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[quote=Anonymous]Counselor here.  Please give specifics in brag sheet I can lift into letter. Proud of taking honors class X because it isn’t their top subject? Great.  Did X and Y in summer program? Awesome.

In outside sports? Tell me exactly how many hours and how often, and what position they play/how good they are (I know nothing about sports).

Tell me major and why/what experiences led to this.  (I can look it up maybe? Not always accurate and obvious to know that kid is applying for a Y major depending on system.)

If they work, I want hours, place, if it’s supporting family, duties.  Same for clubs.  I want details, things they’re proud of, things they overcame… things I can literally reword into my own words but that I don’t need to ask follow-up questions about (when was X? How was Y hard for you? What was inspiring about Z?)

If something happened- COVID, death in family, etc- tell me when it happened and how it affected them, and the meaning of the relationship.

Difficulty with class selection or academics they want me to highlight (teacher X was absent most of first semester junior year, had hoped to take Y AP but schedule conflict)

The best letters are ones where I can sit down with the brag sheet, open up the transcript/current class schedule to review for rigor, and write from that.  It is not hard for me to pull up teacher recs, but I often beat the teachers.  I can sometimes pull up their app itself (if they have enabled Common App preview status and added me as an advisor and not just a counselor).  Otherwise, all I can see is what schools they applied to- not into major.

Resumes are helpful but often don’t tell me HOW a student felt about it.  I find the adjectives for how a student describes themselves or how a teacher might describe them helpful to set a tone.[/quote]

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