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Saskia Hennecke

Senior year is the most anticipated year for every high school student.  Senior year features special privileges, college acceptance letters and fun classes. But what is it really like?  The only way to find that out is to ask the seniors themselves about the year and what makes it different for them.

Many seniors were not sure what the changes would be like.  In fact, senior Rachel Weinbren “didn’t really have expectations.”  She thought it would be just like any another year in school.  However, there are several changes that students experience senior year.  One of the biggest differences between senior year and the previous years is the classes.  According to senior Nate Watson, he found that fortunately most of his classes required less studying than the previous years.  Teachers start giving seniors more intellectual or thinking work rather than busywork such as constant homework assignments. Senior Luke Collins accredits this new type of homework to the teachers being more understanding of the other work the seniors have. And what is this other work the seniors have?  Well, for the first semester at least, their college applications.  According to Collins, these applications differ in their difficulty and length depending on the school they are for, and they usually add up to the amount of work of one or more classes.  Watson said that the work load was “a little bit more than I expected because the applications take a long time.” Weinbren has found that the most efficient way to finish all her college applications is to finish homework during the week so that the weekends can be used to work on the college applications.

However, senior year is not just about college applications. Seniors are awarded several privileges such as being the first ones to leave convo and having the senior mall, a place where they can hang out and socialize, all to themselves.  Collins and Watson shared the off-campus lunch and milkshakes as personal favorites while Weinbren especially loved senior parking.  Plus, once they get accepted into colleges, the seniors start to get their trademark “senioritis. “ None of these three could deny that the inevitable would come.  Students that come down with senioritis, that is, typically all of the seniors, start to relax and enjoy everything that the school offers them.  Senior year is the time when the students can finally see their hard work pay off with rewards and it is also a nice period of relaxation before the next step in their lives—college.