At Jackson-Reed, there are seven reasons for an absence to be excused, one of those being college visits. Yet, they are only excused for seniors. As a junior, I believe this sets students up for avoidable senior-year stress. 

Due to the threat of unexcused absences, juniors are deterred from touring colleges. However, students are often discouraged from visiting colleges only during breaks as classes will be out of session and visitors will miss out on the true culture of a school. 

If students are penalized for visiting prospective colleges during junior year, that leaves a mere couple of months in the fall for students to explore their options in person before submitting their applications.

For some, senior-year comes with more work than junior year: from new leadership positions to higher-level classes, missing school becomes more difficult. Seniors often seek out last minute additions to their resume such as starting new clubs, becoming captain of their sports teams, and more to demonstrate their worth to colleges. Just a couple days missed means that practices, meetings, and classes must be skipped and the make-up work lingers far longer than the missed days themselves. 

Although missing school junior year is no easy feat either, the pressure and stress isn’t as heightened. If students were able to go on tours junior year then they could at least space out their days missed rather than cramming them into a short period.

There is an easy solution to this problem: DCPS should make college visits during junior year excused absences.