Every student knows the feeling of rushing frantically to turn in a homework assignment before the deadline. But are students taking deadlines as seriously as they should? Losing 20% for turning in a Biology assignment late is nothing compared to losing your job for not meeting essential deadlines. Some students are coming out of high school unprepared for the real world, partly because they don’t have the time management skills that they should have.

Some students believe that punishments for turning in work late should be increased. By doing this it might teach students to take deadlines more serious, and it could prepare them more for the real world. Junior Maxwell Marchiando says, “I wish deadlines weren’t as strictly enforced, but they really should be. In a job, you have to meet deadlines or you will get fired.”

Other students think there just isn’t enough time in the day to do everything they can and adding a little cushion room for assignments is essential. When juggling sports, extracurriculars, a job, and social/personal needs, it can become hard for some students to find the time to get all of their work done on time. Senior Nolan Phalin stated “Being busy is a valid excuse to turn something in late. It is hard to be able to turn in every assignment on time,  work, participate in extracurriculars and have a social life.”

Although it seems as if all students turn in their assignments late, 50 percent of students say they almost never turn in assignments late. While 23.3 percent say they turn assignments late about every other week, and 26.7 percent say they turn them in late more than once a week.

Most students believe that deadlines become more important after high school, but some think that is not true. Freshman Anthony Peterman claims, “Deadlines matter more in high school because teachers get way harder on you when you submit late assignments.”

Sophomore Anai Alarcon agrees with the majority of students and says, “If your boss asks you to finish something on a certain date and you would choose not to, you would be more likely get fired.”

Many students agree that deadlines are very important to be able to meet in the workforce. But not many students know about what to expect for college. Thankfully Alumnus Matthew Kittleson gives his insight into his first year attending United States Naval Academy, “Speaking from my college experience at USNA, deadlines matter more than they did in high school. Often times there are steep penalties associated with missing a deadline, something that is only magnified by the fact that there are fewer (but larger) assignments that are weighted more.“

In conclusion, deadlines are clearly important to the majority of students at South. With 80% of South students surveyed claiming they are very important. But is South doing enough as a school to prepare students for how important deadlines really are?