The term “senioritis” is characterized by a lack of motivation felt by students who are reaching the end of their courses. Although this usually will occur during a seniors second semester, the laziness may begin to progress during the first weeks of school.
“I think if seniors don’t have a lot to worry about, it’s harder for them to care. The difficulty of the schedule dictates how early someone will get senioritis,” said Jeslyn Camilo, senior at Leesville
Camilo considers herself to have a heavy class load this semester, on top of filling out her college applications through Common App. She is currently taking two AP classes and two Honors. The stress from this school year was not unexpected; she went into her senior year aware she would be overwhelmed. This does not stop her from working to avoid experiencing senioritis now or ever.
“Most people I know get senioritis when they get into college because they have nothing to try for anymore, but also some start getting really lazy before. I definitely do not have senioritis yet, and I don’t think I can get it anytime soon with my schedule,” said Camilo.
Like a lot of students, the biggest push factor and motivation for Camilo through her hard classes is getting into her dream college. She is very ready for her hard work to pay off.
Seniors like Abdur Clark claim to have an easier schedule and agree that the difficulty of one’s classes really does affect their “senioritis”.
“People with harder classes have a lot more put on them. My schedule is slight; I have two gym classes and Civics. Because my workload isn’t that heavy, sometimes I get a little lazy with work, but it really depends on the day and how I’m feeling if I do it,” said Clark.
Unlike Camilo, Clark had a more bright approach to his senior year knowing his classes would not be extremely challenging.
“I was really excited for my last year of high school. I was thinking more about the events like homecoming and senior night other than the upcoming classes,” said Clark.
Cinnamon Frame teaches AP Chemistry, a predominantly senior class, as well as regular chemistry. She notices some students’ laziness begin towards the beginning of the year, but “senioritis” itself normally towards the end of the year.
“I see ‘senioritis’ as a student’s death of motivation to get good grades because the goal of getting into college is achieved. It really does vary when it starts to happen; the onset can be as early as Spring Junior year for less intrinsically motivated or more burned-out students,” said Frame. “During college application season, students can also get a little overwhelmed. Most typically, it is after students get their letters from their college,” she added.
Frames students’ performance in class is reflected around these times from a variation of slowly ceasing to go the extra mile, to complete failure to accomplish anything at all. Some will start to attend less school. This all most likely results in grade drops.
The difficulty of the class again seems to play a role in motivation, and when and if it begins to decrease in Mrs. Frame’s class.
“Usually, the AP students are students who are more intrinsically motivated and plan to apply to more selective colleges, so senioritis usually sets in later in the year for them. As for my academic students, they aren’t planning to apply to schools that are quite as competitive, so although some are really self-motivated, for some that are less motivated, senioritis begins earlier. That is definitely just a tendency, not a rule of thumb,” said Frame
As of right now, the productivity of her classes vary. The majority of the AP Chemistry seniors have not yet to fall behind just yet.
“I have some students who work until past midnight every night, some students who are taking 4 AP classes. Some students have lots of support and time to work on schoolwork and some who have less support. I can’t say that everyone has perfect completion of all their work, but most of the seniors are doing good right now,” said Frame.
Whether it’s the college application time period, or the months after acceptance, the college process overall correlates closely with the term Senioritis.
Hi! My name is Maddy and I am a staff writer for the Mycenaean. I love to travel, watch sunsets, and listen to music.