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How to Make the Most of Your Last Year of College

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Manhattan chapter.

Woohoo!  It’s finally senior year, and for those COVID-19 2020 seniors, this senior year is a big deal.  We finally made it.  This will be and has to be, the best senior year ever.  We need to have the best year of our lives.  We have to live our lives to the fullest because many of us will be starting full-time jobs next year, which is so scary to think about.

First, it is important to talk about the fun we are going to have.  As a senior, you need to invest your time in student life.  Put yourself out there: make friends, join clubs, travel, go to different events.  You will never be in undergraduate school again and you will never have these same experiences. Therefore, you need to soak up as much fun as you can get.  

You should make a senior year bucket list.  Yes, this sounds totally cheesy, but you should make a list of things you want to accomplish by the time you graduate. You don’t want to look back and say “I wish I did…”  NO!  You will not be saying this because you will do everything you may have ever wanted to do.  You will do anything you wish, if it’s legal and appropriate, to experience the best senior year ever. 

While having fun, it is also important to optimize your time.  It is important to figure out where to invest your time between school, activities, friends, and senior year events.  You also cannot fully focus on having fun because you may not graduate if you do that.  You cannot let senioritis rule your life.  You are a student before all of the fun.  You need to make sure school comes before everything else.  Otherwise you will not have one senior year, but multiple, which sounds good but isn’t really cool.

As a senior, you need to focus on school, internships, and looking for jobs.  Although you may not want to hear this, this is definitely something that you need to hear.  Having internships and focusing on grades is important so you can focus on life after college.  Realistically, you will not be a senior in college forever and you cannot pretend that you simply aren’t graduating and adulting soon.  You have to let go and allow yourself to grow as a person.

It is scary to leave college and enter the real world, but you don’t have to leave all aspects of college behind.  You can still make plans with your college friends after you graduate.  College gave you so many memories and friends and you should continue to create memories with these friends even though your lives are going in different directions. Senior year will be amazing, but it is what you make of it.  If you strive for the best year ever, you will get the best year ever.

Emily Gianni

Manhattan '24

Hi I'm Emily! I am in my Senior Year at Manhattan College, graduating in Spring 2024. I am studying Childhood Special Education with an upward extension to middle school with a double major in English. My goal in life is to teach elementary school and later on, teach middle school. Although I don't have a position in my Her Campus chapter, I am still an active writer for Her Campus! I write about all different topics for Her Campus, anything that interests me or that I believe other girls will find useful and informational. I am a team captain on the Manhattan College cheerleading team, so I may write about that sometimes. I also love sorority rush season so I have written about my sorority a few times. I believe that Her Campus is an amazing source for women to put their work out there and influence other girls. I love being a part of this organization and being able to write about whatever I love. This is the best outlet for me to learn more about my writing style, experiment with different topics that I would not be allowed to write about in a class, and grow as a writer.