Senior year of high school is the last year students spend in public schooling after 12 years of hard work preparing for their future. Many seniors want to make the most out of it. However, the way they choose to do so varies. Some decide to pack their schedule with many challenging classes while others decide to ease their workload from school and take fewer classes, or less challenging ones. 

The commonly known phenomenon of “senioritis,” also known as the senior slump, encourages the belief that all seniors don’t try very hard in their classes or take as few classes as possible. However, this is not entirely true, as many students decide to have a workload that will continue to challenge them. 

“For my senior year I decided to take more challenging classes with a pretty full schedule because I wanted to be able to take as many AP classes as possible so I could get college credit,” senior Anisha Prabhu said. 

The transition to the new 4×4 schedule also provided some benefits to those with a packed work schedule, allowing them to focus on fewer things at once. Instead of having to balance a vigorous plan of eight classes at once, this change allows students to put their energy and attention into just half the amount of classes. 

“Compared to last year I would say it is just as challenging, I took eight credit years both junior and senior year, but with the semester schedule this year it has been a lot easier to balance my workload because I’m only focusing on four classes at once,” Prabhu said. 

On the contrary, other students chose a relatively more easy-going approach to their senior year. 

“Something like creative writing is a more laid back, less work-intensive class, while AP Comp Sci has a much heavier workload, but I want to take both of those classes. Just based on the workload I would give my classes as a whole a 6/10 for the workload,” senior Jacob Messner said.

However, because of his more relaxed schedule, Messner is left with extra free time and nothing to do with it.

“It gives me a lot more time to sit around at home and be bored,” Messner said in regards to his more relaxed schedule. 

Nonetheless, neither relaxed nor more intense schedules go without their disadvantages. 

“I guess obvious drawbacks are that the classes I am taking still require a lot of work, when mentally I am ready to graduate. I would say the benefit is being able to hopefully use some of the credits from all of the AP classes I’m taking in college so I can meet some of my course requirements,” said Prabhu, reflecting on her more busy workload. 

Both choices of either a relaxed schedule or a work-heavy schedule come with benefits and downsides of their own, and in the end, it simply comes down to a matter of preference to make your last year the best. No matter how students decide to spend their senior year, there’s no wrong way.