Many seniors, whether they’re graduating from high school or university, may feel the urgency to complete school work slow down as their graduation date pulls closer. A term used to describe this phenomenon of missing deadlines, class, or submitting substandard work — featured in the Merriam-Webster dictionary — is senioritis. UMass Boston undergraduate seniors will close out their year with a commencement ceremony Thursday, May 29, 2025. There is less than a week left of classes for these seniors, as Classes end Wednesday, May 13 with finals commencing the week after.
As I write this, I’m currently avoiding three final papers, a group project, studying for an exam, and a slightly overdue short essay. To be fair to myself, none of my teachers are using our time for finals week, so these projects are due next week — a phenomenon that regards its own discussion. Yet here I am, not working on any of them as I commute to school — a time that I try to designate to completing homework. Is this happening because of my approaching graduation, or did I warp into a school-avoidant student overnight? Is senioritis real?
I believe people buy into senioritis partly because it seems inevitable. Students spend so much time each semester rushing to finish and submit various assignments. Multiply that hard work and effort across four years, and the end of that last semester seems so much sweeter. At this point, it feels as though this last semester of school is just a barricade to the completion of my degree.
An Overview on Senioritis
A factor in the belief of senioritis may be that it’s talked about so often by both students and staff. This is evidenced by Ash Wallis’ article on senioritis published on Southern New Hampshire University’s website. Not only did the university recognize senioritis by publishing this, but many teachers were consulted in the article itself. Ash Wallis writes in this article that senioritis is a real phenomenon. Wallis recognized the following factors that contribute to senioritis: 1) knowing you’re going to pass a class 2) Not caring about the grade you receive and 3) realization that the student doesn’t need to work as hard to finish their degree.
A search on Healey Library’s UMBrella returns thousands of results for “senioritis.” One article from 2021 by Young-Jones et al. discusses Self-Determination Theory — the idea that there are different forms of motivation — as having a role in senioritis. They primarily discussed intrinsic motivation, such as a student’s personal interest, and extrinsic motivation, such as grades, finances, and job opportunities, as playing a role in the student’s overall motivation and effort.
Her Campus UMass Boston’s Outlook on Senioritis
I asked other UMass Boston students, specifically senior Her Campus members, what they thought about senioritis. President of Her Campus UMass Boston Jackie Tucker believes senioritis is a real thing. President Tucker explained, “It’s been ROUGH. Life continues to get in the way (especially in College). In high school, it’s easier to manage senioritis in my opinion, as you don’t need to find a job straight out of the gate and also manage bills and other issues in life.”
Tucker points out a massive underlying factor for the impact of senioritis in college. For many college students, especially at a commuter school such as UMass Boston, there are already huge responsibilities to fulfill. Most students don’t have the luxury of just focusing on their classes. Tucker said, “It has been an incredibly difficult semester for me, and having to dedicate time to school when I have two jobs and an internship and clubs to run… it’s just so difficult. I see the end and just want to reach the finish line, but I am so scared also.”
Her Campus member Mia Lamont says senioritis is “a real concept that doesn’t apply to everyone.” Lamont discussed being a senior in 2020 as COVID-19 hit, saying, “I was incredibly unmotivated… and gave my barest minimum. I was burnt out, stressed from the pandemic, and was uncertain about my future.” Similarly to Tucker, Lamont expressed that college senioritis has felt different from high school senioritis; however, they differ in which is easier to manage. Lamont said, “I’m currently dealing with senioritis in college, but it’s less severe than it was in high school. While I feel the slump, I know that I’m almost at the finish line, and that this is the final push. I think I’ve improved on managing my time and workload better, which means less burn out in the long run. It also helps that I am more confident in myself as a student and more certain about my future.”
After consulting with the literature and my peers, I can conclude that it’s safe to say I have senioritis. My symptoms include a lack of motivation to complete work, tendency to turn in sub-standard work, and a decrease in care for the grades I receive. At the end of the day, the simple word senioritis is not enough to justify letting my academic achievements up to this point be dampened by decreased effort. That would be an injustice to myself. To my fellow seniors, let’s finish out the year strong and pass all of our classes. Not just to pass, but to end our college careers on a note we can be proud of.