Photo: elev8.com

Beginning your senior year of high school is a whirlwind of emotions–excitement, fear, exhilaration, happiness, and maybe even a little sadness. It’s a very bittersweet time, and that makes focusing on schoolwork more of a chore than a thrill. Senioritis grips even the most diligent of students. Here are five ways you can avoid this dreaded “illness” and make your senior year count.

1. Know your enemy. Senioritis is a dramatically decreased sense of motivation towards homework, classes, and school in general. It makes sense, considering the number of years you’ve been in school and the amount of busy work you’ve completed. You’re over the mundane high school classroom scene. You’re ready for real life! You’re ready for fun. Essentially, your enemy is your impending acceptance to a more interesting establishment (college). You’re bored.

2. Find your enemy’s weakness. Senioritis cannot survive when you become more powerful than it is. Your creativity and imagination have the ability to conquer the hallways of boredom that are destroying your motivation. Get innovative. Gather study groups on a friend’s porch instead of preparing for the SAT alone. If you always take the essay route, choose the video production option for a final group project.

3. Make a plan of attack. Senioritis is sneaky and creeps up on you slowly. Fight back! Try the tips featured in Beat Senioritis! Beat Senioritis! Among other proactive things you can do, there is a bucket list option. How can anyone be bored and unmotivated when there’s a bucket list to be completed?! Making these sorts of plans will motivate you in other ways, too.

4. Get REAL. Nothing wakes you up in the morning like a cold shower. Nothing breaks your bout of Senioritis like a reality check. Take a look at tuition costs at your college and find a fun scholarship application to complete. Knowing you’ve got a more exciting and fulfilling future awaiting you at school will spark a fire under you to get moving! Don’t let these tuition reminders get you down. Yes, college is expensive, but there are tools to help you achieve your goals.

5. Make a peace offering to your enemy. Senioritis probably will not disappear completely. It is hard to stay focused when there are fun senior events and everyone seems to be finding a way to make this final year of high school memorable. Give in to that sentimentality – you’re only a senior once. Make time for the fun, relax after your final applications are sent, and embrace your stage in life. Then perk up! Because college is right around the corner, and pretty soon you’ll be a freshman again!

Photo: jmu.edu

Being a senior is a pretty big deal. You’re the oldest, the smartest, and before you know it, you’ll be emptying your locker and kissing the school buses and bells goodbye forever! Sure, you could sleep through your classes and skip days. You could take that early dismissal every chance you get. You could blow off your assignments and call it “senior-itis.” But is that really how you want to spend your last year?

This is your last chance to score the lead in the musicals, to make captain of your swim team, and to break personal records. This is your last opportunity to get to know your classmates before you all part ways and only see one another through the lens of a Facebook page. The time to make a difference is now. Here’s how you can hit the ground running this fall!

“It Ain’t Over till the Fat Lady Sings.”

It’s hard to care about high school academics when you’re so close to the end. It gets even harder when you have an acceptance letter in your hand, and your exciting future is quickly beginning to sketch itself right before your eyes! Hard as it may be, it’s crucial that you maintain your motivation and continue to work hard! The truth is, until you have that diploma in your hand, it isn’t over. There will be plenty of time to celebrate (like all summer) when you really have finished your journey! Don’t start the party too soon, as there can still be consequences.

Seize the Year

Since you’re here another year, you may as well make the very most of it. Even if you’re dying to get out, and you think you will never want to see these people or go through this experience again, there will be times you look back on it fondly. Don’t give yourself the chance to wonder if you missed out on an opportunity. Try out for cheerleading if you always wanted to. Go to homecoming, whether you have a date or not. Take an art class, just for the heck of it! Ask that guy or girl out! What do you really have to lose at this point?

Don’t Take Your Reputation Too Seriously

A year from now, you will be somewhere new, with a different life, and new friends to add to your old ones. Most of the people you see on a daily basis, you probably won’t see much, or ever again for that matter. Don’t waste your energy trying to impress the girls in the front row who made it clear back in elementary school that they don’t want to be your friend. Don’t spend the year trying to correct a rumor you once heard about yourself. You’ve got one year left, and it’s not worth it! Focus your energy on what you are going to do, and what you’re going to become! It’s your future that matters now.

Today’s question comes from the National Association of Colleges Admissions Counseling:

During the Fall 2008 admission cycle, the average number of college admission offers revoked by colleges was 10. The most common reason that colleges rescinded admission offers was final grades.

While “Senioritis” is often thought of a common and even humorous condition, do these numbers change your opinion on that matte? What do high school seniors need to realize about their second semester?

Have a thought or an answer? Leave a reply below.

