Senioritis -- what if they're tired, not lazy?

Calling the letdown some 12th-graders experience as they approach graduation "senioritis" used to be a slightly funny jab at legendary adolescent carefreeness and carelessness.

But today at the most competitive high schools, there is little margin for being either careless or carefree.

By senior year, the most competitive students have spent so much time chasing after achievement -- schedules crammed with Advance Placement courses, resumes brimming with extracurriculars, years of fiercely competing for top rankings -- that they not only have exhausted themselves, they can't really remember what they're competing for.

The fact that they can see they'll reap the benefits of their frenetic work -- acceptance at top-ranked colleges in demanding majors -- simply adds to their burden.

After years of keeping their heads down, following the rules and trading in sleep and hobbies and foolish fun with their friends for astronomical grades and perfect college profiles, all they can see is more pressure, competitiveness, high expectations and work ahead. They don't call it Harvard for nothing.

Sure, there are plenty of high school seniors who shirk their duties, frustrate their parents and cheerfully kiss their grade-point averages goodbye. But there are plenty of other very sober and hard-working 17-year-olds who experience a well-earned mid-life crisis three decades before their parents did.