s a cycle of feeling bad about yourself and it’s hard to break out of because it feeds itself. You don’t do work, you feel bad. You feel bad, you don’t do work – and it keeps going. It’s almost easier to give up and stop trying rather than try and save it.”

Chantes Galindo says, “I feel tired from classes, especially due to the stress from junior year. So I'm scared that I won't be able to keep up with college classes, or that I'll be too exhausted to want to do the work. It's terrifying to think I'll be wasting money and possibly not putting my best effort.”

“For classes like AP Psych where I'm required to do some sort of long assignment I've been told about weeks in advance, I end up leaving it to the very last minute,” said Fall. “And when it’s time for me to do it, I notice I don’t put nearly as much effort in as I would last year because I’m either busy with college apps or because I know that colleges see fairly little from senior year. Now that [junior year] is over, I can’t bring myself to care too much about school anymore.” 

Are there any methods a senior can use to push themselves to do the work? “Usually I just tell myself that this is a temporary obstacle,” said Tran. “Like a bio lab, for example, is only an issue I have until the deadline, and once it's done, I won't think about it anymore. Not doing it will only cause more issues.”

Some seniors took a harsh view. “Get yourself together or you won’t graduate or get into college,” said Mai. 

Others had a measured perspective. “Sometimes I remind myself that senior year is still important and that I still have to try to pass my classes so I can graduate,” said Lian. “But I also tell myself to take it easy, and usually I break up my assignments to complete them over the course of the week so I don’t stress out and leave everything for the night before it’s due.”

Taking AP courses helps keep things purposeful. “I take three AP classes,” said Bryan Chan. “If my performance in them isn’t good, then I won't get a good score on the AP tests, and if I don't do well on the AP tests, then I won’t get college credit from them. I don’t like spending money, so I’d rather get a high score on the AP tests and get credit. Plus, I like watching my GPA go up, and colleges love looking at the GPA from the first semester.”

Taking the lightest schedule possible is another option. “I would say that I don’t have senioritis because I only have four classes,” said Tiffany Parkhomenko.

Parents are also a big factor for Parkhomenko. She said, “I have parents who would literally kill me if I consistently skipped class, though I do miss my first period class sometimes or come late because I just physically can’t wake up.” 

Even having only experienced their first month of senior year, many seniors already have advice to give. “Work on college stuff during junior year or the summer before senior year,” said Tran. “It definitely gets very overwhelming to do your essay and meet deadlines, especially if you take APs senior year. Just try to have some essay ideas or know where you want to go before it's like a month before deadlines. If you’re any sort of underclassmen, make connections with teachers so you can prepare who you're going to ask for recommendations.”

Some seniors had advice regarding procrastination as well. “Ask your teachers for recommendations early,” said Lian. “Start looking at colleges and what you are interested in. Once you have that sorted out, keep in mind that senior year is important and that colleges still look at first semester senior year grades. Once you settle all your college admission requirements, you can focus on school and the rest of your senior year in peace.”

Senioritis is a very real, but manageable problem. As long as you are able to keep motivating and pushing yourself to do the work, you will be able to combat it. It’s important to meet deadlines. Get started on applications early in junior year, and don’t let the small amount of classes on your schedule bring out your laziness. This is your last year in high school, so make it the best one yet.