Eleventh Grade
 

 Timeline for College Admission

• Now is the time to seriously begin thinking about what college or technical school you would like to attend.  Check the website for visitation days and plan to attend one.  It’s the only way you can decide if the school is right for you.  You will meet faculty, tour the school, learn about college campus life, and have an opportunity to meet with financial aid counselors to learn what financial aid is available through the college or technical school.
• Plan to attend College Night at Maude Cobb Activity Center in November in Longview.  Listen to the LHS announcements for date and time.
• It is imperative that you register and take the PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Achievement Test) in October of your 11^th grade year.  You will register at Longview High School and take the test there during the school day.  This test is the beginning of the National Merit Scholar Competition.  The test is given on one day only, so don’t miss it.  From this one test, you will begin to receive information from colleges and have the opportunity to earn scholarship money. .  Remember the National Merit Corporation Scholarship Program begins with your Selection Index (SI=your score on the PSAT).  If you want to be named a National Merit Scholar, a Commended Scholar, or a National Achievement Award winner and earn scholarship money, then you need to score well on the PSAT.  The road to scholarship money in your senior years starts in October of your junior year.
• If you missed the Lobo Scholars Academy the past summer, register for a PSAT prep course given at Longview High School at night and on Saturday prior to the PSAT.  By knowing what’s on the test, you definitely will improve your score, and your score is important!
• It is imperative that you register for and take either the ACT or SAT, whichever test your college of technical school requires, during the SPRING of your junior year.  Do NOT wait until your senior year to take these tests, especially if you want to qualify for your school’s early admissions.  Colleges begin notifying prepared students of admissions in December but only if you have applied and have all the requirements in place during the first semester of your senior year.
• Don’t take the ACT or SAT unprepared.   Longview High School offers test prep classes at night and on Saturdays.  Going to take one of these tests “cold turkey” guarantees you a poor score.  These tests are not like the TAKS tests; they are unlike any test you have seen before!  Good scores on these tests can also exempt you from the THEA test.  (See next bullet.)
• Make a great score of the TAKS test your junior year.  These scores can exempt you from taking the THEA test, Texas Higher Education Assessment, required by many colleges and technical institutes.  You must take this test in order to enroll in dual credit classes through your high school.  The test currently costs $29.00, so if you can become exempt through TAKS, you save yourself the bother of another test and $29.00.  Check out the THEA website-www.thea.com.
• Update your resumè often—a list of all your school activities, community activities, church activities, honors, awards, volunteer hours and projects, work experience, technology skills, advanced courses you have taken.  Don’t leave out a thing.  Then when you are ready your senior year to compile a professional resumè to attach to your scholarship applications, you won’t need to try to recall all that information.  You will have it at our fingertips.  Also, you will need to provide anyone who will write you a letter of recommendation for college or scholarships a copy of this resumè.
• Now it’s very important to seek summer academic and volunteer opportunities.  Time is running out.  You will be a senior next year.   Definitely don’t waste the summer before your senior year.  Do something productive.