Reply to AMA My smart but unremarkable & unhooked kid is heading to a Top 10 college

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I asked what a parent brag sheet is. Sorry people are being mean to you, but could you tell me? Because I really don't know.[/quote]

Many high schools ask parents and students to answer 5-10 questions and send that document back in. Things like “what is your kid’s greatest strength?” and “what is the first thing a college should know about your kid?”

I think you should give those questions some thought. Think about how the answers you give them, which they’ll probably just cut and paste into their recommendations, will fit with other things that you kid’s application would benefit from. If your kid is selling her application as “Smart kid who loves to tutor others in math,” then it isn’t helpful for the counselor to bang on about how your kid loves English classes and is part of the Model UN team.

It’s the old adage of tell them what you’re gonna tell them, tell them, and then tell the what you’ve told them. Admissions officers have 10 min tops to read an application, so lay it out for them. You want the to remember “oh that’s that interesting applicant who tutored some struggling students in math and turned around that one kid’s grade during the pandemic!”  Or something like that. [/quote]

PP you responded to. Thank you very much for this response, I think it makes a lot of sense. I am very happy for your child. Congratulations, this is an exciting time!

I think your approach makes a lot of sense, but I am curious. Did your child do well generally with top schools? I don't mean any disrespect, it's just that getting into one top school-- it could really be any random thing that got them in. Whereas, if they got into several top schools, it may indeed have a lot to do with the approach that was taken.[/quote]

Yep, admitted to two Top 10 schools and then 2 other Top 20 schools. Part of the strategy was selecting schools that tend to value. Kid had high GPA and SAT, but we didn’t think that was enough alone. So we decided to present her as a kid who does 2 things well (one is pretty unusual, so it’d identify her if I said it—but these 2 things are def NOT national awards!). And then her essays and teacher recs and Common App activities all today variations on that theme. The schools are ones tha value quirky kids.

It’s really about getting in the mind of the incredibly slammed Admissions Officers and giving them a clear and concise story about your kid as an individual. You have to give them something to finish the sentence “Oh that’s that kid who …..”

I didn’t invent this of course, but a neighbor’s sister is an Adm Officer for an Ivy and was in town last summer. She chatted with us for 30 min and that completely changed our thinking. (Kid didn’t apply to that Ivy). [/quote]

It sounds like having an unusual interest and[b] teachers and a counselor willing and able to write to the theme [/b]was key. [/quote]

Every school my 3 kids have been to (magnet, regular public, private) have forms where we basically tell the counselors what to write.  [/quote]

I guess my kid's counselor was the exception then. No forms, no clear process, kind of a mess.[/quote]

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