This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Cal Poly chapter.
Senior projects offer the opportunity for students to work on a project that they find creative and inspiring. Whether it’s a research paper, lab design or public event, these endeavors are meant to test our skills while giving us the chance to explore a field or topic we’re really interested in. Of course, senior projects are meant to be difficult. But for those brave few who take on a project that spans over the whole school year, there are struggles that semester-long/quarter-long projects just don’t have.
Like when you first start, thinking that you have plenty of time to get stuff done
But once you ~actually~ start, you realize your senior project is a lot more complicated than you thought
You have, like, eight months to finish it though, so you’re chilling…
…Until your advisor reminds you of 34832957348 things you need to get done by next week or the whole thing will fall apart in two months
You realize your whole life is consumed by your senior project…and will be for the rest of the year
As you try to balance your project, classes, work, club responsibilities, a social life and sleeping, you start to really doubt whether you can pull it off
But you have NOT worked your ass off for four years just to fail now! So you keep pushing through for several weeks with a lot of caffeine and little sleep
Your project is finally starting to come together about halfway through the year…until you hit a totally unexpected problem
Most of your friends have already finished their senior projects at this point, but you still have four more months left
While you’re still really interested in your project, you can’t help feeling slightly (very) resentful of it too
Your advisor won’t grant you extensions because that pushes back every other part of your project too
The to-do list is endless but not finishing this on time will mean no walking at graduation
Spring quarter becomes an sleepless, panic-filled blur
When you remember that you willingly chose this project that takes all year, you mentally beat your past self up
Only a few more days left…the clock is ticking and you’re nearly done
DONE. It’s done. You turn in your senior project to your advisor, then go home and sleep for 24 hours.
After you’ve taken some time to relax, you ultimately feel satisfied and know that a year-long senior project was definitely worth it.
