The symptoms show up every year. High school seniors try to balance extracurricular activities, a social life, college admission, and perhaps a part-time job. Somewhere along the way, homework begins to take a backseat to the clamor of other priorities. Then the can't-wait-to-graduate group gets accepted to college, and after that, high school pales in importance even further. Schoolwork starts to slide — and so do their grades. The diagnosis? Senioritis.

Senioritis is easy to catch, hard to get rid of, and potentially damaging to your plans. Every year, colleges rescind their offers of admission, put students on academic probation, or change financial aid packages because of the effects of the malady.

Take some time this summer to think about how you'll handle senioritis when you head back to school. Be prepared to talk about your frustrations with friends, make a pact with yourself not to obsess about college admissions, and, above all, make sure you devote time to having fun — you'll be much more able to focus on the books if you have a good balance between work and play.