Senior year is the time students anticipate as exhilarating yet stressful. For most, this year starts out with a tedious process: college applications. These two words make seniors extremely anxious, patiently waiting to tear open an envelope containing the fate of the future.

Students wonder: Will I get in? Is the school offering funds to cushion the burden of tuition? Aside from the stress of college and aligning the future, seniors must tend to their academic and social needs: finishing an AP class with an A, getting the lead role in the school’s play or making the time for a friend in need. Seniors are constantly being challenged to finish strong whilst enduring this trying process of getting into college.

This year, Middletown High School has announced that during club period on Friday, April 8, members of the Carroll Creek Rotary Club will be available to interview any students in grade 12 who would like to be interviewed. Seniors are encouraged to participate despite the interviews being optional.

Will seniors participate in something that is optional? Most are likely either committed to a college or stuck in an intense state of senioritis in which they do only what is required. Being a senior myself and already committed to a college, I do not intend to participate in a senior interview. I do see the potential for students, provided they are still in the early process of applying to college. Unfortunately, not all high school seniors may agree that it is still necessary at this point. Especially since it is no longer mandatory; sometimes things have to be mandatory in order for them to be seen as important.

According to College Confidential, “…at some colleges, an interview CAN make a difference between good news and bad news when verdicts are final…” That being said, if this interviewing process were to fall during junior year, it would coordinate with the search for college, including attending open houses and exploring what each college has to offer. Also, juniors begin building their resume, which is required in the English 11 curriculum. A change to holding interviews during junior year – junior interviews, as it were – would be more harmonious with the junior curriculum.

Will next year be different? Will senior interviews cease to exist? Perhaps the unexplored junior interview triumphs once it is not overshadowed by the senior tradition.