Seniors are being faced with the fear of the unknown. The anxiety of not graduating and trying to get their lives together in the midst of juggling school work, extracurricular activities and outside school life.Mallard Nancy thinks “balancing the difficult course load with all of the choices that seniors have to make”

The assistance needed to help students with their tuition is them applying for tuition and grants and the Upward bound Adviser, Cindy Zuniga says that “Somethings seniors struggle with, is scholarship and dedicating time aside weekly to apply for them and actually following up so that it could help with tuition”.

The expenses senior encounter are tremendous. From paying for the yearbook, senior field trips, and graduation expenses. According to the AP Secretary, Jenetrica Woods “Seniors would probably spend on average $1250 to $1800 during their senior year” and Jennifer Akinola, Senior also say “Having to deal with every finance for graduation, passing the AP and Dual credit classes”.

AP Chandler says “Senior year means student completing years of high school and achieving a goal, getting ready to go out into the world as young adults, it is a time of major change and also the time of uncertainty, little fear but also freedom and not having all these restraints they used to”. The seniors are getting to know that they are not the same person they used to be, they are more grown and mature in all areas, Jasmine Ceceil, senior said “the challenge is staying respectful to the administration and to yourself, when you think you get to senior year and it’s almost like you are an adult but they do not treat you like one”

The making of decisions of what to do with their lives and that includes if they want to pursue college, take a gap year or have a vocational training to practice a particular skill.

“The average senior is facing the insecurity of what comes next, they don’t know what they are going to do, they are scared of what comes, I think that is the hardest part of being a senior is the fear of the ending not knowing what comes next. Some seniors are faced with the fear that they would not graduate because they have made a decision that’s hard to reverse,” said Cynthia Koronka , Statistics Teacher. The senior who has had hard times from their freshman year to their junior year and has not made their best grades so far are worried about the possibilities of them not graduating.

“ I feel like meeting people’s expectations, everyone is always telling you to get ready for college, there is pressure for seniors to apply most times , we are told that college is the only way to be successful,’’ Says Kenneth Lopez, senior. They are pressured with the idea that college is an important part of their lives that they should be a part of and they just want to meet those expectations.

Jenetrica Woods says “choosing to skip classes during their senior year they would create habits that would be hard for them to break.The difference between high school and college is the demands of amount of curriculum they would be responsible for not going to class on a regular basis will give them a disadvantage by putting them behind”. This would be hard when they get to the real world because they lack the necessary attitude to be effective and successful when they leave.

Deadlines are a major deal in the classroom, Ana Mejia, senior feels like “the most difficult thing of being a senior is being in a class full of smart people and being pretty behind compared to them and it’s a lot of deadlines to meet”.

“Absence is one of the main things that affect them, they have slacked, they do not attend tutorials as they should. In general, I think they have a problem prioritizing and staying organized and focused is a problem,” former Hastings counselor Annette Best said.

About 55 percent are proficient in reading, Meanwhile, about 61 percent are proficient in math, according to a survey done by Niche for Hastings High School.

The Niche survey also states the average SAT score from 1600 is 1020 and the average ACT score out of 36 is 23.

Kassim Raheemat says “They get too excited and have the feeling of “senioritis” so they cannot wait to leave high school to attend college, that  is what most of them are excited about”. They start to feel accomplished, they are almost done with High school and they might start to lose focus in the process. According to  Austin Dada, senior “being a senior is facing the stress of applying to college, the effects of senioritis and the pressure of graduating”