Applying to college, taking the SATs and fighting senioritis as a high school senior is challenging enough in a normal year. Faced with a pandemic that makes college tours inaccessible, cancels sports seasons and makes seeing friends a risk, high schoolers are navigating the future with even more uncertainty than usual. At a fundamental moment in their lives, students are forced to adapt and be resilient. They lead their sports teams through altered or canceled seasons, run clubs over Zoom and do their best to find moments of connection to keep them sane.
As college application deadlines draw nearer, seniors deal with not being able to visit campuses in person. They take virtual tours and look at the campuses on Google Maps while gambling on the hope that the college will feel like home. Approximately 3.7 million students are expected to graduate from high school in the U.S. during the 2020–21 academic year, and it’s clear that they will be changed forever by the pandemic.
The Ithacan photo staff photographed high schoolers from their hometowns around the country.












