December does not only bring holiday cheer, but something more anxiety-ridden for high school seniors: college acceptance decisions. For students who applied early action or early decision, emails and letters should start arriving with their fate. 

These times of waiting only adds to the stress that comes with the weeks leading up to winter break. “The anxiety is unreal. At this point, it’s all a waiting game and I have to try to ignore it and wait for the letters to start coming in. It’s such an exciting part of life, yet the most nerve racking feeling,” said senior Kaylee Lyman.

Some lucky students have already received acceptance letters and scholarships from certain colleges, mainly their safety schools. Kylie Gauvin, a LHS senior, stated “I have heard back from my safeties and it is great to know I have schools to fall back on while waiting for the rest of my college acceptances.” This is just the beginning of this exciting, stressful, and long journey of the college process for high school seniors. 

Every year, guidance makes sure to display all of the seniors’ hard work by lining the walls with schools each student has received acceptance to. Last year, they used stickers of the schools which they put on papers with the students’ names and displayed them on the ramp in the A hallway. 

This year, the guidance department has decided to move away from the stickers and make this process more interactive and fun for the students. The seniors get to decorate their caps, by coloring or anything else creative they can think of, pertaining to the school they got into which makes seniors more involved and excited about their acceptance. In order to receive a cap to decorate, seniors must forward their acceptance emails or pictures of their letters to Mrs. Mathisen, and then pick them up in guidance!

As a senior myself, making the grad caps for the schools I have been accepted into has been fulfilling and exciting to see my hard work displayed for the rest of the school to see. However, some students have different feelings about them; Kaylee Lyman thinks the idea is cool, but she has some concerns with the concept: “I think the grad caps are cute and fun to make, but I think it’s difficult at this time of year to even have the time to make them colorful and fun to put up on the wall. Personally, I feel not everyone will decorate them, causing the walls to not be as full, and also, I loved seeing the stickers of every school someone got into—it’s fun to know! With the caps it will cause less participation and with stickers every kid gets to show what schools they got accepted too!”