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Avoiding Senioritis
So, you know what senioritis is, and you know what it can do. Now you can learn how to avoid it. In order to fully understand the best ways to avoid senioritis, it’s important to look at the factors that lead many seniors to fall into it’s bad habits.
If you think about it, when you are accepted into a college, you still go to school, right? It’s not as if you could simply drop out of high school when you get into college, and there is a reason for that. Your college acceptance is always conditional, and is most importantly conditional on you obtaining your high school diploma. Both your high school and your new college will monitor your performance in your last semester of high school. To think that the rest of your senior year doesn’t matter is impractical. So when seniors slack off academically under the impression that their schoolwork really doesn’t matter any more, they are acting entirely under false impressions.
Secondly, it becomes a habit of many seniors to “party” more during their last semester of high school. This partying can often involve increased levels of substance abuse like marijuana, cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs. Well, substance abuse is an entirely different subject, and if you have a problem, is something you should be sure to get help for. However, whatever your level of substance abuse (legal and illegal) before your acceptance, what would prompt you do increase that abuse after your acceptance? There is nothing wrong with celebrating your acceptance into college. Letting it control your life, and change your lifestyle for the worse, is a very dangerous idea. Drugs have ruined many lives, and why would you let good news drive you into depression or an addiction? It’s simply counter-intuitive.
What about the laziness, and quitting sports and other extra-curricular activities?
Well, by quitting sports or extra curricular clubs, organizations, or activities you are simply sending the message to both your school and the college that you never really wanted to participate. You did anyway to ensure that you had a good transcript. Is that really the truth? In many cases no. Nevertheless, that is the message that comes across, and it can be very damaging to your credibility and respect. Knowing this, can you really feel good about dropping all these things?
Senioritis comes out of the idea to celebrate your acceptance into college by basically ensuring that you do the bare minimum required of you. Often you will do less, so that you can have as much free time as possible to sit around and do nothing for the last months of your high school career. It makes no sense, really, to celebrate by doing exactly the opposite of what got you your acceptance. It’s like scoring a goal in a soccer game, and then celebrating by walking off the field. How much sense does that make? Getting into college is a wonderful achievement, but only one goal along your path, and you can’t take it easy because you’ve only achieved one goal. Now you have to follow through. There are many more goals you will strive to achieve, but for now, why not focus on being fully prepared for college, and ultimately graduating. Never forget that a college acceptance is always conditional, but try to drive yourself by a greater force, self-respect. Show everyone just what you can do, because many will doubt what you can do, but no one will doubt what you can’t.
Being fully prepared for the college lifestyle
Once you learn how to avoid senioritis you have already done a great deal to begin preparing yourself for college. You can’t get away with slacking off in college, so why try to get away with it now? The best way to prepare for your new lifestyle is to start to live it even before you get to college.
One of the most important parts of your new lifestyle at college is the intensity of the academics. This is the easiest, and in some respects, the most important factor with which to be fully prepared. So how can you do this? Well, challenging yourself with your courses during your senior year is a great idea. Not only will this be very impressive to your new college, and allow for a little more leniency with regards to poor grades, but it will mentally prepare you for the level of the courses offered in college. An added bonus here is the AP system. Many AP courses in high school have the possibility of earning you college credit. Depending on the course, a 4 or 5 on the AP exam will often give credit for one full course in college. This can be very helpful once you start at your new college, and depending on your needs, you can take one less course to make your course load easier to manage. It can also allow you to take other interesting classes that you might not have had the opportunity to take. Along with challenging yourself within your high school, challenging yourself outside the classroom is a wonderful idea. Take some time to do some independent reading or take a look at some college textbooks.
Outside of the classroom, there are also a number of ways to help you prepare for college. The best guide is to simply live your life as you always have. Don’t do less, do more. There’s no reason you should be dropping any activities or sports, but there could be a case for doing more. Keeping busy, however you chose to do it, is very important, especially in the summer before college. If you don’t, you brain and body can fall into a pattern that will be very difficult to turn around in September. Finish out high school as you started it, and when the summer comes along, do something interesting. There’s no better time to prepare for college than the summer right before college. Get an interesting job, or internship. Volunteer somewhere, or even take some classes at your local community college to earn extra credit. Now it is true that this is your last summer before college, so hanging out with your friends will be very important, but make sure you use that time to your advantage.
Besides all of these options, it is important to simply use your newfound awareness and knowledge to your advantage. For example, while you may not physically be able to experience what it’s like to have a roommate or live in a dorm, try asking people who would know. An older brother, a cousin, a friend, or even your parents! For those experiences you don’t think you can really prepare yourself for, talking to people and doing research on your own can help you out more than you think.
Being ready for college is not a chore, and all it really involves is staying active and finishing strong. It doesn’t mean you have to overwork yourself, or do more than you can handle. Just as staying active and busy is very important, make sure you set aside time to celebrate and relax, just make sure that leisure time isn’t all of the time. Take some time with your parents as well, to get some things you might need such as a TV for instance, or a computer. Getting ready for college can be hard, if you let it, but it can also be fun. Once you can do all these things, there’s almost nothing you won’t be ready for! Remember that college is supposed to be fun too, and if you’re ready for it, it will be!
Top 4 stores to get what you need for college
- Target
- K-Mart
- Wal-mart
- Best Buy
Other great stores:
- IKEA
- Crate & Barrel
- Bed, Bath & Beyond
- Linens & Things
- Pier One
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