Admission Information

The A. Linwood Holton Governor's School is open to high school students who have an academic record of success. While the program is designed for gifted high school students a gifted designation is not required. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors may participate in our program. Each school division has their own selection process based on the ALHGS Admission Guidelines.

A prospective student, having first discussed their participation with their parent(s)/legal guardian and school guidance counselor, can download and complete an application, which is available below. In addition to obtaining the written permission of the student's parent(s)/legal guardian, applicants will also need to obtain the recommendation of their principal and guidance counselor, or gifted coordinator per their school's requirements. The completed application is then returned to the appropriate A. Linwood Holton Governor's School representative at the student's high school, which is typically their guidance counselor. The application is then submitted to the Governor;s School for review and approval for admission.

Admission applications submitted directly to A. Linwood Holton Governor's School offices by an applicant cannot be accepted. Admissions decisions are communicated to each student's guidance counselor.

Guidelines used in admission are available here. Prerequisites for specific courses can be found by clicking on the name of the course of interest listed on the Courses page.

All Governor's School classes, with the exception of ALHGS Latin language, Honors Chemistry, and Honors Physics classes, are dual enrollment offering both high school and college credit. College credit is obtained through the student's regional community college. To obtain college credit, one must complete a community college admission application. Application links for each community college Governor's School partner are available below.

ALHGS Admission Application

The 2026-2027 Academic Year Application for admission to the A. Linwood Holton Governor's School, as well as course registration, is available for download below as an Adobe PDF form. (James Monroe students must contact their guidance counselor for the appropriate application and registration forms.) Prospective students should speak with their guidance counselor as well as review the Governor's School Admission Guidelines prior to completing a HGS Admission Application.

Community college applications, completion of which is required for dual enrollment credit, are available through the links below.

APPLICATION COMPLETION INSTRUCTIONS Download ... Type ... Print ... Sign

The application form should be completed on a computer.

To apply to the Governor's School, please do the following:

Download the application & course registration form, the PDF document available through the link below, to your computer:right-click on the application link and select Save Target As... to save to your local computer
Open the downloaded PDF document using Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat (please see the link below to obtain a free copy of Adobe Reader if you do not have this software)
Type in the highlighted fields and/or select the appropriate option from the drop down menus
Print the completed application
Obtain the required signatures
Submit the completed application to your guidance counselor

Completion of the application by following the above steps will significantly improve the school's processing of your application.

Admission Application

2026-2027 Academic Year new

Please note that the above application is NOT for James Monroe High School students. James Monroe students should contact their guidance counselor for the appropriate ALHGS application.

To view, complete, and/or print the form, Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader software, version 7.0 or later, is required. Using the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader is recommended. The Acrobat Reader software is available free from Adobe's web site. The site can be reached by clicking on the icon below.

Community College Admission Applications

Every student electing to take a Governor's School class under the dual enrollment program, where one receives both high school and college credit while enrolled in a class, must have completed a community college application for their regional community college.

If you have never completed a community college application for a dual enrollment class through your high school or community college, please click on the appropriate link below and complete the application process. You may need to create an account as part of the application process. (Students only need to complete the application. There are no fees that a student must pay, etc.)

Unsure of which community college application to complete or unsure if you need to complete a community college application? Please check with your high school guidance counselor.

To begin the community college application process, please click on the appropriate community college name below:

Community College Transcript Requests

To request a community college transcript showing your college credit (and college credit obtained through completion of ALHGS courses), click on the appropriate community college name below: