From the moment students enter high school as wide-eyed freshmen, they look forward to the day they can call themselves seniors. Maybe it’s the privilege of going off campus for lunch, or their exemption from certain testing days or their horseshoe parking spots, but to the underclassmen, seniors always seemed to be set apart from the others. They seemed confident and laid-back – so much closer to college life and adulthood than the rest. However, the experience of actually being a senior is different.

“It’s definitely very stressful,” senior Pooshan Shah said. “There’s so much to get done.”

In fact, the first semester of senior year is arguably much more stressful than the first three years of high school because seniors are struggling to take last-minute SAT and ACT tests, complete college applications and maintain their grades at the same time. Not to mention the hardest high school courses offered, such as AP Calculus BC or AP Physics C, are usually available during senior year. This especially poses a dilemma to high-level students applying to prestigious schools.

“Colleges look at your senior course list to make sure you’re continuing to challenge yourself, so I still have to make an effort,” Shah said. “Some of the classes I’m taking right now are really hitting me hard, though.”

Many colleges require a mid-year report to make sure students are doing reasonably well their senior year and are not failing any classes. Despite knowing this, however, even the best students experience somewhat of a burnout after three years of working so hard. Seniors find that they are overwhelmed with the dreaded senioritis, felt full-force at last.

“It’s so hard to find the motivation to do homework or anything else,” senior Anthony Nguyen said. “But college apps take so long and school is still hard. I just want to skip everything else and graduate already. It’s so close yet so far.”

It’s not just the things that physically need to get done that cause stress; seniors also worry about their futures precisely because they are so close to the end. Choosing what colleges to apply to alone is a difficult decision. Nitpicking at essays and resumes is even worse because it’s hard for the students to tell if they will be selected, no matter how air-tight their applications seem to be.

“It’s just so hard to know if a school is in the safe-zone for you or not,” senior Minjung Joo said. “You get stressed wondering if one bad semester from sophomore year is going to ruin things for you.”

Although the perception of most underclassmen is that senior year is a carefree, blow-off year, this is far from the truth. All the hard work (or lack thereof) of the last three years is accumulating into one terrifying manifestation: college decisions. For now, seniors still have a long way to go before they can relax.