“Senioritis”  Outbreak at WESS!

 “I definitely felt it, where I'm like, "Why am I doing this dumb assignment?" It feels like the unnecessary stuff is the hardest to do.” Says senior Simon Sposito. It used to be that the class of ‘26 was an avid participant in the WESS community. Now, many of them have come down with a case of “senioritis”. At WESS, this familiar end-of-year slump has begun to take second-semester seniors by storm. Known familiarly as “senioritis”, this prognosis means a decline in motivation to complete assignments, be on time to school and classes, or even show up at all. Is this pandemic-related behavior harmless, normal for seniors, or seriously harming the school culture?

Senioritis is a result of many factors. Primarily, the fact that most students, by the spring semester, have gotten into all of their colleges, and by May 1st, most of them have committed. Senior Leanna Abrahamson says that this is the main contributing factor to this shift in attitude, “I believe that once people are committed to college, it’s a huge rush of relief and causes us to lack motivation and see schoolwork as kind of pointless. I’ve definitely seen this in my own life and school experiences, as well as my friends.” Another factor is that WESS is uniquely a 6th-12th-grade school, and for many students, it becomes hard to stay excited to learn when the routine is so familiar, especially with the excitement of college coming up. Senior Celeste Flynn says, “I think a lot of seniors, having been here for so long, are really ready to take the next step in their lives, and it gets pretty exhausting having to have the same routine that we’ve had for years.”

Educators around the nation claim that the effects of senioritis can have real academic consequences if left unchecked. Some colleges threaten to rescind students' acceptances if they cannot maintain certain standards in the second semester, though this varies by college. Some teachers even accommodate for this annual shift in attendance and focus by lessening the workload, although this doesn’t seem to be the case for seniors at WESS. Being an “AP for All” school, most seniors are taking 4-5 AP classes this year, most of which they are encouraged to take the exams for, not until early-mid May. Simon mentions these important tests: “I think it's (senioritis) pretty normal, but important for teachers to know that it's going to happen and plan around it, while still preparing us, especially since we still have AP tests.” Hopefully, for WESS seniors, the workload will be good in preparing them for their upcoming AP exams, and then after that, it may lessen, as it seems to do every year. 

Students say that the loss of motivation isn’t laziness but the result of years of pressure catching up with them, especially after the college application process, when maintaining a good GPA, club leadership, supplemental essays, and SAT/ACT testing were all anyone could think about. Leanna says, “I think a lot of students lost momentum after deciding and really want to get through the year, having extra work adds to the stress.” As graduation can’t come soon enough for seniors, each and every one has to decide whether to treat the symptoms of their “senioritis” or just accept the prognosis.