I wonder if the school’s dedicated college counselor can write the letter instead of the one assigned to her in 9th? My kid knows the college counselor better.

My senior completed his own brag sheet and as his mom, I completed the parent brag sheet. I also reached out to the counselor and basically said that if it would be helpful, I'd be happy to draft a letter that he can cut and paste from if he wanted. I was sure to say that if that offer is inappropriate or doesn't make him comfortable, then to ignore it. He happily accepted my draft letter. Poor guy has to write letters for 150+ kids. No idea if he just passed along the whole letter or wrote his own, but at least he had lots of content to work with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about your kid actually takes time to get to know the counselor. That is what my kid did. Drop in to say hi. Chat for a bit about life. Try it. It works if they can actually get to know you. The student has to make the effort.

My MCPS kid has a good counselor who’s been extremely helpful with practical matters, but she’s too overloaded to chat about life with every kid who pops in. Her schedule is booked solid, no drop-ins allowed unless it’s an emergency.

+1
Same at my kid’s school.

Anonymous wrote:Private school parent here.
Has anyone asked a privately hired college counselor to help write these?

If the high school is lifting the text verbatim, I probably need to be drafting it with that in mind?

Yes. Our private counselor suggested we look at it from the top down: what do we want colleges to know about this student that is not communicated elsewhere in the application?

For example: my son did a semester-long independent study project. It shows up on this transcript with a grade of "H" and a confusing title. It did not appear on the Common App activities list or under Honors. We asked the counselor to describe it in detail and gave her the bullet points: how many weeks it took, how long the paper he wrote was, the fact that one of his teachers incorporated it into a class lecture, and (most important) what he learned from the experience. My son had invited her to his final presentation for the project, so that was helpful too.

Private school parent here.
Has anyone asked a privately hired college counselor to help write these?

If the high school is lifting the text verbatim, I probably need to be drafting it with that in mind?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Counselors provide questionnaires to parents asking to share additional information about their children. This is your opportunity to include as many helpful details as possible, since I assume a counselor will copy-paste them into their recommendation letter.

Not at my kids' schools. The questionnaire goes to the students, not the parents. (2 different public schools in MCPS). I had not heard of parents filling anything out.

My kid is at Blair, and there is a parent section on the questionnaire my son received this year as a junior.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Counselors provide questionnaires to parents asking to share additional information about their children. This is your opportunity to include as many helpful details as possible, since I assume a counselor will copy-paste them into their recommendation letter.

Not at my kids' schools. The questionnaire goes to the students, not the parents. (2 different public schools in MCPS). I had not heard of parents filling anything out.

Private schools send to parents too

Anonymous wrote:Counselors provide questionnaires to parents asking to share additional information about their children. This is your opportunity to include as many helpful details as possible, since I assume a counselor will copy-paste them into their recommendation letter.

Not at my kids' schools. The questionnaire goes to the students, not the parents. (2 different public schools in MCPS). I had not heard of parents filling anything out.

Anonymous wrote:Kids start kissing their counselor's butt in ninth grade. Bring them gifts at Christmas and the end of the year. Stop by their office to chit chat. Remind them to come to the play/soccer game/debate finals/etc so they can see you. When you ace something (a midterm, an AP exam, an award) stop by and make sure they know about it. By 12th grade they will know your child so well and know that they are excited about learning. (And, of course, the brag sheet.)

+10000

Everything the counselor said about the brag sheet. And, make it easy on them. Don't say Larlo is good at X, Y and Z. Use language the counselor can lift for their recomendation letter.

Larlo is intrinsically motivated to help 3 legged puppies. He not only spends every other weekend supporting these pups at the 3 legged dog shelter, he raises money for the shelter on alternate weekends. His affection for the 3-legged pups started when his own pup Larletto lost a leg to cancer several years ago. He has raised over $12,000 for the shelter since he started raising funds for them in 2018.

You get the idea

Anonymous wrote:Spend 4 years engaging with teachers, participating in school activities, and earning honors that notifying the school.

Exactly.

Kids start kissing their counselor's butt in ninth grade. Bring them gifts at Christmas and the end of the year. Stop by their office to chit chat. Remind them to come to the play/soccer game/debate finals/etc so they can see you. When you ace something (a midterm, an AP exam, an award) stop by and make sure they know about it. By 12th grade they will know your child so well and know that they are excited about learning. (And, of course, the brag sheet.)

We had an amazing counselor in VBPS. (Va Beach) If I had more children I would move there again to go through high school there.

Anonymous wrote:Counselors provide questionnaires to parents asking to share additional information about their children. This is your opportunity to include as many helpful details as possible, since I assume a counselor will copy-paste them into their recommendation letter.

I definitely did not receive a questionnaire or have any communication with the counselor at all. FCPS

Also, my child had a different counselor every year and this year his counselor went on maternity leave on October

Spend 4 years engaging with teachers, participating in school activities, and earning honors that notifying the school.