There are a lot of different illness associated with different times of the year. There’s flu season in the winter. Allergy season in the spring. Sunburns in the summer. But around early April and May a different disease starts to take hold, and it goes after a very specific group.

College seniors.

It’s serious and it spread quickly. But the problem is the symptoms can at first appear so subtle that college students may not even notice they have them. Their regular behavior is simply heightened. So when going about their normal, every day lives they don’t even realize that they’re actually struggling with senioritis. That’s why they can’t write that paper or concentrate in class. That’s why everything seems impossible. If  you’re a college senior and this, or any of the signs below sound familiar to you, you may be suffering from senioritis. (And no, we don’t recommend looking up your symptoms on WebMD. Just check out our senioritis bucket list instead.)

1. Oversleeping. Your alarm goes off so you press the snooze button. And then you press again. And then again. And then you glance at the clock and realize your class starts in five minutes…and then you roll over and go back to sleep. 

2. The desire to never do anything productive anything again. The other night, instead of watching the movie I was supposed to watch for class I spent the night watching the entire first season of Brothers and Sisters on Netflix instant play. It seemed like an excellent idea at the time.

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The following post is written by Mary Katherine Furnier from University of Tennessee, one of our many friends at Uloop, a student powered marketplace. Read more great posts in their blog.

Every year thousands of students embark on their first experience of the rat race. They decide to attend the career fair. Some of you are scared out of your minds, and there of course are others who don’t see what everyone is freaking out about. The truth is, there are less jobs than there are those in need of a job.

To label it as competitive may be the understatement of the century. There are people with secondary master degrees working for minimum wage. That said, it is always important to remember all the steps to take to maximize your chances of success when meeting potential employers. Keep in mind, you are not living in your parents generation. You most likely wont get a job and do it for the rest of your life. Read More »

So…I’m back, just a few days away from my very last semester of college ever. It’s a strange feeling, knowing that this is the last time I’ll buy my school supplies, search for cheap books online, write down all my assignments, and swear to keep it together this year. Because when I fail to do so with all the grace and elegance I have in my mind, I can’t just say, oh well, maybe next year. Because there is no next year.

This is it, my last shot, my final semester. So I better to do it, right. With that thought in mind, I’ve come up with a few resolutions to guide me through my last semester as an undergrad. Some of these make a lot of sense; some of them are completely ridiculous. But I do intend to follow through with all of them.

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Okay, so after weeks of whining about personal statement essays and GRE practice tests, I think it’s time to take a step back, and evaluate. The fall semester is almost over and I’m still standing.  And high moments and low moments aside, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of creating a balance between the fun and the functional.

With that in mind, I’m going to do something I’m completely unqualified to do. I’m going to offer you ladies some advice. Well, not so much advice as guidelines. Guide posts? Rules? Err…just keep this stuff in mind as you attempt to make it through your senior year.

Don’t be so focused on the future that you forget about the present.
During your senior year, it’s easy to get swept up in the idea of what comes next. Grad school applications and GREs. Internships and job interviews. Every time you turn around you’ll have to do something else to prepare for next year. And if that’s not stressful enough, everyone will be asking you about it every step of the way. What are your plans for next year? Will you be applying to grad school? Shouldn’t you have decided by now? Over and over again people will be bombarding you from every angle with questions about the future. But every once it a while you just need to remember to block them out and breathe. Sure it’s your last year of college, but you’re still in college. Don’t forget what that means. You’ll never be able to figure out exactly where you’ll be a year from now, so focus on the here and now instead.

Embrace the cliché college experience.
Go to every college hosted event you can, because it’s the last time you’ll ever be able to experience that event as a college student. I don’t have the numbers on this but I’m pretty sure that the current students tailgating in the parking lot during homecoming enjoyed the event a whole lot more than the alumni watching the game. The same goes for the pep rallies and the movie nights and everything else you stopped going to after sophomore year. Give it one more go. Think of it as a warm up for senior week. Read More »

So I’m registering for classes this week. The second semester of my senior year. My last semester ever as an undergraduate. Better make it a good one right? Oh, I intend to.

You see, I have a plan. I’m going to take my last two required college classes and then take on an internship for college credit so I don’t have to take a full course load can gain some real life experience without jumping into real life at full force.  But as I sit here and consider my potential schedule for next semester I start to realize, once again, just how final all of this is.

If everything goes according to plan (then again, nothing ever goes according to plan) I’ll only be in class two days per week next semester, six hours each day. Plus work, and the occasional club meeting/party/annual-event-I-swore-I’d never-attend-again-last-year. College life will still take up a decent chunk of my time, but not nearly as much time as it takes up right now. And it will be a complete turnaround from this semester, a semester that feels a whole lot like someone is playing a game of let’s see how long we can keep Jenn away from her bed before she collapses. So yeah, it will be different.

Less time on campus, means less time to be involved on campus. And as my college life gets closer to ending, my college life gets closer to ending. The school paper has already starting training editorial assistants to replace us, something I have a hard time grasping. We’re training people to replace us when I still feel like I need to be trained! And continuing with that theme, that campus job I had since I was a freshman? I’ve started training my replacement there as well.  And as I yammered on incessantly about the exact font size and label color that should be used on each folder, I started to realize exactly how not ready I am to hand over my color coded filing cabinet to someone else. (And, no, I don’t think it’s just because I’m a control freak, either.) Read More »

I ran out of post it notes.

