Senior year is supposed to be one the best times of a student’s life. The future is just starting to become visible over the horizon, and students get caught up in looking for a job, ordering graduation gowns and stepping out into a new life.
However, in the midst of all this excitement, many seniors find themselves plagued with a condition colloquially known among students as senioritis. It paralyzes them, inhibiting their ability to fully function as a student and preventing them from studying, getting out of bed and doing anything else that needs to be done to get to the end of the year and graduate.
But because it’s not a medical condition, a clear definition is hard to pin down. What is senioritis exactly?
While Center for Psychological Studies Associate Professor Barry Nierenberg believes students are the experts on what senioritis feels like, he describes the main symptom as “not giving your academic career the effort that you once did.”
People get stomach aches for several reasons, but the symptom is always the same. The same goes for senioritis; there can be many reasons for the symptoms. One simple reason is exhaustion.
“One way to understand it is that you just ran a marathon for three years, and you’re tired, and you collapse,” Nierenberg said.
Another reason students experience senioritis is going for the easy path.
“It’s kind of like, ‘I know I’m going to grad school. They’ve already accepted me. I’m kicking back. I’m going to take the path of least resistance now,’” Nierenberg said. “So, you’re just going for easy because you have your next goal in mind.”
Ironically, according to Nierenberg, senioritis can stem from the fear of success. Students get through school step by step, test by test and year by year without thinking about it. Before they know it, they are ready to graduate and are unprepared.
“You look behind you, and you go, ‘I’ve come this far. I’m not all that sure what I want to do when I get out of here.’ You kind of freak out,” Nierenberg said. “You become overwhelmed by all the possibilities that are out there.”
Others may even feel that they don’t deserve to graduate. They can even be scared of being different from others in their family who have not gone to college.
“There are personal spins that people can have on it, which all lead them to being afraid of graduation,” Nierenberg said. “And one way to deal with being afraid of graduation is to freeze, and when you freeze, you stop all your work, and you have senioritis.”
Seniors may also fear the economic environment they are graduating in, and getting a job isn’t as easy as it used to be. This can make graduating a scary leap of faith.
“You hear a couple of stories in the media, for example, of people who have really good majors and really good bachelor’s degree from excellent universities, and they’re driving a cab or working at Publix,” Nierenberg said. “That’s scary. So, some people, when they’re afraid, they freeze.”
So what is the cure? For students who find themselves crippled with senioritis, Nierenberg suggests they ask themselves whether or not senioritis is going to get them where they want to go. This self-assessment can help students discover what is holding them back.
“Is it that you’ve worked so hard that you just want to rest, and you already have your goal, and you want a little time off? You can take some courses that are not that demanding,” Nierenberg said. “Or is that you’re so scared about not knowing what to do that you’re really shutting down. And if it’s that, you’re scared, and you’re shutting down, what would it take for you to get past that? You may have to talk to somebody. You can do personal therapy. You can talk to somebody about career options. What’s it going to take for you to not be frozen?”
If this self-assessment doesn’t reveal a fear or complacency, students can simply be burned out. When that’s the case, they can take the opportunity to learn about themselves.
“Usually, the people who burn out are the people who care the most, and what they have failed to do is self-care,” Nierenberg said. “There are some students who are all work and no play, and you can only do that for so long before you collapse, and sometimes that collapse is senioritis.”
Sometimes, recharging is simple and only takes a few minutes.
“Let’s say you have 15 minutes between appointments,” Nierenberg said. “You just finished something, and before you start something else, go for a walk. Just take a five-minute walk.”
And if self-assessment doesn’t work, it always helps to talk to somebody, either a personal counselor or a career adviser, to help figure out what’s wrong.
In the end, senioritis may just be like the common cold, incurable but certainly treatable, and for seniors, it starts with self-reflection.
