Common student opinion is that senioritis is a cramming “disease,” causing procrastination and a loss of motivation on university campuses toward the end of the academic semester. Summer fever gets higher and higher as the final weeks speed by.
Symptoms typically last a few weeks, and treatment includes walking across a stage and receiving a high school or college diploma.
However, some seniors said senioritis feels different in college compared to how it felt in high school.
“When I was done with high school, I knew I would have a fun summer then go to Kansas State,” Zach Lowry, senior in political science, said. “Now most seniors are worried about finding jobs or post-grad studies. The ‘senioritis’ is still there however; the closer we get to graduation the less work I want to do.”
In high school, students afflicted with senioritis know they are heading toward more schooling, but college students with senioritis face the unknown.
“I think that in high school you get senioritis because you are over high school and want to move on to your next thing,” Madeline Frankel, senior in communication studies, said. “When you’re in college you get senioritis because you don’t want college to be over.”
Kara Dold, senior in hospitality management, said high school students are ready to move on to the freedom of college, but in college, that feeling is different.
“In high school, senioritis was the feeling you got when you knew college was just around the corner,” Dold said. “You were growing up, and you had so much to look forward to. Four years of new friends, a flexible schedule and no supervision, and that’s why it was so hard to think about high school anymore.”
For many college seniors, senioritis is the beginning of the end, but also the start of a new chapter in life.
“College senioritis is when you realize it’s the last time you will be in school and the last time you do what you’ve been doing the last 20-some years of your life,” Dold said. “College senioritis is the best and worst feeling all wrapped into one. You know the moment you walk across the stage on graduation, school is something you only used to do.”