Now to you this may not seem like a moment worth mentioning, but to me this is a monumental deal. You see, back when I was a freshman, fresh faced and eager, I did things like shopping for school supplies. I bought pens, and paper, highlighters and binders, and, most importantly, I bought post it notes. (I’m an organization freak. For my kind, it’s the little things like multi-colored sticky paper that make life worth living, okay?) But these weren’t just any notes. These were the super stack, a 12 pad pack of multicolored 4X4 sticky notes. I was sure they would last me all four years of college.

That was before I started working on my senior thesis.

Thesis projects require note taking. They require page marking. They require a lot of post its. I printed journal article after journal article, photocopied book after book, stuck notes in chapter after chapter. This summer I finished the blue pad. In the past month alone I went through the purple, and this past week I finished the hot pink pad. My post it notes are no more. Seven months before the end of my college career. (I’m a little heartbroken. Don’t judge.)

That alone would be enough to make me reconsider my commitment to this whole “senior thesis” thing, but I assure you I have plenty more reasons. I started this thing back in May. I picked a topic, and wrote out a proposal. Over the summer I started doing some light research, reread the novels I was working with, and marked the important passages.  It didn’t seem all that bad, but this past summer I didn’t have four other courses to worry about. Now I do. Needless to say, things have gotten a bit more complicated. Read More »

On Thursday night I had dinner with a friend. We went to the same college, but she graduated last year, so I haven’t seen as much of her as I used to. But when we finally had the chance to hang out and catch up, it reminded of how much I missed her, how much I missed having her around. It made me stop and think about what would happen next year, after I’ve graduated.

It wouldn’t just be one friend that it would be hard to meet up with, it would be all of my friends.

College isn’t just about the classes. We’re here for four years. We make lives for ourselves. The people we spend our days with, eat lunch with, sit in class with, they become family. And next year that family will be scattered across the country. People move back home. People go to grad school. They make plans and they move on. And that’s what they’re supposed to do. That’s what they are in the process of doing. It’s what I’m in the process of doing.

But sometimes, we put so much emphasis on getting there, that we don’t stop and think about what will happen when we are there.

Relationships of all kinds are about convenience. It’s easy to stay friends with someone when you see them every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:40-11:10. It’s even easier to stay friends with someone when they live down the hall from you, eat dinner with you, take all the same classes as you. These people are a part of your life. They part of my life. Will they still be a year from now, ten years from now? Read More »

Right before I sat down to write this I registered for the GRE. Well, actually, I registered for the GRE, opened a bag of chocolate covered cranberries (Kim Kardashian’s snack of choice), and then sat down to write this. But I digress. This was supposed to be a serious moment. Because registering for the GRE is serious business. At least, it is for me.

You see, the whole “post college plans” thing has always been a bit of a sore subject for me. What I want to do with my life, what I have always wanted to do with my life, is write. I want to write, and read, and edit, and that’s all I’ve ever really been able to come up with. But there’s no set plan for how to make that happen. Pre-Law students take the LSAT and get into law school. Pre-Med students take the MCAT and get into medical school. Business majors have the GMAT. Dentists have the DAT. And the rest of us flounder helplessly trying to either find a job or a rich husband graduate program that works for us.

Currently I’m stuck somewhere between the two. It’s why I’ve held off on registering for the GRE for so long (and why I’ve been contemplating head shots so I can join Patti Stanger’s Millionaire’s Club). I didn’t want to shell out the cash, put in the study time, and commit to the freak out if I wasn’t even going to end up at grad school next year.

But I’ve researched some programs and made some (tentative) plans and decided that even if I don’t end up at grad school next year I still want to take the GRE. I want the option. (I like options.) So I registered.

Which means I actually have to start preparing for it. Read More »

Remember when going back-to-school meant a new box of crayons and a slammin’ new backpack (L.L. Bean. Initialed, obviously)? If you’re headed back to college this fall, no doubt this bit of nostalgia has probably crossed your head at some point or another. For collegians, a new year usually brings with it new housing, and more importantly, returning to the center of your social universe: friends, parties, and never-ending entertainment all a quad’s walk away.

But if you’re filling out your course schedule for the last time and pre-ordering your diploma frame, then back-to-school excitement may be dissolving into denial. It may seem as though the best years of your life are suddenly coming to a close, but there are still several months left before cap-and-gown season. Class of 2011, this one’s for you: follow these tips for a thrilling, guilt-free senior year, and go out with a bang! Read More »

I’ve sat down to write the first entry of the column that will chronicle my final year as a college student about fifty a few times now, but I just haven’t been able to figure out where to start. So I figure I might as well start with the truth: I can’t seem to write this column because I’m not really sure how I feel about this whole “senior year” thing.

I mean, sure, part of me revels in the fact that this will be the last year I am forced to deal with pretentious professors and overzealous freshmen. No more writing papers on topics I just don’t care about or being forced to take core courses I have no use for. (I am a currently taking Plagues, Outbreaks and Biological Warfare for my science requirement. I can be bitter.) No more late night cram sessions or midterms. Or finals. No more college.

But no more college doesn’t just mean no more classes, its means no more college. No more college means no more built in, ever expanding social network. No more themed parties or club sponsored events or months off in between semesters. No more college means that I’m going to have to join the real world.

So with that in mind, I’ve decided I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. I’m a recently 21-year-old, single college girl with way too much to worry about. I have every reason to check out and give in to that oh so tempting state of being known as Senioritis. The only problem? Life won’t let me. You see, it seems that Junior Jenn was much more eager than Senior Jenn. Junior Jenn believed that writing a senior thesis would be fun, that attempting to finish out both of my majors in the fall semester was a great idea, that taking on leadership roles in clubs would be worth it, and that – oh yeah – taking on the roll of tutor in addition to already working 10+ hours a week would be the right thing to do. Read More »