Brooke Lohle ‘23
Staff Writer

The second semester is in full swing and with it comes the beginning of the end for the Class of 2023. This is the last semester the seniors will ever have in high school and based on seniors’ responses to a poll sent out to them last month, they’re feeling the burden of senioritis more than ever.
Most seniors agree that senioritis and burnout are accurate labels for the end-of-year sluggishness that many of us feel. On a scale from one to ten, with one being not affected by senioritis at all and ten being completely affected, 75% of seniors polled ranked themselves at 8 or above, with a whopping 25% feeling completely affected by senioritis.
Many seniors feel that their final year in high school acts more as a restraint than a strong finale, forcing them to stay in school even though they don’t feel that they are growing anymore.
“I’m taking a lot of classes I don’t need to be taking just to fill the time,” said Nina Hemsey ‘23.
Students are highly encouraged to complete required classes like Civics or Personal Finance earlier in their high school experience so they don’t have to stress about it later on, but this seems to have the side effect of making senior year feel like filler, as many seniors only have one or two core courses they need in order to graduate.
The fact that college application deadlines close early in the second semester is also a factor.
“If our grades/achievements this year mattered more to college applications, I think that people would take school more seriously. I don’t think a change could be done on an individual school basis; it would need to accommodate our future schools as well,” said Samantha Schneider ‘23.
Senioritis is a popular topic on social media outside our community, which could imply the need for a more widespread change in how the senior year of high school serves students.
Despite the general trend towards the negative effects of senioritis, seniors’ feelings about graduation itself are much more mixed. Seniors were polled on how they felt about graduating on a scale of one to ten, with one being completely negative and ten being completely positive. The poll resulted in a median of seven and a mean of 6.8. Nobody described themselves as extremely negative (one or two).
It seems that, while seniors feel discontent with the way their senior year is handled, it’s not necessarily because they just want to get it over with altogether.
In just a few months, the current seniors will not have to worry about senioritis– but perhaps, knowing what past seniors have felt about their situation will give future seniors the chance to learn what they’ll need to prepare for to make the most of their last year in high school.