David Mills/The Ledger
You’ve been accepted to college. You’ve submitted your enrollment deposit. Your fate is sealed, it’s senior year, and the hectic college admission process is coming to an end.
You may be tempted to think that it is finally time to slack off a bit.
Be careful. Senioritis, that intensifying disinterest in maintaining high academic standards, is real — and it is dangerous, as regular readers of The Choice are aware.
Here are some reasons to avoid senioritis, along with excerpts from our previous posts:
Your Admission Offer May Be Rescinded
Somewhere in all those college admission letters, after the “congratulations’’ part, is a sentence to the effect that admission is conditional upon the student completing high school with the same academic and personal achievement on which the offer was based.
And they mean it. Each year, colleges rescind offers to students whose grades plummeted after they were admitted. Generally, one stray C won’t have serious repercussions. But make it a couple of D’s on a transcript that had been crammed with A’ s and B’s and there may be trouble.
— “A Warning: Colleges Can Change Their Minds”
by Tamar Lewin
Your College Is Watching You
Colleges require final grades for accepted students. Many students believe that only the first half of senior year “counts.” Not true. At Connecticut College, we carefully review the senior-year progress of admitted students and require midterm and final grades to be sent to the office of admission.
— “A Dean’s Advice to Seniors: Don’t Slack Off”
by Martha C. Merrill, dean of admission and financial aid at Connecticut College
“I can tell you that as we review final high school transcripts (and our admissions counselors read all of them), any student who either failed a class their final semester or fell below a 2.0 G.P.A. is sent on to me for follow-up,” Jefferson R. Blackburn-Smith, the vice president for enrollment management at
Otterbein University, wrote in an e-mail.
“We do not automatically rescind the admission decision because of a poor senior year,” Mr. Blackburn-Smith said, “but we do want the student to know that we are concerned and will be watching their performance.”
— “University Sends ‘Fear of God’ Letter to Students With Senioritis”
by Tanya Caldwell
If You Were on Honor Roll When You Got In, You May Be Expected to Stay There
Colleges expect you to continue your current course schedule and maintain the level of academic and personal success demonstrated in your application. Colleges look to your application, especially your transcript, to determine if you are an appropriate academic match for the college — and vice versa. We expect the students we admit will continue to demonstrate the traits that distinguished them during the admission process — throughout senior year and during the years spent on our campus. If you can’t maintain that level of success during your senior year, you cast doubt on your ability to succeed in college.
— “A Dean’s Advice to Seniors: Don’t Slack Off”
by Martha C. Merrill, dean of admission and financial aid at Connecticut College
You May Have to Explain Why You Slacked Off
Far more common than revocation of admission is a warning letter, expressing disappointment and asking for an explanation.
“In my seven years here, I can only think of two cases when we rescinded,’’ said Paul Mathers, the dean of admission at
Reed College. “But every year, when grades drop or there is some misbehavior, we send out warnings, what we think of as a ‘Come-to-Jesus’ letter, because we want them to be aware that we considered rescinding their offer of admissions, and we want to know if they are going to be serious students here. What we’ve found, generally, is that those students don’t end up flunking out or on academic probation.’’
— “A Warning: Colleges Can Change Their Minds”
by Tamar Lewin
While a vast majority of students admitted to Connecticut College continue to excel during senior year, every once in a while, I find myself having to send what I call an “oops” letter. This letter informs the student that we have noted a downward turn in performance and requests a written explanation. That response is included in the student’s permanent record. Students with significantly poor academic performance during senior year need to know their offer of admission can be revoked.
— “A Dean’s Advice to Seniors: Don’t Slack Off”
by Martha C. Merrill, dean of admission and financial aid at Connecticut College
For students admitted to
Texas Christian University, a notice informally known as the “fear of God letter” will read something like this:
Dear Joe:
We recently received your final high school transcript. While your overall academic background continues to demonstrate the potential for success, we are concerned with your performance during the senior year, particularly in calculus. University studies are rigorous and we need to know that you are prepared to meet T.C.U.’s academic challenges. With this in mind, I ask that you submit to me, as soon as possible but no later than July 31, 2012, a written statement detailing the reasons surrounding your senior year performance.
Joe, please understand that your admission to T.C.U. is in jeopardy. If I do not hear from you by the above date, I will assume you are no longer interested in T.C.U. and will begin the process of rescinding your admission.
Please realize that your personal and academic successes are very important to us. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Raymond A. Brown
Dean
— “University Sends ‘Fear of God’ Letter to Students With Senioritis”
by Tanya Caldwell
Bowdoin College has several classes of warning letters, according to Scott Meiklejohn, the dean of admissions.
“It’s a spectrum,’’ he said. “Students who have a slight decline get a letter noting our disappointment that their grades are different from the grades on which they were admitted. For students who’ve had a larger decline, we ask them to write back with their comments and explanation. For the more serious, we tell them we’re going to review the case and decide if we are still offering admission, and in the most serious, we sometimes revoke the offer.’’
— “A Warning: Colleges Can Change Their Minds”
by Tamar Lewin
You May Have to Start Your College Search Over Again
Bad grades are not the only possible pitfall. Some students lose their admission offers because of plagiarism, cheating, drunken misbehavior or arrest.
“Last year, we rescinded an early-decision offer after a student was kicked out of boarding school,’’ Ms. Merrill said. “It’s especially painful for the early-decision candidate, because they have no other options, and it’s often too late to apply anywhere else.’’
— “A Warning: Colleges Can Change Their Minds”
by Tamar Lewin
Senior Year Should Help You Transition to College
Colleges are typically tight-knit communities that require honesty and mature behavior. While we understand that unavoidable circumstances may arise that can influence a student’s academic performance, poor behavior resulting in disciplinary action by a high school is inexcusable. As dean, I have revoked several offers of admission over the years for unacceptable behavior during a student’s final semester.
With applications in, seniors should take time to savor their final months of high school and enjoy family and friends. But they should also be using this important time in their lives to practice balancing academics with other commitments, and not fall victim to the “senior slack.”
— “A Dean’s Advice to Seniors: Don’t Slack Off”
by Martha C. Merrill, dean of admission and financial aid at Connecticut College
Admission Officers Would Rather Not Target You
“It is one of the hardest things to send a letter asking for an explanation,” Lee Ann Afton, dean of admission and financial aid at
Sewanee: The University of the South, wrote. “Fortunately, we don’t have too many students who just stop studying completely, but if the drop is too extreme, we will rescind our offer of admission. I always remind students that every letter of acceptance has the sentence about the offer of admission is contingent on successful completion of high school work.”
— “University Sends ‘Fear of God’ Letter to Students With Senioritis”
by Tanya Caldwell
