Straight A’s To Straight Apathy

While it is typically ascribed to seniors who refuse to do any schoolwork, Senioritis is a problem that extends beyond the final year of high school, spanning across most Cubs’ years at Loyola. Every student experiences academic burnout of some kind, but it’s only seniors who get the bad rep for being unmotivated. You may ask why? Well, it’s because once a senior has already submitted the grade transcript that colleges need to see, earning good grades feels like an unnecessary chore. Senioritis is a natural reaction to a changing environment in which striving for excellence yields results without the extrinsic value that it previously had.

It is an unfortunate reality that for students, learning is not always the main priority; instead, earning a good grade is the central focus. When students are no longer incentivized to get good grades, they no longer feel like trying in class. With this in mind, we can understand why seniors can feel so disconnected from their academics.

Kenneth Kun ‘25 deftly stated, “Senioritis is just another word for academic burnout, and it makes sense that many students feel burnout after working hard for four straight years.” The burnout that Kun describes may not have been apparent as an underclassman, but it kicks in at full force during senior year. The burnout builds up over three rigorous years, but it isn’t as prevalent while good grades are at the forefront of a student’s academic profile.

In senior year, however, the bubble bursts, and lo and behold, colleges don’t need your grades for early decisions! The majority of students say goodbye to the stress of trying to continuously uphold straight As in favor of taking a step back from the rigor of school.

Lucas Garcia ‘25 reflected relatably, “There are valid psychological reasons for senioritis, but I mostly just use it as an excuse to not do work.”

Senioritis is not just a problem that can be easily fixed for our seniors. Furthermore, teachers get caught up in this feeling of burnout as well. Nobody can escape the prison that grades impose on the education apparatus as a whole, a system that leaves students and educators feeling trapped.

In the meantime, though, seniors are stuck in a mindset of discontentment with the strict rules of schoolwork and grades, and there is everything justifiable with their feelings of disconnection with schoolwork as a whole.