Avoiding Senioritis: 5 Ways to Stay Accepted
So you’ve been accepted to a university. It’s smooth sailing from here on out, right? You’re going to breeze through your senior year, live it up during your last summer at home, and move off to your college town. It’s a good plan, but if you actually want it to work, you’re going to have to dodge the senioritis storm.
Though it’s not an actual clinical disease (as the name suggests), senioritis is real. Perhaps it’s caused by the boost of confidence you get when you receive that college acceptance letter or maybe it’s that there are so many distractions during your senior year…you know, with prom, graduation, and, of course, the parties. And you should be confident and proud and you should enjoy the festivities that go along with senior year, but it’s important to stay focused on your academic and professional ambitions as well.
Eduify has prepared the following list of things you can do to avoid senioritis and to make the transition into college smooth and seamless.
Balance Your Time
All of the other items on this list are predicated on your having a balanced and well-managed schedule. Aside from helping you organize your social life, a good day planner will help you stay on track during your busy and often-hectic senior year. Use a computer program such as Microsoft Outlook to help you manage your time and stay in touch.
Challenge Yourself Academically
You’ve been grinding it out for the last three years so you would be able to take it easy during your senior year. But, really, what’s another year? You are, after all, going to college where the standards are higher and the classes are more difficult, so why not challenge yourself with a couple of classes that will help you prepare your brain for college? If you take a year off (mentally) from school–which is often a symptom of senioritis–you’re going to have a more difficult time making the transition to college.
Speaking of transitioning to college, why not get a head start by taking some college courses at the local community college? This is a great way to get some college credit while you’re still in high school. And you thought you had an open campus when they allowed you to go to McDonald’s for lunch.
Befriend Your Counselor
A big part of your school counselor’s job is to answer your questions about college. They can be an invaluable resource for you when you’re planning your senior year and post-graduate options. Among other things, your school counselors can help you figure out your course of study for college; give you information about college classes that are available to high school students (above); help you find scholarships, financial aid, and student loans; help you fill out college applications; and, perhaps most importantly, they can help you stay on track during your senior year. As a policy, their doors are always open, so stop in and introduce yourself–you won’t regret it.
Get Some Experience/Volunteer
Though you may not be sure what you want to do as a career or even what your major will be in college, it’s a good idea to get some real-life experience under your belt before you make any long-term commitments. Like animals? Spend some time volunteering at an animal shelter or by answering phones at a veterinary clinic. Such experiences will help you decide if you want to make a career out of helping animals. This, of course, is only one example, but you get the idea. Your school counselor might be able to help you find an internship at a local company or organization that fits your interests. Senior year is a great time to explore and discover the options that you are going to have after graduating from college. Another benefit of work and volunteer experience is that it looks great on a resume.
Extracurricular Activities
Joining student clubs and groups, running for student office, and playing sports are all great ways to stay focused during your senior year, and each, in its own way, will help you develop important skills that will not only help you in college but also in your life after college. As an added bonus, these activities are great ways to meet new people and make the most of your time in high school.
Here’s a tip: start an online group for your classmates who are planning to go to the same college as you. This is a great way to meet people who are going to be around you for the next four years, and it never hurts to have a friend in a strange place. Spread the word in your school’s newspaper and on bulletin boards.
