The most stressful part of a student’s career is arguably the first semester of senior year. During this time, seniors must navigate through their toughest classes and maintain grades that colleges will certainly view, while additionally completing college applications.

Although these applications pile on top of the schoolwork that must already be completed, seniors are given no respite in classwork to work on their college applications. Rather, they must find time between homework, extracurriculars and precious sleep in order to attempt to gain admission to colleges.

A week off just for seniors in the fall would give them the opportunity to focus on their college applications without the outside pressures of school. These college applications take several hours each, and they directly affect students’ futures, determining students’ admission into colleges.

Even if the administration does not wish to give the seniors the week off from school, they could set aside the week where they would still come to school but instead they would meet in the resource center and be able to work on their college applications instead of attending their normal classes.

Although a week dedicated solely to applications might not be feasible, the two days prior to Thanksgiving Break could be given to college-applying seniors. Since this week is largely unproductive, having an entire week off to work on applications would only be beneficial to seniors.

Next year, administrators will implement a new schedule that will place first semester finals before the two-week winter break. A consequence that the administration might not have considered is that seniors could be working on applications while studying for finals concurrently. Not only will they have to study for their normal classes and spend several hours to complete each college application, they will also have to study for multiple finals. The seniors will have the dilemma of choosing between having a stellar college application and mediocre grades or vice versa.

At this pivotal time, the seniors should not have to choose between one or the other. After their four years of work, seniors should be able to have both: a stellar application and stellar grades.