Senioritis already?

It’s a Monday morning and senior Drew Fasano wakes up at 9 a.m. to roll into school for her first period of the day. Her day starts fourth period, having slept through her multiple free periods and gym off day. Her day consists of classes with light workloads and plenty of free time to complete the little homework she is assigned.

 

This is the life of an accepted college student.
“I got into Indiana University and I was so excited that I didn’t study for my math test the next day,” she says. “That’s when I started feeling less motivated.”
The end goal for most seniors is getting into a college, so when they achieve this goal so early in the year it is hard for them to maintain the same work ethic until June.
“I felt relieved when I got accepted to Michigan State,” says senior Julia Schiano. “I could finally relax and not stress about school anymore. Now that I know where I’m going, I don’t care about school work as much.”
This isn’t to say that all seniors stop handing in their assignments and studying for tests as soon as they get accepted, but there is undeniably a clear decline in work ethic.
“I feel like I got into college; I don’t need to do work anymore,” Fasano says. “I still turn in all my assignments, but I don’t have to try as hard.”
There’s also the feeling that seniors have earned the right to have a carefree final year. “I think I deserve a senior year with a lighter workload after all the stress of standardized tests and junior-year grades,” says senior Jake Lerie, who has been admitted to The College of New Jersey.
Forensics Teacher Ms. Susan Terra notices that her students’ work ethic actually increases as the year goes on since she purposely plans to teach the more difficult units later in the year. “I hear students say ‘I’m a college student now,’ but then I say, ‘No, you are still a high school student.’ Until my students walk across the stage at graduation, they are still expected to do the same work,” she says.
One example of a student who doesn’t plan to give up on her work quite yet is senior Muriel Maloney, who was admitted to Monmouth University. She says: “I’m definitely less stressed about finishing assignments, but I still get everything done. I also study for all my tests because I want to finish the year off strong.”
Regardless of the amount of effort seniors want to put into their final year, they all want to make the most of their time. “For the rest of the year, I just want to have fun and not worry too much,” Schiano says.