We’ve also asked our @Cappex Twitter followers to chime in! Here’s what people are saying on Twitter:

Senioritis symptoms include a lazy approach to homework, blatant ignorance towards the future and refusal to do anything other than celebrate then end of  high school or college. The problem is, you’re not done yet. You still have to graduate and, like it or not, those grades still matter. So, how can you combat the desire to sit with the TV instead of doing homework?  Here are 6 ways to avoid classic Senioritis symptoms:

Be active! Don’t be a lazy bum – getting physical exercise will help keep your mind sharp and give you more natural energy to tackle finals (that you still have to take) and big projects (that you still have to do) so you can still graduate.

Create a bucket list! Are there things you’ve never done in your home town or  college’s town? Do them. Your final year as a  college student means you still have a sweet student discount on shows and exhibits. Take advantage of these. Go to a restaurant or event that you always said you’d try but never have. Now is your chance!

Take a fun class!  For college seniors who need an extra couple of credits, taking a fun class like Acting 101 or Drawing as a fun alternative to a class that requires a paper or one giant exam. Even if you don’t need the credits, taking a class outside your major will be refreshing. Pick something that genuinely interests you and do it with some friends. Make it all fun and no fuss. For high school seniors who are bored silly, take an art class at the local park district!

Try an internship or job! It may sound daunting, but if you are sick of schoolwork, actual work will flex different brain muscles and help prepare you for post-graduate studies and interviews. It will give you a sense of purpose and a place to be. If your Senioritis is so serious that on more than one occasion you’ve watched a “Real World” marathon instead of completing a necessary paper, an internship might be just the thing for you. Internships aren’t just for the summer, either. Many companies still need extra work done during the fall and winter.

Visit the Career Center. Sometimes Senioritis stems from a place of denial (I’m not graduating!) or fear (What can I possibly do once I graduate?). Visiting your counselor or Career Center will give you insight on what you might want to study in college, or for college seniors, finding a job post-graduation. This may ease any apprehension you have about the future. You also might realize that those final projects do matter if you have a career goal in mind.

Make time for both fun and school! Senioritis happens for a reason – everyone wants to have fun and celebrate the end of high school or college. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that! You need to make time to congratulate yourself for a job well done. Allow for celebration, just make sure you’ve got all your ducks in a row for graduation.

Need more tips on avoiding Senioritis? Check out this!

But students shouldn’t get too comfortable. In fact, here are three big things that students who’ve applied to college need to keep in mind for the rest of the school year.

1. Grades

Believe it or not, just because a school accepts you, doesn’t mean they can’t take their acceptance letter right back if you’re grades go down significantly. Colleges, especially when offering scholarships, can request updated transcripts whenever they feel like it. Your acceptance can be contingent on you maintaining a certain GPA. So keep up the good work. Don’t give up on school because you’ve been accepted to a college already. It can easily be taken away.

2.  Financial Aid & Scholarships

You need to be as assertive and smart about tracking down the necessary financial aid and scholarships to pay for college as you were while you were applying to colleges. The organization, research, and writing skills you used to apply to college are the same ones you’ll need to continue going back to when it comes to planning out how you will pay for your college education. If you get lackadaisical about this process, you might find yourself in a tight bind.

3. AP Exams

For those of you in AP classes, take the AP exams seriously. Even if you’ve gotten into your #1 choice and you have a serious case of senioritis, taking your AP exams seriously is the best way to go. By scoring between 3 and 5, you can save yourself a lot of money and time in college. For instance, if you were to score well on your AP Calc exam, you may pass out of a prerequisite that you would have had take otherwise to complete your major. Now you can get ahead instead of repeating a class you already took in high school.

Can you think of something else to add to the list? Leave a comment below!

You may have already fallen ill with senioritis, but paying for your college education is not an option, and here are 7 easy scholarships to help you start chipping away at that big tuition number.

1. Ayn Rand “Atlas Shrugged” Scholarships
84 scholarships between $50-$10,000 will be awarded to applicants who submit an essay on the book Atlas Shrugged.  That much money is definitely worth a book report. 

2. Directron.com College Scholarship
If you’re a tech geek, this scholarship should be easy as pie for you. 6 scholarships between $300-$1,000 will be awarded.   Deadline’s approaching, so start this one ASAP.

3. The Big Dig Scholarship
Can you think of one item sold in stores today that will be immensely valuable in 200 years? We have a feeling you’ll be able to think of something for a $3,000 scholarship…

4. Share Your Story Scholarship
Got a story to tell? This program is giving away $1,000-$9,000 to 6 applicants.

5. Cardonors.com Scholarship
Looking for an easy, no-stress scholarship to apply to? This $500 scholarship has a super easy application you could complete by the time you finish reading this description!

6. Healthy Lifestyle Scholarship
This $5,000 scholarship is designed to award students who embrace healthy lifestyles.  So put down the Funyons for this scholarship.

7. C.I.P. Scholarship
The College is Power scholarship is here to help students pay for tuition, books, room and board, computers or anything else related to your education! With a straightforward application and a deadline approaching, you should apply today!

And juniors! Don’t worry, here are some scholarships that could work for you!