The first semester of senior year is jam packed for many students. Between college applications, extracurricular activities, jobs and school, the first semester can get overwhelming for seniors. Many students believe that senior year is going to be a breeze going into it; however, that is not the case on most occasions. In fact, for many seniors, this semester has been one of the most stressful times of their high school experience.
Senior, Jenny Zhang, commented on how the beginning of her senior year started off really stressful. “Senior year started out very stressful [for me] because of things like taking senior photos and submitting college applications.”
Zhang was not the only student who felt stressed about college applications because this was and still is a stressful topic for many seniors. “I think overall the college process is really time consuming, which makes it stressful for time management with all of our classes at school,” said senior Simone Cho. “Though, I feel like the dread of whether or not you’ll actually get accepted into a college is more stressful than the process itself.”
When asked what the first semester of senior year was like for her, senior Audra O’Clair said, “This has been my hardest year of high school, and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because I’m still taking the same kind of classes as I was last year and even the year before. It has really taken a toll on me. It is very much a struggle to get through everyday.”
“My first semester of senior year has been really difficult for various reasons,” said senior Javier Peralta Carrillo. “The workload has gone up for me. I’ve had to do a lot of studying and preparing when it comes to things like quizzes and tests. Also, college applications just add to that, so the amount of stress compared to last year for me is a lot higher.”

Personally for me, senior year has been extremely draining because of multiple aspects. For one, I participated in marching band this semester as a section leader and it was really difficult to maintain my grades while also taking so much responsibility from this extracurricular activity. I also had to manage working as the Editor-in-Chief and A&E editor of the Trail and applying to colleges that I wanted to attend. The fear of not knowing if I would make it into the college that I wanted to go to was stress inducing within itself. However, the hard parts of senior year are officially behind me and I finally feel at peace.