Weinberg senior Jeffrey Lin said he’s suffering from burnout after so many years of formal education. The treatment, he said, is taking a lighter class load this year.

“There’s also uncertainty of the future,” he said. “It’s more important to think about that than worry about classes.”

Although Lin plans to go to graduate school next year, he said he is already tired of school.

His feelings are common among college and high school seniors as well.

A study released by the Department of Education on Jan. 17 calls the senior year of high school a lost opportunity and a “wasteland” in which graduating students learn very little because they’re fed up and forgotten.

Former U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley commissioned the study into high school senioritis.

“Senior year is also a critical and important transition year into adulthood for young people,” he said in a statement. “As a society we haven’t done a very good job in helping young people make this transition.”

College seniors also are no strangers to senioritis.

At Northwestern, Music senior Josh Tao said he is going to class less and sleeping more. Weinberg senior Jonathan Rosen said he misses class more often this year because of job interviews.

But senior year is not a time to slack off, said Jin Hwang, a Weinberg senior. Grades may not be as much of an issue in college, but they are important for different reasons than they were in high school, he said.

“In high school you had to get good grades to get into a good college,” Hwang said. “In college it’s for the real world.”

High schoolers struggle with senioritis because the prospect of leaving their friends, family and established community behind can be very unsettling, according to Dr. Michael Riera, who has an Internet advice column for students and parents.

High schoolers also fear leaving friends and family to enter the “great unknown” of college, Riera said. As students and parents prepare themselves for the future, present concerns such as classes are often neglected.

At Evanston Township High School, most seniors still go to class because teachers expect it, said ETHS senior Sara Howes. But the students are under less pressure, and teachers are aware of senioritis, said senior Ilana Schuman-Stoler.

“The teachers all seem to know it’s coming, kind of like they’re preparing themselves for it,” she said.