Senioritis, or Senior Slump, is defined by Merriam-Webster as “an ebbing of motivation and effort by high school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades.” As tempting as it is to goof off, slack off, and cut classes — don’t do it. There are consequences for blowing off the 2nd semester of your last year of high school.
If you’re a high school senior, enjoy your time remaining in school! You may have even received some college and university acceptances already – and that’s wonderful! And it’s great to relax – but not too much. You still have one more semester left, and yes, it does count.
If you go back and read your college acceptance letter, it will specifically state that it is a conditional acceptance which is contingent that you are expected to continue your current level of scholastic achievement AND graduate with your high school diploma.
Colleges and universities reserve the right to revoke their letter of admission to incoming prospective students. About 22% of the institutions surveyed by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) report revoking student admissions offering; typically they may pull 1-2% of their offers in a year.
Most of the students getting their offers pulled are due to steep drops in academic performance.
Other reasons for revocations are due to disciplinary infractions, dishonesty on the applications, and increasingly, offensive posting on social media.
In 2020, a prospective lacrosse player for Marquette University had her acceptance rescinded due to her posting on Snapchat mocking George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis that year. Harvard revoked 10 student acceptances over a group exchange of racially and sexually offensive Facebook messages in 2017.
The best way forward to protecting your future college enrollment is prevention – meaning 1) keep up your grades, 2) keep your social media profile clean, and 3) maintain solid citizen behavior – don’t pull any senior pranks that might result in disciplinary or legal action.
Best wishes for a fantastic spring term and upcoming graduation!
