High Schoolers Who Have Been Accepted Into College - How Do you Stay Motivated?

Lol at coming to WSO for parenting advice. This is the real life version of the “hello fellow kids” memes. Of course the OP is made by financeabc.

Senioritis, man. Everyone I know has been hit by it; it has nothing to do with COVID (although COVID may have accentuated it). As long as his grades are decent to the point his college acceptances don’t get retracted, he should be fine.

As for motivation, that was always goal oriented. He was motivated to get into colleges. He’s done that, and even if he hasn’t, it’s no longer within his control. In any case, just let him chill he’s been at it for 4 years.

I’m a little older then your son, but when I was a senior and got into a couple schools I just began to coast. Made sure my grades stayed up so acceptance didn’t get rescinded but just enjoyed the last couple months of high school. Is there really a point in grinding for an A when you get away with a B? He got the grades to get into college already and now there isn’t much benefit to study hard for that A anymore. Plus with covid and all that has come with it, he probably doesn’t feel like doing much, let him be for now. He got into college and as long as he gets back to work during the fall, it’s all good.

Buy a belt. 

Financeabc.

Dealt with it last year with my oldest.  We told her either go to all your classes, put in a standard senior effort (like we did when we were seniors) or get a part-time job, pay rent, graduate and don't fuck up your college admission.  She actually chose the latter, barely went to class, graduated with B's and paid $450 / month for her last semester of high school. 

We held the money and gave it back to her when she left for college. 

Honestly feel the same except my grades actually matter still lol rip 

Current college senior with a FT banking offer. Have not tried that hard in school since online classes started having had my summer internship offer junior year and especially after getting the return offer. Also have had P/F options throughout that I have used several times. Back in senior year of high school, I probably missed 20-30 days of school after finishing up college applications and still graduated around the top of my class. If I have already reached the end goal, why work unnecessarily hard for no extra gain? I don't see the problem with chilling out a little bit before starting back again on the grind at the beginning of college where grades will start mattering again. That was my approach in high school and doing the same thing now. This is of course assuming a kid has some level of self-motivation when it matters and also that losing motivation doesn't mean literally dropping so hard that it might result in rescinded acceptances. 

I'm 24 but I have younger cousins that I'm close with that just started college. Perhaps it's different because we're Brooklyn kids, so for my younger cousins and their friends it's just a continuation of High School online learning. But I think you should just sit down with your son and talk to him man to man and see how he thinks and feels about college at this time. Tell him the truth and say motivation won't get you through college, discipline will. I've read previous replies you've made and you've said your wife is more worried than you are, which is more than fair. But I remember when I first started college, granted it wasn't online, but still as other younger members have said, it's definitely senioritis and I remember a bunch of freshmen friends of mine that straight flunked or did poorly in classes because they thought it was a continuation of high school and they didn't know that they had to get their asses into gear. So I'd also tell your son to watch out for that.

Hope you found this advice helpful and best of luck with your son's journey in virtual college.

meh

Current high school senior in a similar situation.

I think it's mostly about finding something exciting to do. After submitting my college applications and receiving a few acceptances, I was reluctant to continue trying in school, especially given the circumstances of online learning. It got to the point where I had 15+ missing assignments and my school was calling my parents every week. I got out of this slump by finding something that I really wanted to learn/explore. For me, it was starting a personal blog. Going into college as an econ/finance major, I realized how little I engaged with econ/finance content ever since I stop caring about school and extracurriculars, compared to all the Netflix shows and Youtube gaming/sports channels I would spend hours watching. So, I decided to start investing more time into reading up on news in finance and the US economy, stock market, etc, formulating an opinion on these topics, and polishing and writing them down in a personal blog. After a couple of weeks of forcing myself to commit to this project, I started to enjoy it, and realized that I'm doing schoolwork so much faster since I actively want to get them out of the way to make time.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to what your son wants to do with the time he has from now until he goes off to college, given the fact that online school gives us so much free time to do other things and that we don't have any extracurricular commitments anymore. On one hand, he could pursue a project or something he's genuinely wanted to do (doesn't have to be academic), but on the other, he could also take it easy and relax, which is totally fine as well. I would just make sure he keeps his grades up at the bare minimum since colleges can rescind him if they fall significantly.

I’m currently a senior as well. All I did in order to maintain some level of motivation is to made sure that I acknowledge some level of purpose. Whether it’s now or 5 years from now, making sure that all of my actions are directly contributing towards something makes me want to continue doing them with some form of drive. I also wouldn’t be too hard, it’s been an insane year, and college applications definitely took a better chunk out of me than I would like to admit. I just think a balance of self-forgiveness and a goal in mind would do anyone well right now. But then again, might be talking fluff, so obligatory take my opinion with a grain of salt

Staying motivated as an end in itself is silly. You can def slack off post-acceptance. I wouldn't start earning Cs, but an extra B or so isn't gonna matter.

That said, I was a paranoid senior and ended up with just 1 B at the end of senior year! I did, however, ditch AP exams (credits wouldn't count) and went out to brunch with my friends on test days. Good times...

I frankly shocked someone slept with you at least twice. But to answer your question, maybe just talk to your son? Of course he's going to be disinterested in school with this pandemic stopping him from having what has probably been sold to him as the ultimate experience of youth in-person. Small children certainly aren't excited about remote learning, so why on earth would a college-aged kid be when they're having even MORE taken from them? Children are the most robbed by this whole thing, think about how this fucks with their development and view of the world. Plus isolation and all is hardly good for a growing mind.

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