Senior year. I went into this year knowing full well that this semester would probably be the hardest semester of school of my entire life, and I am proud (but in pain) to say that I was very, very spot on for my prediction. For some unknown reason, junior year me decided it was a good idea to load up on as many difficult courses as I could possibly muster in despite having the knowledge in my head that I would also have to write out all my college applications in addition to still managing through all of my (now slightly reduced) amounts of extracurriculars. But regardless of the hours I spent worrying and stressing over my academics and future, I’m here, almost at the end of this awful semester, and I can’t wait to just go home and pass out after these finals are over.
How I’m looking after every MVC test.
However, even through the difficulty and the stress, I think this semester has also been the most fun I’ve had in high school. I wouldn’t say the competition is particularly fierce considering all the COVID years, but regardless, I think that having all of my friends around me also be incredibly stressed out is at least one silver lining (suffering together is better than suffering alone). Regardless, I have learned a lot from the (few) successes and (many) mistakes I have made this semester, and I would like to share them here with you so that you can either relate with my pain or hopefully share it with a younger sibling as a forewarning for what is to come (because that is my plan).
- Plan out your courses well
One of the biggest regrets that I’ve had about this semester is that I took way too many difficult courses. Doing three STEM courses at once, especially with MVC first period, is not fun. Whenever my teachers would “somehow” have their tests on the same day, I knew I was in for a rough night of studying, and my test results certainly showed. This issue was also further compounded by the need to write my college essays because all the time I was spending to study triple integrals was time I wasn’t spending on fixing my horrid essays (the cost to reward ratio of MVC is very high). I did have at least a few saving graces. The first was that I had very poorly planned out my art credits because the University of California system, as it turns out, needs two semesters of arts in the same category which I didn’t realize until I was picking courses for senior year, so definitely research all the potential universities you want to go to so that you don’t make the same blunder I did. The other saving grace was that I didn’t take AP Spanish. From all of my friends’ experiences, AP Spanish has been one of the worst classes they’ve ever taken, and if I had to go from MVC to AP Spanish to AP Lit to two more STEM courses all before lunch, I just don’t want to imagine that reality. So be smart, try and have an idea of what you want and need to do, and definitely learn which classes to avoid so that you don’t end up suffering as much during senior year.
2. Start your college applications early
So I started in July, and I definitely thanked myself for doing so. As I elaborated earlier, I was already pretty stressed out from my course load, so at least having something started for my college applications going into the school year was very helpful and definitely took a load off of the anxiety levels. That isn’t to say that even with starting early that applications weren’t still super stressful, but seeing some of my friends having to cram in their entire Common application the weekend before the deadline gave me second hand anxiety. I would also say as a final tidbit for college applications that if you can, try and get an experienced third party to look at your essays. Having my parents constantly badgering me about what they read from my essays has been one of the worst things I have ever let happen to myself, so as much as I love my parents, I definitely wanted them to just stay away from my essays and to just let someone else that wasn’t them look at my essays instead.
3. Have fun
This one is pretty cliche, but it’s still 100% true. I did my best to just say yes to different things this year and it has been a lot of fun, especially after COVID. I went to my first (and last homecoming), and screwed around with my friends a lot more after school and just lived life a lot more, so if you’re like me and have been a total bum, go out and have some fun, you deserve it.
That’s all I really have in terms of my thoughts on senior year. It’s been a ride so far, and I really hope that I can just cruise through the rest because I think I lost ten years of my life just from stress thanks to this semester.
Hi Alec, I like how you expressed yourself throughout the entire blog. Many parts of the blog felt very relatable, especially when discussing the stressful environment. I agree that it is essential to start college essays early because sometimes tests and application overlap and cause anxiety-inducing moments. Being close friends with you over the last semester, I have experienced the mentality “struggling together is better than struggling alone” first hand and I do believe it has helped me a lot balance my stress over the las semester. I’m surprised that you expected the first semester of senior year to be very stressful because I initially thought that senior year was all about relaxing and having fun. However, as you noted, this was not the case given the overlap of the difficult classes, extracurricular activities, service events, and college apps. I think it’s great that you mentioned to have fun because I do felt like I have gained a sense of independence by spending time with friends more. From going to Starbucks during blended periods, to eating Hotpot to watching movies together, senior year has allowed me to grow as a person both academically but also socially. Overall, a very relatable and amazing blog post.
Dang Alec, your year sounds crazy so far. I can’t imagine loading up on all of those STEM classes. I took AP Stats this year, and I thought that was tough, so doing MVC along with all of the other classes you were taking seems very stressful, as from what I’ve heard that class is very difficult and requires a lot of work. I like how you included how you didn’t know that the University of California needed 2 art credits in the same genre in your advice section. While I myself didn’t expereuence anything like that, I’m sure that the problem of certain schools having different course requirments is a common issure, so that is great advice to give to juniors for the classes they are picking next year. It’s also important how you noted that even though your semester was extremly stressful, you were able to enjoy it sometimes because you had company in your misery. I think it is important to have people around you who are going through similair things as you and can support and uplift you in stressful times, so I’m glad you were able to have that group of people to help make the stressful times more enjoyable.
Hi Alec, looking back at the past semester, I can feel why it was rough. MVC was probably at the forefront of stress causers for me as well, and we know the state of the MVC room after every test is over. I like your three tips for senior year. Something that I managed to do was plan my courses out pretty well, but I would also add to your tip. Even though you plan out your courses beforehand, things can happen. I had my courses for the entirety of high school planned out in 8th grade, but so many things changed because of the classes I want to take, and sometimes, I couldn’t take classes because of schedule conflicts. So I would say to also plan for some worst-case scenarios as well. I liked your second tip, but unfortunately, I couldn’t implement that myself. I was on vacation in India, so I couldn’t start my college applications until school started. But I would agree that if you can, start those applications early. I definitely agree with your last tip, and I also mentioned that in my blog. It is the last year of high school, so why wouldn’t you go out and have fun?