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When I first started my senior year, I was told that it would be my easiest year. I would leave school early, the workload would be light since it’s my last year of high school etc, etc, etc.  What people neglected to tell me, however (for reasons that are still unbeknownst to me),  was the stress and workload that came with college applications. There were deadlines, different terms to research and make decisions on, campuses to visit, a CommonApp to complete, and essays and supplements to write. This was all on top of my AP classes, other school work, and extracurricular activities (I have cried more this year than probably my entire life). 

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Last year, there was a course for juniors to take called seminar. Seminar was taught by guidance counselors and was intended to start you off early in the college process. The issue, however, is that the class basically (for me at least) showed me how to create a profile on Naviance… and that was it.  I understand that the class didn’t last that long, but I feel that there were more important things we could have touched base on. Not only that, but I think that it should be a class of its own for at least half a semester. We could start on Naviance, then move on to the CommonApp, writing essays, and even the FAFSA, which would have been a good thing to learn about earlier on. That would have alleviated so much stress coming into senior year. 

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When it came to coursework and it being easier, yeah, that was also not very true. I am still in AP classes, and the coursework for that is never really less, which I understand. However, colleges are still looking at your grades as you go about school. Your guidance counselors are required to send them your grades at the end of the term, so your grades still matter because if you aren’t keeping up, colleges can choose to veto acceptances, so at the end of the day, your grades matter as much as any other year whether you already got into college or not. 

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The senior privileges that are being offered are genuinely a joke. Imagine being one of the students with probably the most to do and you get to have a free period. You get to come in late when you have it in the morning, leave early when you have it at the end of the day, and study wherever you want (within reason). Great, right? Yes, great except for the fact that that’s it. Literally nothing else. If I could have had a full year with a free period, then this would be a different conversation. Not only are the privileges lackluster, but they only last two terms?  At my old school (and many others), seniors (and juniors, mind you) were allowed to leave the building during their free periods. Most didn’t,  however when it came to lunch blocks that’s when most would leave. There were rules in place, of course, if you were coming in late for your next class more than three times then privileges would be taken away. Simple, isn’t it? It was very effective and lasted the whole year but alas, here we are with probably the least senior privileges than any other high school. 

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I am new here. I moved to Canton last year from an entirely different school system, and in that process, I had to learn many different things about the school, and doing it the year right before I graduated was tough. So perhaps these struggles don’t apply to most of you, perhaps you all knew about this and I’m just very behind. However, that also means that other transfer students (or maybe even all seniors in general) are going through the same thing, so to you guys, I say, “I feel you” and it’s too late for us, but hopefully, there is a fight to change certain aspects of the system. One must remember though that being a senior isn’t all bad, and there are still many things in place to make sure that you have a great last year of high school, and they are very enjoyable. Once you figure yourself out and find ways to alleviate the stress, being a senior is amazing. That being said, to the future seniors I say, “Start everything early!”  If you want that dream senior year, then struggle junior year.