High-School Seniors are Stressed
By Catherine Brown, Photo Editor

Senior year, the final year of compulsory education, is often seen as a particularly stressful year for students. Seniors are hit with a harder course load and college applications, both of which make for a busy schedule when added to sports and extracurricular activities.

A survey was sent out to the senior class to examine just how stressed the senior class felt.

The Riptide sent out a six-question survey to all the seniors about stress levels and their causes. Twenty five students responded.

The first question asked “On a scale of 1-10, 10 being ‘crying everyday’ and 1 being ‘not at all’ how stressed are you?” Eighty percent of the responders reported having stress levels of 7 or higher.

All 25 of these students had already started their college application processes. Out of the 25, only one student said that they felt the school was providing enough support for them. Senior Jackie Bostock is in the majority that feels the school has not done quite enough.

“I think teachers need to be more open to giving us time to do [college applications] or just give us less work so I can go home and not do six hours of homework and college apps,” Bostock said.

Bostock is one of the many seniors this year who signed up for a rigorous schedule.

“I really piled it all on myself this year and signed up for four AP classes,” Bostock said. “With my schedule I couldn’t take Post High School Prep because I wanted to take AP Comparative [Government and] Politics and I also couldn’t take Financial Algebra, which I wanted to take, so I had to take AP Statistics instead … and that was really frustrating because for me I really just wanted a period where I could work on my college app[lications],” Bostock said.

Over half of senior students are currently going through the process of college applications, as 60-65 percent of students from the high school plan to attend a four year college.

“I think everyone is stressed about ‘what’s next’ to some degree,” counselor Tara Vanselow said. “There is a lot of ‘pressure’ around what students’ plans are after high school, … whether it’s making decisions or the money piece or getting it all done, etc.”

The counselors take many steps to help students plan for the future.

“Counselors do a lot of prep during the spring of junior year and the fall of senior year to help students get organized and think about what they want to do, which, in theory, helps reduce stress,” Vanselow said. “Getting organized, making a plan, and taking it one step at a time are all helpful tips.”

Staff members at the high school strive to support students to the best of their ability.

“All of the adults in the building are here to support them and listen to them and help them remember that they can do it,” Vanselow said. “We can always get better though, so the more we know in terms of what would help, the better.”