Senior year is the perfect time to offer students challenges that will help prepare them for life after school. The term "senior seminar" has been commonly used to describe a course that is specifically designed to help 12th graders develop knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that will prepare them for their college or work experiences. Senior seminars typically fall into one of two categories: academic or guidance. Academic seminars are interdisciplinary courses for a limited number of seniors that focus on in-depth exploration of a given topic. They emphasize high-level critical thinking, application of previously learned concepts, and synthesis of earlier work. Guidance-oriented seminars tend to focus on the various transition issues that seniors face in the pivotal 12th-grade year. They address the social and personal management skills that graduates will need to successfully navigate the next stage of life, whether that is in college or the workplace. When carefully designed and implemented, senior seminars help students connect their learning to themselves, the real world, and their future.