By Timothy Giang ’26
Senioritis, not something substantially researched yet a commonplace term at Bellarmine, has long been a phenomenon in schooling. It is simply a decline in motivation and performance one goes through in their last year of high school. This reflects on a senior’s grades sometimes tanking and a characteristically less motivated attitude. Grades are notably jeopardized by senioritis, especially in the second semester, as seniors have less incentive for school after college application season.
To understand senioritis, one has to consider the odyssey that is American education. For most seniors, their life has been spent in the classroom for upwards of 14 years–in other words, a large majority of their lives–and naturally, at the end of their high school career and before entering adulthood, seniors will have a tendency to gravitate towards everything but the classroom. Senioritis kicks in for seniors at different times, but after college applications have been sent and especially in the second semester when a senior has committed to a college, there is a natural urge for a student to disengage from high school learning.
More than an immediate sense of completion in senior year, senioritis gives seniors a time and space to reflect on themselves and truly live their youths before college. By prioritizing school and studies less, seniors can live out other facets of their lives like hobbies, clubs, or doing other activities that are more fulfilling to them. Ferris Bueller in his senior year famously took a day off from school in 1986 to sleep in, hang out with friends, and drive around town.
Many teachers and parents will advise however that seniors try to control senioritis. The argument against senioritis is that by caring less about school, that will coincide with a decline in performance, which can affect a senior’s chances with college.
College counselors see this downtick often in their seniors. Yet even they understand the phenomenon. College counselor Mr. McGee understands that students naturally gravitate less to school after accomplishing everything they wanted to accomplish.
However, Mr. McGee, alongside other college counselors, emphasize two ways that senioritis can hurt a student. One strong case against it is that having an academic decline in your senior year, even after applications, can affect a student’s admission and impact a committed student’s conditional admission. In order words, colleges want to make sure that the student they are accepting mean what they say in their apps, and if that means maintaining a healthy GPA, that has to remain true for a student to see their campus in the Fall.
Mr. McGee additionally emphasizes how senioritis can impact a student’s personal learning capacity. Mr. McGee relates it to going the gym: if you take a few breaks from working out, you’ll probably be weaker and become disinterested in a healthy life. For these reasons, the highly allured senioritis is counteracted by a sobering reminder that education isn’t done with you yet.
As much as senior year is a time for students to reflect on their youth and enjoy it, reality forces students to remain students. College counselors have a student’s back if grades are a risk of a student’s future and advise that students go to ARC, talk to teachers, or get counseling if a decline in academics occurs. An incentive for seniors to work hard their last years is to be recognized with awards at graduation. However, as the old saying goes, “school is what you make of it” and no one knows a student’s motivations better than the student. If that means cramming every bit of all-nighters or study sessions until May 23rd, or if that means driving to the beach as soon as the last bell rings on a Friday, it’s all in your hands