It’s Senioritis Season

It’s that time of year again. Admissions letters (and e-mails) are out, previously unreachable college admissions officers are calling you off the hook, and suddenly high school feels oh-so-passé. The Intel-winning genius in your physics class? He’s on the field playing Ultimate instead of taking a practice AP. Missing valedictorian? Better hope he/she will be back for graduation. Whether you call it senior slump, senior slide, or senioritis, it is highly contagious and supremely difficult to eradicate.

Every high school senior interviewed said they’d seen the performance of their peers fall off. “Everybody in my high school has definitely decreased the amount of effort they put in since senior year started,” said Nikhil Mulani of Lake Forest, Il. “After winter break most people started slacking off…”

Paula Maouyo of Baltimore found the same situation in her school: “I definitely see a lot of my friends…slacking off a little bit.”

But, where generations of teachers have tried to prevent their students from catching senioritis, the hyper-competitive reality of college admissions may end up being the best cure—at least for some high school seniors.

Harvard announced it admitted only 6.9 percent of its applicants; Yale, 7.2 percent; Princeton, 8.2 percent.

More students than ever are being waitlisted at top universities and “the waitlist will keep senior slide a myth,” said Tim Lear, director of college counseling at The Pingry School in Martinsville, NJ.

While Harvard has not yet disclosed how many students have been waitlisted, Yale waitlisted 932 (taking only seven students off last year) and Princeton waitlisted 1,451.

“[At the beginning of the year] we talk to our seniors about how their grades matter,” said Rod Skinner, director of college counseling at Milton Academy in Milton, MA. “The anxiety, not only for kids on waitlists but all of the seniors, never really disappears because colleges can pull your ticket.”

And college counselors say many of the same students who are accepted into the Ivy League are the type of students who continue working through senior spring.

“I almost have this feeling that the acceptance will inspire me to work harder in some classes like math and physics so that I come to college with this momentum and absorb all I can,” said Daniel Cooney of Westchester, NY.

So for all of you admitted to Harvard, keep on enjoying your senior year of high school but keep this in mind. All of us here were guilty of senior slump, some more than others, but we all managed to get on stage to receive our high school diploma.

Photo courtesy of Ed Yourdon/Wikimedia Commons.