College Admission Decisions

College admissions decisions are already starting to come in for some students. Every senior looks forward to receiving their college acceptance letters. It is an exciting time and reassures you that there is more ahead. Depending upon the schools where you are applying, it is possible that you will hear back quickly or you may be waiting to hear about your status on if you have been accepted or not until sometime in March. I do ask that as you begin receiving your acceptance or, sadly, even rejection letters, to please keep me informed about the decisions. For the vast majority of the colleges, the only way I know about your admissions decision is if you share the information with me.


Remember, the only way to receive an acceptance letter is to actually APPLY to the college! (Just a friendly little reminder for those of you who are struggling to get your applications finished.)

Anxiously Awaiting Decisions

This is a key time for college admissions decisions. Most of the schools that have yet to announce their decisions will be releasing them over the next few weeks. This can be a very stressful time for students. Try to take a deep breath and relax – you have done the best job to put yourself in the best situation possible with your applications. If you are stressing out awaiting the news, feel free to stop in and see me so we can talk about it.

College Credit Plus

In addition to the wide range of courses that we have available here at LHS, there are other academic options available to our students.

The College Credit Plus (CC+) program is an opportunity for high school students to take college courses while still enrolled in high school. Students have the option of completing courses on a college campus, online, or at LHS.

College classes at LHS include both classes that are taught by LHS teachers who are eligible to serve as adjunct faculty through NCSC.

Classes being taught at LHS include:  Calculus 1, Intro to Business, Marketing, English Composition 1, American Government and Politics, Biology I, Chemistry I, Chemistry II, General Physics, American Culture & History to 1877, American Culture & History from 1877, and College Drawing I.

There are a lot of details involved in participating in the CC+ program and students must complete and submit the paperwork before April 1st to indicate their intent to participate in the CC+ program in the following school year.  One new aspect about CC+ is the fact that students are now eligible to take classes during the summer in addition to during the school year.

In order to explain all of the details of the program and to provide you with the forms necessary, students and parents must attend our Academic Options mandatory meeting. If you were unable to attend on Thursay, February 18th, we have a recording of the presentation given at Pioneer this year. You will need to watch the video, see your counselor to gather the appropriate paperwork, and return the required materials to your counselor by April 1. Please follow this link to watch the video of the CCP presentation: https://youtu.be/lR6W_Ee6u3w

If you have any interest in learning more about College Credit Plus, please talk to your counselor!

Test Anxiety

Next week, we will have our semester exams. Are you feeling anxious? Test Anxiety can be common for students - especially with exams since they have such a significant influence on your semester grades. The best strategy to prevent test anxiety is being prepared. It is much more likely that you will be anxious and struggle with feeling overwhelmed if you have not adequately studied and prepared for the test. Unfortunately, for some students, you can be well-prepared, but still struggle with anxiety.

There are a wide range of strategies you can use to help deal with anxiety:

- Research has indicated that spending several minutes before a test to write about your feelings will help decrease test anxiety and improve test scores. The University of Chicago researchers “believe worrying competes for computing power in the brain’s ‘working,’ or short-term memory.”

- Practice putting yourself in testing situations when studying. The more you get used to the experience and feelings of testing the less anxious you will feel when in the actual test.

- Just before the test, avoid talking about the test material with your friends. Chances are fixating on the test material and talking about it with your friends right before the test will only make you more anxious.

- Approach the test with a positive attitude. Don’t go into the test expecting the worst to happen. You can remind yourself that you have studied and know the material.

- Avoid distractions so that you can focus on the test and not on what other students are doing. Do not compare yourself with others and how they are doing on the test.

- Take a deep breath, relax, and do the best you can.

I should also mention that smart testing strategies like getting a good night of sleep, eating breakfast, having all of your required materials (pen, pencil, calculator, scratch paper, etc), getting regular exercise, and giving yourself plenty of time to get to your test on time will also benefit you as a whole and in testing situations.