Senior year ‘thrown out the window’ because of coronavirus. What comes next?
Clara Hall was in class when she found out Gov. Jay Inslee would close all public and private schools statewide for six weeks in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Just like that, a chunk of her senior year of high school went missing.
“It’s like my last moments of high school are just taken away,” said Hall, a senior at Timberline High School in Lacey.
At first, Hall didn’t know what to think.
“Even now, it feels very surreal to think about — it doesn’t feel like this is a thing that could happen,” Hall said. “Even my teacher was telling me he’s never seen anything like this.”
Then the questions came pouring in: Can students still take the Advanced Placement (AP) exams they’ve been studying for? Is prom, which is scheduled for May 2 at Timberline, still going to happen? What about graduation?
She wasn’t alone.
Tate McReynolds, a senior at Gig Harbor High School, told The News Tribune that COVID-19 “suddenly flipped the last four months of my senior year upside-down (and maybe even backwards).”
“This is history,” said Tate. “We’re a part of something the world has never seen before. We never thought our senior year of high school would end up like this. It could’ve happened anywhere, at any time, but it happened to us.”
College and graduation
One of the most common questions from students is how the closure will impact graduation — and what comes after.
Hall is planning to attend Northumbria University in the United Kingdom.
“They saw on my application that I will be taking AP exams,” she said. “They want to see those scores.”
AP exams give high school students the chance to earn college credit and are usually held in May. Right now, students are still learning the material.
The closures are forcing a lot of students to self-review, Hall said. She created a study group with some students in her class to prepare for the tests and hopes to get in touch with them in the coming weeks.
“I hope to see the state work with College Board to extend dates for AP exam testing,” said Ellyanna Calle, a senior at Timberline High School. “If we took it at the scheduled time, we wouldn’t be prepared.”
College Board announced this week that it would consider at-home tests, the LA Times reported. The board is expected to share more information Friday.
College Board also canceled its SAT test scheduled for May 2, while ACT has postponed its national test date from April 4 to June 13. Students typically take the tests their junior year of high school.
Hall added that some seniors don’t know how to turn in paper applications for college scholarships to their counselors with schools closed.
“I know that all schools and districts are struggling to find answers right now, but I want answers as soon as possible,” Calle said. “Will we have a traditional graduation? Will school be extended?”
It’s unlikely that school will be extended into July or August, state Superintendent Chris Reykdal said in a webinar on Thursday, KNKX reported.
As for graduation, Reykdal told school districts in a Tuesday letter to “provide graduating seniors the content they need to meet their graduation requirements and to support their post-secondary transition.”
“This will likely involve certificated employees and paraeducators working from home making direct contact with seniors by phone, email or video technology. Additional initial guidance on this will be provided by Monday, March 23,” Reykdal wrote.
“Uncharted territory”
So far, no one seems to have all the answers.
“It’s a really weird time right now,” Hall said. “Life seems to be on pause.”
Tom Barry is a counselor from Collegewise, the nation’s largest college admissions counseling organization. He works out of the organization’s Seattle office and is helping with college admissions for about 30 students from the area.
He told The News Tribune on Thursday that the ripple effects of the coronavirus are “uncharted territory for everybody.”
“One of the real challenges is just that there isn’t a universal response for how we’re going to address this issue from the college side,” Barry said.
College “decision day” is typically May 1 — the day when students are asked to decide where they’re going to attend. Some colleges have pushed that day back, but not all of them.
“You’re kind of on a case-by-case basis for every school,” Barry said.
As decisions start rolling out this month, colleges are padding their wait lists, he said.
“People who thought they wanted to go far away from home might be second guessing that,” Barry said.
Barry predicts colleges will be flexible with students.
“The people who are making these decisions at colleges are people, too, with their own families … so they’re going to approach it generously,” Barry said.
He suggests that seniors applying for colleges continue to check their emails and be patient.
“This is a year where all plans, whether from the college side or student side, are thrown out the window,” Barry said.
Lost memories
An Ho, a senior at Timberline, said he saw some of his classmates crying when they heard the news schools would close.
“Senior year is a special moment the class of 2020 has been waiting for, and (for it) to be potentially taken from us is really heartbreaking,” he told The News Tribune.
McReynolds thinks about the memories she’ll be missing out on at Gig Harbor, from visiting her friends at lunch, talking to her teachers or jamming out in her car with her best friends.
She feels it’s out of her control.
“It is what it is,” she said. “The cool thing ,though, is that with all this unknown, things could change, and maybe we will get a prom, or a spring sports season, or I’ll get to see my digital photography teacher, and that’s why we, as a Class of 2020, haven’t given up.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 4:56 AM with the headline "Senior year ‘thrown out the window’ because of coronavirus. What comes next?."
