By Jonathan Sager, Staff Writer
Seniors at River Hill have just begun their final year of school. While this upcoming year will be full of new memories and final chapters, as seniors say goodbye to friends, it will also be full of new challenges for seniors as they navigate the college application process and adjust and prepare for life after high school.
Most students are getting adjusted to the new school year, finding their new classes, reconnecting with friends they have not seen all summer and getting ready for nine more months of school. For seniors, this year represents something much more substantial. This is their last year of high school, which means it is a time to connect with friends for a final time, leave their marks on the school, and look forward to what the future might hold.
For the class of 2027, the year does not begin on an easy note, during the beginning months of the year, college applications take up a lot of time. The process involves writing multiple essays as well as getting letters of recommendation and balancing all of it with the typical academic courseload. This process can be a major source of stress for seniors at the beginning of the year. Senior Jonathan Krum explains how the college application process can be stressful for him since he has to “balance writing lots of essays with other extracurricular commitments.” Specifically, Krum has to balance his applications with his other extracurricular activities such as “taekwondo and band,” a predicament many other seniors find themselves facing.
Senior Milan Sanyal adds how, in his opinion, the college application process can be overwhelming “because of the sudden shift in educational structure, where we are granted a lot more freedom and expected to immediately know what to do.” In short, it can be overwhelming for seniors to make decisions that could have major implications on the rest of their lives, especially if those seniors do not know exactly what they want to study in college.
Although at times senior year can be incredibly stressful, there is also much to look forward to about the beginning of this unique year of school. First of all, there are many exclusive events that only seniors can participate in, such as senior sunrise and the senior crabfest. Additionally, Sanyal adds how he is excited to have “a lighter academic load” since, outside of college applications, seniors typically take their foot off of the gas pedal when it comes to academic course work, something that many seniors find relief from. Senior year is an exciting time as it represents the end of an era. For Krum, he is excited for senior year because he says “it’s the last time I will be able to see all my friends before we all go our separate ways for college.”
Senior year also gets high schoolers to think about what they will do once they graduate. Krum, for example, plans to “study political science” in college, hopefully at Georgetown, which he says is his dream school. Sanyal, on the other hand, hopes to study Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. As shown through the multitude of experiences of our own seniors, senior year leads students to explore the various different possibilities after high school across different fields and career paths.
As a whole, senior year represents both ends and beginnings. The year represents the end of high school, as well as the beginning of new challenges and experiences and a final time to see and connect with friends one last time.