Most seniors think that their final year will be quite easy, being a time where they can coast their way to the finish line. However, that could not be further from the truth. In fact, senior year is the most difficult academic year.
This final term is not only important for students’ futures, but it is also their chance to leave an impact on the school. With this in mind, senior year has the hardest classes available, provides students with a far busier schedule than normal, and forces them to focus on their future with an extensive college or career application process.
The most obvious reason for this term’s rigor is the class difficulty. Senior year is when students will be able to take the most AP level classes.
“I think I’m in six AP classes,” senior Blane Bertalmio said. “It can be hard just to focus on everything and get all my homework turned in.”
The AP-level STEM courses at school seem to be the biggest change for senior students.
“My math class is calculus, and it’s different from any other math class I’ve taken before,” Bertalmio said. “Mechanics with Mr. Collier is also hard, even though he’s a great teacher. It’s a bunch of new concepts that you have to stay on top of.”
This is a common trend for many senior students in AP courses.
“There are a lot of deadlines,” senior Dale Twine said. “[Oftentimes] multiple tests will be on the same day for some of my hardest classes.”
Twine is still adjusting to the challenging courses in his schedule after previously taking mixed-level courses.
“Now, I started my senior year with all honors classes,” he said. “With AP English 4, I find it to be much harder than AP English 3. It shouldn’t seem that different, but it is.”
Many of these classes introduce completely new content and skills to students.
“You have to learn not just how to learn the material, but you also have to learn how to think yourself through the material,” senior Marty Wilmes said. “When you can apply yourself and apply it to real situations, it’s much more exciting.”
In combination with harder classes comes busier schedules overall. If there was ever a time in high school when time management should be utilized effectively, it would be senior year.
“I knew it was going to be pretty tough, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage balancing [everything],” Twine said. “So, that’s added a new layer of difficulty in really working on my time management and killing my procrastination habit. Freshman year, that wasn’t a concern at all.”
Twine has added more to his plate this year in and out of school.
“Freshman year, I was a very consistent 2:40 kid,” he said. “I have a lot of stuff going on [now], even if it’s not directly after school, like club tennis practice, and then I have had work study. I wasn’t doing any kind of work study in freshman year.”
On top of difficult courses and busy schedules, athletes’ final high school seasons bring them larger roles for their team.
“For most teams, you might have to step up and play a role as a leader or captain to the underclassmen,” Bertalmio said. “I’m an assistant captain for the hockey team, and it’s kind of new to me. I’ve never really done that to that level, so it’s kind of cool to learn and also have a bigger role in helping my team grow.”
To go even a step further, many guys take on a job at the end of high school to eventually help pay for college and living independently.
“This year was my best year caddying,” Wilmes said. “Before, I would get 40 loops a year, but this year I did 105 and was the number one caddy [at Beverly Country Club]. I just kind of stepped it up, just trying to save for my future whenever I may need it.”
While most guys get regular jobs, some take this final year to look into their future.
“I had an internship with Paschen Concrete,” Twine said. “I was doing some document management on Microsoft Excel, saving things to the record, and also taking some pictures to track progress.”
This internship opened up a new avenue for him.
“That was a great experience,” he said. “It was actually right up the street at the Obama Presidential Center construction site. I also got paid, so it was great.”
The maturity that comes with being a senior means taking up a heavier workload is nothing out of the ordinary.
Finally, one cannot forget the stressful college application process that is thrown on seniors.
“It’s been like the number one concern for me,” Twine said. “I have had to dedicate certain times to just sit down and work on essays, or [the] activity section. [Looking back] on freshman year, I had very vague ideas of where I wanted to go to school, and what I wanted to be, so it wasn’t stressful at all [then].”
The applications can be very overwhelming for seniors.
“It was just very long, because there’s all these different colleges and you have to fill out the Common Application,” Wilmes said. “Then, each college has their own questions to ask, and the deadline comes at you quick.”
In this short time-frame, filling out the applications may not even be the hardest part.
“The hardest part for me was just trying to figure out what schools I wanted to go to,” Bertalmio said. “There’s a lot of things that you have to look at. Things like what your grades are, where you want to live, what you see yourself doing. Money can also play a large factor. You just have to sit down for a while, take a mental note of that, and then look into [colleges] when you get home.”
Whether seniors are already busy or not, the demanding college process is a guarantee for all students looking to further their education.
Now, while senior year will be challenging, the most important thing is to not stress over completing all this work and preparation. Instead, it is taking a step back and letting the last year as a kid sink in.
“Just have fun with it,” Wilmes said. “It’s your last year in high school, and there’s a lot of things that you can do to take advantage of all the opportunities you have.”
