What is "senioritis"

n. (context US English) A tendency of seniors in high school or college to skip class or otherwise slack off due to a desire to move on, or because they have already been accepted by a college and their further academic performance is no longer as relevant.

Senioritis is a colloquial term mainly used in the United States and Canada to describe the decreased motivation toward studies displayed by students who are nearing the end of their high school, college, and graduate school careers. It combines the word senior with the suffix -itis, which technically denotes inflammation but in colloquial speech is assumed to mean a general illness.

Senioritis is a high school musical comedy about the stresses of senior year and is a satire on teachers, parents, college admissions, celebrities, and the money culture. Written by nine students from Virginia and Maryland, it was performed in August 2007 at the Kennedy Center and made into a feature-length film, thanks to a grant from the Arts Council of Fairfax County.

Senioritis tells the story of the senior class at Erma Schmoe High School, which unwittingly becomes the object of an experiment testing the famous laziness so common in the final year of high school. When the seniors bomb their first-quarter grades and tests, they get rejected by the elite "Holly League" colleges. They (and their hovering parents) fear that their lives are hopelessly ruined. Things go madly awry when the seniors get wise to the experiment and decide to get even by having the worst case of "senioritis" in history. The seniors put on a "high school mythical" about senioritis and become global sensations.

The score includes 18 original songs, on topics ranging from grade inflation ("C's and D's are Very Good for You") to college rejection letters ("However"), to hovering parents ("High School Parent Blues"), to the temptations of ambition ("Rich and Famous").