Most difficult year during HS

[Anonymous]

Looking for more recent experiences (post pandemic and return to in-person school), which was the hardest year in high school for your kid? Why? Looking back, what would you or they have changed if anything?

[Anonymous]

Junior year. Rigorous classes, tests, starting to prep for college stuff.

[Anonymous]

The conventional wisdom is junior year, but honestly, I'm thinking post-pandemic, it might be senior year.

Getting those kids across the finish line is harder than I remember it being before.

[Anonymous]

Sophomore year after Freshman year was virtual.

[Anonymous]

Senior year I think is going to be hardest- post pandemic. I have a rising senior and it’s already a drag due to college app

[Anonymous]

I thought it was supposed to be junior year....until we went through senior year. For my kid -- and pretty much all of their friends -- the schedule was nearly or just as demanding in terms of school work. But adding both the time and stress of dealing with college applications just made clear how they had been working to their edge before, and adding that one additional thing just made it crazy.

My advice: urge them to do as much as humanly possible in terms of essays and supplemental essays and everything else over the summer. And then still expect a hard, stress-filled Fall semester (and a stress-filled Spring one until they hear from their top choice schools)

[Anonymous]

Senior year, for a kid with severe ADHD with a 504.

He had a really challenging math teacher who did not understand and refused to provide him with his 504 accommodations. The counselor intervened and the teacher just point blank refused. Since this was the only teacher for that math class, and it was too late to change class... DS just struggled with it for the year. Add on the college application process, which was a lot of stress, and it turned into the worse high school year. DS had a breakdown during the second semester.

I agree that ideally kids should do as much college-related work as possible the summer before senior year, and this is what I kept telling DS... but with his inattentive ADHD, low processing speed and inability to write about himself (despite being an excellent technical writer), he procrastinated and just couldn't write his essays. It was so, so painful, for the entire family - we were all yelling at him to get on with it! His W&M app was turned in at the eleventh hour right before the deadline (he got in).

Thank goodness his younger siblings do not have ADHD and are a lot more functional. I don't think I'd survive another round of ADHD-infused college application cycle.

[Anonymous]

Junior year because he was taking physics and algebra 2 at the same time. He’s always struggled with math.

[Anonymous]

Rising senior parent year- if our summer is an appetizer for my child’s stress level, it will be senior year for sure.

This summer my kid is volunteering (2 weeks/40 hours each), preparing for SAT with prep (wants better score), writing college apps, visiting colleges, taking Health B, starting one year long required school year projects there are two, participating in a competitive pre-college program for several weeks out of state etc.

I’m also the parent who posted about my child being rejected for a teacher recommendation mid summer. Teacher decides who to recommend after AP scores come out and my kid had an A average 4 on exam. Just wonder if this rejection is a harbinger of an increasingly competitive environment overall for everything and how my child overall with admissions.

Rejections during the school year are going to be tough/ distracting. While my kid is not applying to super elite schools probably ones in the 30-100 range, if rejected it will be hard. Coupled with this my kid will be taking 6 AP level classes and 1 honors.

I was so concerned about next years schedule that I asked to meet with counselor over the summer and she thinks my kids schedule is “doable”, given my kid’s junior year performance.

[Anonymous]

PP again- just to clarify it was a meeting with my child counselor and me.

[Anonymous]

High school is super easy, dude. If your kid is struggling during high school, it’s over

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High school is super easy, dude. If your kid is struggling during high school, it’s over

BS. My kids are now in college (one a T5 LAC and the other a T15) and they are happy as clams. High school in our UMC competitive community was a total drag emotionally and spiritually on everyone in the family.

To answer OP, Junior year and first semester of Senior year were the hardest in terms of balancing high level academics, jobs and ECs for my two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought it was supposed to be junior year....until we went through senior year. For my kid -- and pretty much all of their friends -- the schedule was nearly or just as demanding in terms of school work. But adding both the time and stress of dealing with college applications just made clear how they had been working to their edge before, and adding that one additional thing just made it crazy.

My advice: urge them to do as much as humanly possible in terms of essays and supplemental essays and everything else over the summer. And then still expect a hard, stress-filled Fall semester (and a stress-filled Spring one until they hear from their top choice schools)

Agree with this. The one thing that made the end of senior year easier was knowing that AP and IB exam scores weren’t all that important. Yes, they would determine college credit, but they wouldn’t make or break college admissions.

I felt bad many times during my son’s senior year for all the time I spent reassuring him that the pain of junior year would be the ‘worst’ and senior year would be easier, and then it wasn’t. He came through it fine, but I know I misled him.

And agree 100% about encouraging work on the application during the summer to make things easier in the fall.

[Anonymous]

All years in own ways

[Anonymous]

Freshman year adjusting to a huge school, dealing with not finding an open bathroom