Between the stressful realms of planning the departure from high school and getting stretched too thin with the activities and pressures of senior year, senior Gunita Rahman said that she feels the weight of these responsibilities have definitely taken their toll. “The stress from school and college apps [has been] a lot to bear,” Rahman said.

The hardships of senior year didn’t resonate with valedictorian Hannah Lachmayr until she actually began 12th grade. “Everyone told me that senior year is fun and easy,” said Lachmayr, but the number of all the tasks that need to be completed for the year shatters the “fun and easy” outlook.

Rahman was given similar expectations mainly because she had “always heard junior year is much more stressful than senior year,” she said, “but for me, that was a huge lie.”

Most of the components that stress students out for their senior year include “college applications, harder classes, managing a lot at once, the unknown of the next year and scholarship applications,” Lachmayr said.

In total, she has completed 12 applications, each one taking a day to fill out, “but some I worked on over the course of a few days,” Lachmayr said. Both she and Rahman ranked college applications as the most stressful aspect of senior year.

When it came to filling out college applications for Rahman, she didn’t have as quite the smooth sailing experience as Lachmayr. “I was so overwhelmed, as I didn’t realize until actually filling out college apps [and scholarships] that I wasn’t eligible for in or out-of-state tuition, or even federal aid provided by the [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] since I’m not a citizen of the U.S.,” Rahman said.

In an effort to help out her fellow underclassmen, Rahman recommends to start applying for scholarships now. “I wished I had started applying for scholarships as an underclassman because waiting [until] the last minute doesn’t give you as good a chance to showcase your talents to the college you want.”

Lachmayr also advises underclassmen to think about and visit colleges before senior year because “you can never start too soon.”

As of right now, Presley said that he feels no stress when it comes to the upcoming year. “I’m more excited for it,” he said.

He does admit to coming down with the case of “junioritis,” the 11th grade form of “senioritis,” which is a well-known “disease” that comes with the impending graduation day that creates a lazy and dismissive attitude.

For Rahman, the concept of “senioritis” is considered to be “when all  your motivation to keep grades at their best and get [school] work completed drains away. After so many months of built up exhaustion and stress, it’s extremely appealing to just call quits, especially when you find out you’ve gotten into a college, which ensures a future anyways.”

Lachmayr added onto Rahman’s definition. “To me,” she said, “senioritis is the anticipation seniors have for the future/college. School has overwhelmed our lives for nearly 13 years, and we just want to move on to the next stage.”

With just 24 school days until graduation, the class of 2016 prepares to say their goodbyes and wipe their hands of high school work and college applications. “I am extremely happy to be done with class work,” Lachmayr said. “College apps took a lot of time away from my school work, so I am glad to be done with both of them.”