With the end of the 2023-2024 school year, the class of ‘24 seniors are ready to graduate and move onto college. However, they face an issue known as senioritis.
Senioritis is a term that’s used when students are developing less interest in school because they are close to graduating. This has been a rising issue at John Champe. As the year progresses, students have begun to miss classes often. It also shows up as lower grades, missing classes, and not caring enough about schoolwork. According to expert studies, senioritis occurs because students are tired from almost four years of rigorous courses, schoolwork, and homework. As a student’s senior year comes to an end, they feel like their remaining days aren’t important along with burnout. As graduation for Champe students is almost here, it’s hard for many seniors to stay focused and keep up their good habits.
“To me, school feels just like a hobby,” senior Caden Bak said. “I definitely feel like senioritis has taken an effect on me because I just feel drained. I don’t feel like doing work anymore.”
A senior has a bad grade in a class. They have been missing assignments and tests which led to bad grades.
Attendance is also another major issue when it comes to senioritis. After seniors have committed to their colleges, there has been a major decline in attendance of seniors at John Champe High School. As the college decision letters have been released throughout March-May, this is when seniors make their final decision on what college they want to go to. Once seniors have their decisions made, they feel like they don’t have a reason to be showing up to school since they’ve already accomplished their main goal: college. Due to this reason, students have started to miss school more often which has a negative impact on their disciplinary attendance along with their grades.
“As the days pass by in senior year, the more absences pile up,” senior Raihana Mohammadi said. “After I received my acceptance letter for college, my motivation for school work began to decrease as the only thing that I looked forward to was graduation.”
Ms. Lenon is working hard to organize all of the unexcused absences from the seniors. She has worked on absences like this since the fourth quarter.
Senioritis often sets in once high school seniors receive their college letters. At this point, many students begin to relax as they feel that their time of hard work is finally over and they can enjoy the rest of their highschool years. A major issue with this is the decline in academic performance since seniors begin to skip assignments, neglect classes, and show minimal effort. However, this is a major issue as drops in semester grades can cause issues with colleges. Some colleges have been known to take back college acceptance letters because of the heavy decline in grades. This can also affect seniors who got scholarships to certain colleges. If colleges revoke a student’s scholarship due to their senioritis, it will be harder on the student to pay for college financially. Many seniors at Champe have begun to see their grades drop as their senioritis takes a big effect on them and their academic performance.
“I can definitely tell that senioritis has affected a few of my seniors this year,” physics teacher Leigh Muto said. “There were assignments being turned in late year-round and it definitely affected my students.”
A senior is stressed about finishing a late assignment. They have been missing this assignment for a while.
Overall, the toll that senioritis has on seniors at John Champe became a more rising problem and has a lot of negative effects. It causes burnouts, missing classes, and a drop in grades. While Champe students are getting ready to graduate, paying attention to the last few months can play a major role. As class of ‘24 is coming to an end, seniors have to persevere through since they are extremely close to the finish line.
“I am extremely excited for graduation. If I am able to finish high school strong,” Mohammadi said. “I will be able to build off to a better and successful future where I am able to live my dreams and pass my goals.”
