As graduating seniors near the end of their final semesters, pulling an all-nighter in Gelman Library over a pregraduation night out with friends may be the last decision they are willing to make.
With looming plans of joining the workforce or attending graduate school, many graduating seniors tried to leave their undergraduate days in the past — but it’s not over until final exams are taken and final papers are submitted. In a haze of declining motivation and future-facing vision, GW graduates struggling with senioritis, dwindling drive as their undergraduate careers close, are attempting to finish the semester somewhat strong.
Self-proclaimed “leading expert” in the field of senioritis Owen Wolff does not know which semester he is officially graduating with a bachelor’s in computer science and computer engineering and said he wants to go into software engineering postgrad. Wolff said he plans to make an abrupt “Irish graduation” and not attend the ceremony when commencement rolls around — but will make visits to the District to spend time with friends as they graduate.
Wolff said while he is ready to be done with school and start working in software engineering, he can do without the “pomp and circumstance” of a graduation ceremony.
Wolff said he would rather hang out with his friends than attend classes and that he is already feeling “done” with college. He said he tends to leave assignments to the last minute, especially lab reports, a task he finds tedious.
“I can’t be bothered, I’m a grown *ss man. I have a Roth IRA,” Wolff said. “I’m not gonna write a lab report.”
Wolff said his course load for his next — and hopefully last — semester is relatively light, and that he plans to go into it with a “punk rock attitude,” having fun with his final classes, which include a cooking course he’s taking to fill credit hours.
“It’s really about if I’m vibing with the work because sometimes I find work to just be tedious busywork, and sometimes I find it to be really, actually interesting,” Wolff said.
Alex Gates, a graduating senior studying international affairs and German language and literature, said he plans to attend graduate school in the fall but is still deciding between Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris. Gates said the overwhelming lack of motivation causes him to skip classes and turn assignments in late, especially because future plans are the main thing on his mind.
“I haven’t decided where I’m going, which I guess is kind of the whole thing, but it’s not like they can withdraw an acceptance,” Gates said.
Gates said he has already met the required number of credits for graduation, so his final semester has not been “super intense.” He said the call of future plans is distracting, and he does not feel the need to have a strong finish to his year.
“I think it’s just the lack of motivation because I’ve already been accepted to graduate, and I know that it’s coming, so it doesn’t really matter if I do super well in the last semester, anyways,” he said.
Ozzy Simpson, a graduating computer science student said he is participating in the 4+1 program, taking one more year at GW to complete his master’s degree. He said because he is coming back to GW in the fall, he tried to prevent senioritis from getting the best of him as painstakingly long projects, like his senior capstone, loomed over his head.
Simpson said he didn’t have any exams during finals week but had to commit much of his time to his senior capstone project on Bluetooth devices. He said the grueling yearlong project exhausts computer science students by the time finals week rolls around.
“Once classes actually ended, I felt it a lot, and it was really hard to finish projects, and I didn’t really have any finals during actual finals week, but just all the final projects were really hard to commit time to,” Simpson said.
He said his difficult course load of computer science classes this past semester contributed to his lack of motivation and said he expects that to improve in the fall with a change of pace in master’s courses.
“One of the reasons I’ve really been trying to fight kind of just, I don’t know, giving up or doing a lot less work because I know I have to do more in the fall,” Simpson said.
