The general student body sees junior year as the hardest year of high school, while senior year is seen as a breeze. The abundance of AP classes puts juniors under a lot of stress, whereas seniors only take the classes they need the credits for to graduate. While there are still difficult and stressful times during senior year, junior year, overall, is harder.

Junior year piles on an immense amount of work which brings stress along with it. Although it all depends on how each student personally schedules their classes, many want to take harder classes or are pressured into thinking they should. The rigorous coursework of junior year usually consists of many AP classes, which causes the work to add up. At WJ, AP Language and Composition, AP World History and AP Calculus AB are popular to take in 11th grade.

In addition to the hard classes, students participate in an array of extracurriculars. Whether it’s being the president of a club or playing a varsity sport, students have plenty of activities that fill up their time. Balancing extracurriculars along with the homework given by AP classes can become tricky to manage. Most of the time, it causes students to stay up later doing said homework, leading to them getting less sleep.

The combination of harder classes and extracurriculars is all in preparation for college applications. Junior year is a crucial year to do well academically and show the impact you have on your community through activities outside of school. The stress of trying to have all scores and grades perfect for college is what makes junior year so hard.

On the other hand, the actual college application process doesn’t start until the summer going into senior year. Thus it can be argued that the intensity of juggling the start of the school year with completing applications is more difficult than the entirety of junior year. Writing the personal statement essay along with any supplemental essays that are required takes a good portion of time that also has to be factored in with the school work given.

As a current senior, the first few months of the school year have been hard to balance and manage all the school work and college applications. But, my junior year was this stressful the whole year. I know that once I get through the first semester, I can focus on taking in every last moment of high school.

Nevertheless, the whole of junior year brings more long-term stress, whereas once college applications are done senior year, the rest is more relaxed. Once seniors get to that point in the year, they know the end is coming close and cherish the rest of their time at school. On the other hand, juniors aren’t quite through the thick of it yet.