We’ve all been seniors in high school, assuming you’re in college right now and you haven’t skipped a few grades because you’re a little Einstein- so we understand the feeling of laziness and procrastination that most students submit to upon the first few months after entry into their high school senior year. We call this phenomenon, “senioritis”. It’s a pretty normal thing, and I’d like to say a majority of high school seniors experience this. But if I had to put high school senioritis in a boxing match with the term known as “spring semesteritis”, toe-to-toe, spring semesteritis would reign supreme! What is “spring semesteritis”, you ask? Think of a more advanced version of senioritis you’ve experienced in high school, but with an addition of five espresso shots. By your senior year of high school, you typically get to make your own schedule appeal to your liking, so you could take a bunch of easy courses or even reduce the number of courses in your school day to give you late arrival or early dismissal. How does this influence your senioritis? It makes you less stressed and relaxed about your school day and overall workload, which gives you more time to do other things such as procrastinate. However, in the case of spring semesteritis, it’s not as such. Typically college students make their schedules accordingly prior to the end of their last semester for their current ones. The same concept applies for college students in terms of picking classes, but on the other hand, the intensity of college-level classes to high school classes shows a great difference (all the AP and IB kids can ignore this statement). College students usually spend longer periods of times in their classes and have a shorter amount of time to actually learn all the material they need to know towards the end of the semester. With that being said can you blame us for being lazy? We’ve got a lot on our shoulders, we need to ease up a little and unwind. I first observed the term “spring semesteritis” on twitter, when college students were retweeting high school students in response to them complaining about their senioritis. Many college students explained the lack of severity of senioritis due to the events awaiting high schoolers at the end of the school year: prom, senior trip, graduation, and ultimately freedom -summer time. College students on the other hand, when they have spring semesteritis don’t have much to look forward to unless they’re graduating, as they would have to either return to their jobs during the summer or take summer courses to meet requirements or even internships. Those that are graduating still have to worry about fees heading toward graduation, having or finding jobs after graduation, and preparing for grad school. The reasoning as to why spring semesteritis would be stronger is because there is just so much more for us college kids to do, overall. It basically almost mirrors the effect of being high school seniors every spring semester. As your high school guidance counselors and college advisors would always tell you, “don’t let senioritis get the best of you”, and that’s good advice. Typically they’d follow up and tell you stuff like stay on track, do your best, colleges are always looking for your final year’s grades… stuff like that. If you think about, the same concept applies to fight back spring semesteritis. In order to not fall into the hypnosis of the ever looming, annual spring semesteritis you have to do your best to stay on track of your coursework. It is often good to have a planner for your semester, making sure to follow your class syllabi to stay on track of homework and upcoming exams and tests. It’s always best to do your assignments earlier on so you have more time to enjoy free time. It’s almost like you can enjoy some aspect of spring semesteritis. Spring semesteritis is deadly. It can actually make or break your GPA for your spring semester. In order to avoid the effects of spring semester getting to you, be sure to keep yourself on top of your schedule and avoid falling into the traps of procrastination and lazing around. Every college student goes through spring semesteritis, just like how high school seniors go through senioritis. But keep in mind, the spring semester isn’t as long as it feels and you’ll be out of here in no time! Best of luck!
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Stony Brook chapter.