So, you've completed three years of high school, taken on a challenging courseload, and achieved strong grades in the classroom... so it's time to kick back and breeze through senior year, right? Ummm... wrong...

I know, I know... Your parents, your teachers, and your high school counselor have all preached to you about the importance of finishing strong, and continuing to work hard during the senior year. I know you hear it all the time and maybe sometimes it falls on deaf ears.

My advice: listen to your parents, your teachers, and your counselor! Because they're right.

As an admission counselor who personally sees over 1,000 applications per year, who sees transcripts from hundreds of different high schools, and who serves as a member of the Committee on Admission making decisions on who will be (and won't be) invited to PC, believe me when I tell you that senior year can, in many cases, make or break a student's chances of being accepted to PC (or other schools the student may be applying to).

Why is senior year important? Well, first of all, because it's the year that is most fresh in your mind when you will begin your college studies. Therefore, if a student "takes senior year off" in the classroom by taking a light schedule and/or not working to their potential, they are more than a year removed from serious academic work when they arrive on their college campus. College-level work is more intense than high school-level work in general, but when a student has taken the easy way out senior year, they are really putting themselves at a disadvantage for entering the college classroom. By finishing strong in the senior year and continuing to work hard, you will be much more prepared to handle the college workload next fall.

Why else is senior year important? Because of the competitiveness of the college admission process. Colleges and universities across the country continue to see increasingly talented applicant pools for a limited number of spaces in the freshman class. And when an admission committee has to choose from among very similar applicants in the classroom, senior year is often a way to distingush these applicants. We would much rather invite a student to PC who has continued to challenge him or herself and perform at a high level senior year, rather than a student who has let "senioritis" set in during September.

More to come on senior year academics... Come back!

*Scott