As fall transitions into winter, the stress of applying to college reaches its peak as deadlines creep in. For Tommy Daudlin ’20, finishing the process does not relieve him of the pressure of school work. While his ‘senioritis’ may begin to kick in, Daudlin knows that his work ethic must continue to thrive, but acknowledges that this may not be the case for his peers.
Daudlin said that while they are not included on their original transcript to apply, some colleges may request to see students’ first semester grades for senior year, so students should stay motivated.
“I think (applying) definitely relieves a lot of stress because now that everything is done there’s a lot of weight off your shoulders,” Daudlin said. “Hopefully it won’t change my work ethic too much because I still have to do well. Otherwise, schools will see that and maybe back out.”
According to Bridget Keane ’20, finishing the application process should encourage students to stay productive so they can end highschool in a strong spot.
“Finishing applications won’t change (my work ethic) in my opinion because you never know if your top school is going to ask for your first semester grades,” Keane ’20 said. “So you need to keep working hard.”

According to Counselor Eric Burson, he believes that, for the most part, students at South do a good job of maintaining good grades even after the application process.

“(The assumption that seniors slack off after applying to college is) for the most part not true,” Burson said. “I mean, most of our students who are seniors who get accepted continue to do a really good job and work really hard.”

For Emmie Rieth ’20, however, finishing the application process will definitely stir up some lazy behavior because the process itself was very intricate and tiring.

“I think the hardest part was going into application process not knowing what to do because I emailed my counselor twenty times a day with questions not knowing what to do or if I was doing it right,” Rieth said. “But now I’ve already gotten into two schools and since I know I have somewhere I can go to I have definitely lost motivation.”
Burson reports that it is not in the students best interest to stop caring about school once they have applied to universities because their grades still matter.

“Some they get a different mindset and they’ll say well I’m done, I’m finished, I’ve met my goal,” Burson said. The problem with that is in your acceptance letter or email it states very clearly that you’re accepted but we need to see the rest of your grades throughout the school year and if they don’t measure up we reserve the right to, conceptually, unaccept you.”

Rieth said that another factor in the surge of laziness many receive their senior year, also called “Senioritis”, is the overall excitement for students to able to be away from their parents and starting their adult lives.
“Moving out of the house and being able to meet a bunch of new people and being independent is probably what i’m looking forward to the most,” Rieth said. “I think a lot of seniors feel the same way and are just eager to start this next stage in their lives.”