Students on guard against ‘senioritis’
By Kaitlyn Burkett Special to The Acorn

ALMOST THERE—Fourth-year students often succumb to the senior year ambivalence.

Winter break’s over. College apps are in. Three weeks until finals.

After completing three and a half years of the socalled “bestyearsofyourlife,” a highly contagious disease suddenly strikes you.

Beware, this disease is deadly. Symptoms include procrastination, increasing desire to sleep, sporadic school attendance and lack of hunger for knowledge. Doctors have yet to find a cure, but they have come up with a name for this common high school affliction: senioritis.

Whether you’re the valedictorian or the class clown, you’re bound to be affected. Cases vary with each individual. Some are only struck with the inability to complete a single homework assignment, whereas others go so far as to confuse Zuma Beach for Westlake High School.

“It’s inevitable. Every senior pretty much checks out after the first semester and is ready to leave for college,” says Jacqueline Gomelsky, a Westlake High student who graduated last spring.

So is it wrong that seniors want to “check out early”? After all, most students have put nothing less than 100 percent into their studies for the past three years. They deserve a break, right?

Maybe, but the repercussions can be serious.

While anxious upperclassmen are eager to summer vacation early, school authorities are coming up with ways to stop them. College admission officers pay close attention to the academic performance of seniors. Those who drop their extracurricular activities and let their grades slip during the final semester of high school are looked upon with suspicion.

Colleges understand the likelihood of senioritis occurring and tend to give those students who find ways to avoid it an edge over other applicants. If by chance a graduateto-be avoids coming down with senioritis, they earn the right to add another credit to their resume: “Cured a disease.”

Seniors are in for a rude awakening if they think that once they’re accepted into college it’s all downhill. Colleges reserve the right to deny a student admission should their senior grades slip too much.

“It is not at all rare for a college to withdraw an offer of admission when grades drop significantly over the course of the senior year,” said Mary Lee Hoganson, a college counselor.

Aside from mistaking the beach for school and jeopardizing your college acceptance, why should you be worried about senioritis?

After graduation, you’re on your own—no more Homecoming dances, no more “late homework credit,” no more seeing your bestfriends-since-birth everyday and no more homemade meals. Senior year is a final opportunity to strengthen your skills and broaden your experiences, in school and out, and to prepare for all the challenges that lie ahead.

A successful senior year can help launch you on the path to a successful future.

Instead of rushing high school’s end and getting a headstart on independence, enjoy the year while it lasts—because when it truly has reached its end, you’ll regret “checking out early.”

Yes, senioritis is highly contagious. Vaccinate yourself by taking the proper precautions and, remember, school’s not over till it’s over! Kaitlyn Burkett is a senior at Westlake High School who writes about campus life.