You are receiving this email because we believe you are intending to apply to LASA. This email is the first of several designed to help you make sure you have all of the necessary pieces to submit your LASA application by the deadline at 11:59 PM on Tuesday, February 4, 2024. If you have changed your mind or don’t wish to receive these emails, please fill out this form.
Good evening everyone,
Jo Koerth, principal’s secretary and admissions wrangler at LASA, here with some reminders and helpful information. If you missed Info Emails 1-6, you can find them on our Application Updates & Announcements blog. (I deeply recommend reading through them. They’re full of admissions related information.)
This email should be short(er) and sweet. (Cross your fingers everyone!)
COGAT ADMISSION TEST REMINDER
(This is aimed at students who have not yet taken the CogAT on campus. If you took the CogAT on Saturday, January 11, you can skip to the next section!)
An email with more detailed instructions was sent out yesterday from donotreply@lasahighschool.org. If you did not receive it, you had likely not done Enroll Austin, finished the Supplemental Materials (google) form, or signed up on our Interest Form and I did not have your email address. (Don’t worry, I’ll repeat the broad strokes below!)
Our Academy Director, Ms. Czaplinski, sent out an email with further information to the parents/legal guardians of the students who requested accommodations for this Saturday.
Tomorrow, there are two testing sessions. The sessions are divided by last name. One half of the alphabet is assigned the morning session, the other half the afternoon session.
Last names starting with M-Z are assigned the 9-11 AM testing window.
Last names A-L are assigned the 12:30-2:30 PM testing window.
If you absolutely cannot attend either session assigned to your last name, it’s okay to attend the other session on the day that works best for you. You don’t have to tell us. We just ask that everyone really tries to attend their assigned session.
Students with accommodations must attend the morning session regardless of last name. (Accommodations had to be requested in advance and the date to request them has now passed.)
Students do not have to sign up in advance or have finished any part of the application in order to take the CogAT tomorrow. Just show up!
There is no need to bring anything. We will provide pencils and scratch paper (for the sections that allow scratch paper). You are welcome to bring something to drink and a light snack. We also recommend dressing in layers as the temperature on campus can be unpredictable.
Only students eligible to apply to LASA should take the CogAT on campus. This should be obvious, but clearly I need to reiterate it.
There are two eligibility requirements.
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Students must be in 8th grade or above to apply to LASA. (No, 7th graders intending to apply to LASA next year cannot take the test to practice!)
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Students must currently live in the Austin Independent School District. If they live in another school district (even if their zip code says Austin!) they are not eligible to apply to LASA. (The exception being students whose parent/legal guardian works full time for AISD.)
Please do not waste your time or ours by taking the CogAT if you are ineligible to apply to LASA!
We aim to start the test at 9 AM and 12:30 PM sharp. Plan to arrive at least 15 minutes early and enter through the doors on the left on the side of the school facing Arthur Stiles Rd. (Once the test has started, latecomers cannot be admitted to the testing room.)
The door will be opened when we are ready to receive students. If you see a place to buzz in - you are at the wrong set of doors. No one will be answering the buzzer tomorrow.
Once inside, current 9th, 10th, and 11th graders must let us know that they are current high school students to ensure they are given the correct level of the test.
It’s impossible for a student to finish the test early as it is broken up into timed sections. The proctor will guide all testers through the sections at the same time.
Parents should plan to pick up their students after about 2 hours. Don’t be surprised if you have to wait a little longer. It depends on how long it takes to get everyone situated in their testing rooms.
Parents cannot come into the building with their students; so say your goodbyes and good-lucks outside the doors.
It’s not that we don’t want to meet you, but we don’t have the resources to open up the school for waiting parents.
BUT! You have options if you don’t want to go all the way back home. In the white portable to the right of the school (down by the tennis courts) we’ll have a representative from Enroll Austin and a parent panel during the testing session. (More info on both below!)
ENROLL AUSTIN HELP
During the CogAT testing times, an Enroll Austin representative will be available in our parent organization portable. (See attached map!)
If you have not yet submitted your student’s Enroll Austin application, please take advantage of this time to get that over with. Remember, if you have not submitted your student’s Enroll Austin application by the deadline, we cannot consider them for LASA.
This is a hard deadline! If you miss it, there is nothing LASA can do to help. It’s completely out of our hands. It happened to applicants last year. Do not let it happen to you or your student!
So I am literally begging you. Even if your student is not testing tomorrow, if you have not submitted the Enroll Austin application yet please, please, please come to campus tomorrow and let the kind Enroll Austin rep walk you through it. There will be a laptop to borrow.
Similarly, if you’re having issues with Enroll Austin, they’ll be able to troubleshoot that on site. I promise it’s much easier than trying to get through on the helpline or asking me. (I know a lot about Enroll Austin, but far from everything!)
“FIND YOUR FIT” PARENT PANEL
As you (hopefully) know by now, students have to decide which school they would rather go to this Fall by February 4th. That’s a tough decision!
So while students are testing, our parent organization, PFLASA (Parents and Friends of LASA) is hosting the “Find Your Fit” parent panels. This panel is designed to help your family find the best fit for your family.
