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Senior year is still high gear -- if you cruise, you lose
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Ferris Bueller may
have taken a day off, but with today's tough competition for college,
high-schoolers are finding there's no time to waste.
By Aline Mendelsohn
Sentinel Staff
Writer
When Nadine Sfeir
was a freshman, she would gaze at the seniors. They seemed so carefree, so
relaxed.
Nadine imagined
that her own senior year would be a breeze. She would party all the time, maybe
even go out on school nights.
"I didn't
think I'd have to pick up a pencil," Nadine says.
Now 18 and a
senior at
It has been the
most stressful.
"Endless days
and sleepless nights," laments Nadine, who juggles Advanced Placement
classes, a part-time waitressing job and her student-body president duties.
"It's been a test to try to enjoy life."
The senior year in
high school was once thought of as a formality, an easy end to the high-school
career. There was even a name for the tendency to coast through that last
semester: "senioritis."
Things have
changed.
College enrollment
has jumped -- from about 12 million in 1980 to more than 16 million in 2003,
according to the
Now more than
ever, students are taking the year seriously -- especially in
To prepare for
college, more students are taking rigorous Advanced Placement courses. They're
keeping their grades up to be eligible for the Florida Bright Futures
Scholarships
It's a far cry
from the world depicted in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, about a
high-school senior who skips school and casually says, "This is my ninth
sick day this semester."
The cult classic,
made in 1986, is history.
Raising the bar
for seniors
Worry about
wasting the senior year resulted in the U.S. Department of Education's National
Commission on the High School Senior Year, established in 2000.
"You almost
had a national phenomenon of senioritis that people were accepting," says
Peter McWalters, the education commissioner of
McWalters and
other members of the committee were concerned that the
Colleges also have
focused on retaining freshmen, which is one reason admissions offices have
become more vocal about checking final transcripts.
The University of
Florida, Florida State University and the
"If they're
not taking [academics] seriously in high school, they'll clearly have trouble
once they make it to the college level," says Gordon Chavis, UCF's assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions
and student financial assistance.
A demanding senior
year can prepare students for college courses.
The number of
students taking Advanced Placement exams -- for which students can "test
out" of college courses -- has shot up. In 2004, 1.1 million students took
AP exams, compared with about 460,000 in 1994 and about 180,000 in 1984.
At Lake Brantley
High School, Alex Lofton, 17, is taking AP classes in English, environmental
science and statistics.
Still, her dad,
Lamont, has heard her mumble about not having to study for tests.
"You're not
going to coast," Lofton tells her.
He doesn't have to
worry.
"I want to be
able to end on a high note," says Alex, who has been accepted at the
Ending on a high
note -- with high grades -- can pay off.
The Bright Futures
program offers several scholarships that require students to take college
preparatory courses and earn at least a 3.0 or 3.5 grade-point average.
Andrew Chuplis,
17, hasn't finalized his college plans, but he's keeping his grades up for his
Bright Futures Scholarship.
"A couple of
grades mean so many thousands of dollars," says Andrew, a
Students have a
lot to lose
That kind of
motivation, however, can be hard to come by. The beach and the mall can seem
more inviting than calculus and scholarship applications.
Carol Bickel, a
guidance counselor at
"I have
literally followed a senior from class to class a few days before he got the
message," Bickel says.
Ricky Cuellar, a
senior at
But he knows that
falling grades could jeopardize his UF admission, and that possibility jolts
him awake.
"It keeps you
buckled down," says Ricky, 17.
Ebony, 18, knows
all about senioritis, though in her case it was junioritis -- she caught it
last year because most of her friends are older.
She admits she
should have spent more time studying last year. Going into her senior year,
Ebony says, "I knew I had to work twice as hard."
Timber Creek
senior Cathy Gutierrez has 71 days of high school left. Yes, she is counting.
Cathy marks off each day in her planner.
Definitely a
symptom of senioritis.
There have been
days when she just hasn't felt like finishing a reading assignment.
But Cathy, 17,
hopes to go to
"What I do
later in my life is really important to me," she says, "so I can't
slack off now."
Aline Mendelsohn
can be reached at amendelsohn@orlandosentinel.com
or 407-420-5352.