In the words of the PFLASA invite:
Is your family torn between two high schools? Still trying to find your fit for next year? PFLASA invites you to hear perspectives from parents who have both a LASA Raptor and a student in another high school. There are a multitude of fantastic programs in our district and beyond. Hear first hand what made LASA the right fit for some of their kiddos and not for others. Panel is in the PFLASA Portable (next to tennis courts) during all COGAT sessions.
You can sign up to attend here: https://www.signupgenius.com/
Finally, a note on parking. Please respect our neighbors and avoid blocking driveways, mailboxes, or fire hydrants. As much as possible, please park on the school side of the street or in one of the parking lots on campus.
COMMUNICATIONS
While I very much enjoyed my four day weekend, it really slowed me down this week! A three day work week is Not It during application season.
While I would have liked to send out an application status email today, I am just not there yet. I am very hopeful that I will be able to send out a round of them tomorrow.
(Yes, while everyone is taking the CogAT, I will be holed up in my office, checking creative works and utility bills. No, I will not be responding to emails or phone calls until Monday.)
This email will be individualized and sent by admissions@lasahighschool.org. Only students who had submitted their supplemental materials form by 8 AM today (Friday, January 24) will receive an email. Students who have already received an application status email may not receive another tomorrow. I have not had a chance to look at resubmitted materials yet. Thank you for understanding.
When you have submitted everything, and I’ve checked everything (remember, one of me, hundreds of you), and it’s all good, you will receive an email stating that the application is complete. (Please trust it!) This email is sent from donotreply@lasahighschool.org
COMMON QUESTIONS
Can you check and make sure we submitted everything right?
I’m sorry, I really can’t. I understand how stressful this is and how anxious you are. But I can’t stop everything I am doing and look up individual students.
BUT! I do go through every student’s application and submitted materials and make sure it’s all good. Once a student has submitted their supplemental materials form, I send out application status emails (I try to send one every Friday). If there are issues with submitted materials, it will be noted in the email.
I got the email and there were issues with something I submitted. I’ve resubmitted it now. Can you check and make sure I got it right?
Again, I’m so sorry, I can’t. My focus is to make sure that as many applicants as possible get an application status email before the deadline so they can fix any issues. I will loop back around to the resubmitted materials, I promise. Thank you for being patient. If you followed the instructions, you should be good to go!
Will students find out their CogAT scores? If so, when and how?
Yes, they will! We send out their CogAT score report along with the decision letter in mid-March.
Why do only applicants who submitted the supplemental materials form get the personal application status email?
Honestly? It’s all about preserving time. In the past, I used to send application updates to everyone. But not everyone who ranks LASA in Enroll Austin end up actually applying. I’ve definitely wasted a bunch of time in the past checking submitted materials and addresses of people who never applied. I want to save that time for the students who actually apply.
Also, it’s less necessary with Enroll Austin since y’all can see when teachers submit their recommendations. And you know what your student has submitted with their supplemental materials form. If you think about it, really you do know what you’ve already submitted.
(Not to mention that Enroll Austin updates instantaneously while it takes me time to update my records. So I might check everyone’s recommendations at 10 AM, send the email at 6 PM and inadvertently freak an applicant out because it says their math teacher recommendation is pending even though Enroll Austin says it was completed at 5:45 PM. My goal is to not freak y’all out!)
These long emails are the compromise. Everyone gets them regardless of status and hopefully it reduces stress more than add to it.
When will I know if I got my requested shadow date?
Plan to shadow on the date you requested. You will receive an email with instructions a day or two before your shadow date.
I’m an AISD student, but the application status email show my report cards as pending. I thought you had access to my report cards?!
This answer is tedious and a little convoluted. But, I can’t automatically access everyone’s AISD report cards. So, every Friday my friend at Enroll Austin pulls a grade report and sends it to me.
Now, the only students in that report are the ones who have ranked LASA in Enroll Austin. So, anyone who submitted their Enroll Austin application (or added LASA as a school they wanted to apply to) after the report was run won’t be included in it.
But basically, you don’t have to worry. You know you have grades in AISD. I will get them. If there are issues, I will work to figure them out.
The next steps in Enroll Austin still show as pending even though I uploaded everything you’ve asked for, should I be worried?
No. Enroll Austin is built to accommodate many different schools and programs. So there are things (like test scores!) that it will ask for, even though all schools might not need them. All it knows is that an upload slot is empty.
If it’s freaking you out feel free to upload an empty document (or a funny/cute pet picture!), but I promise it doesn’t matter. My records override Enroll Austin’s because I’m a person and I can tell the difference between a blank document and an electricity bill. And I know that I don’t need your test scores, and it doesn’t.
Phew! I don’t think that came out much shorter than normal, but there we have it!
Good luck to everyone testing tomorrow! Everyone else – I hope you have an amazing weekend!
All LASA Info Emails will be available on the Application Updates & Announcements blog within 24 hours of being sent.
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
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Jan 25, 2025 - CogAT Admissions Test & “Find Your Fit”- parent panel (sign-up for parent panel) & Enroll Austin Help
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Feb 1, 2025 - Virtual Help Sessions by our parent organization, PFLASA (sign-up required)
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Feb 4, 2025 - DEADLINE! Also, last day to shadow at LASA, and last day to make any changes in Enroll Austin
IMPORTANT LINKS
Jo Koerth (she/her/hers)
LASA ADMISSIONS