<p>Hi, our school does brag sheets --so counselors know what to write for their letter of rec</p>
<p>Im wondering if anyone else has done this. I really don't know how to answer some of the questions...and what would sound the most impressive?</p>
<p>So here are some questions: can some of you give me ideas?</p>
<ol>
<li> What are your proudest accomplishments?</li>
</ol>
<p>A. Academic</p>
<p>B. Personal</p>
<p>(over)
5. Give five descriptive adjectives that help describe you as a person.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What extracurricular activity has been most important to you? Why?</p></li>
<li><p>What job experience has been particularly meaningful? Why?</p></li>
<li><p>At this time, have you formulated a career choice or college major? If so, what is it?</p></li>
<li><p>What are your personal goals?</p></li>
<li><p>Is there anything you think that your counselor doesnt know about you that might influence a recommendation?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Oh, we had to do this.
The thing that sounds most impressive is the thing that’s true Give it some thought, and you’ll certainly be able to think of something that genuinely (and accurately) defines you for each.</p>
<p>Advice: Honesty. Really. Also caffeine. I wrote mine, since I was doing so at the end of junior year, on about a 1,000 hour sleep deficit (no joke). It ended up being very stream-of-consciousness (I did edit it into something approaching coherence, but as I was /editing/ on that thousand-hour sleep deficit, my editing was also lacking), but my counselor (somehow) went from:
Counselor in March: So, what’s your SAT score?
Self: 2360; 800-800-760.
CiM: What, YOU?!
to:
Counselor in June: OMG YOU ARE SO IMPRESSIVE THIS IS GREAT
Self (thinking): …How did my ramblings about physics (example quote: I do not believe in the limits of the possible, because that would be depressing. How sad the universe would be if we could never travel faster than the speed of light! I mean, what would we do if we were stuck on Earth for eternity? That would be sad.) convince you I was smart? You totally didn’t like me before this.
CiJ: Like wow!
Honesty! And give lots of examples about everything. Counselor letters are much improved if instead of going “Lirazel loves to learn about all sorts of different topics” they can say “Lirazel loves to learn about all sorts of different topics. Although probably a history or classics major, she borrowed a friend’s AP Physics textbook so that she could read the chapter on quantum mechanics, because she wanted to know more than her own textbook told her.”
Err on the side of giving too many stories rather than not sufficiently enlightening your character, but your counselor probably has a lot of these to read.
Oh, and for 5, ask your friends for suggestions.</p>
<p>^^I wholeheartedly agree. This is not the time to hold back or be shy. If you don’t say it in the brag letter, your counselor won’t know it and won’t say it in his/her letter. Tell them LOTS about you so they can pick and choose from lots of great stuff.</p>
<p>I actually just finished typing up a resume for my teachers and eventually my GC.</p>
<p>Besides the standard Academic History I typed up what I felt made me an individual. In my case that was my intense intellectual curiosity of the just about… everything. I kinda consider myself an extraordinarily lazy Renaissance Man. :P</p>
<p>yo Im really concerned about this question:
6. What extracurricular activity has been most important to you? Why?</p>
<p>the real answer would probably be distance running, but Im not even top 50 in the state. However, Im one of the best asian distance runners in the area. Maybe I could bs this and say…blah blah blah make up a story of how people said to me, “You are Asian, therefore you cannot run”. However I proved these people wrong when I beat them all in a race.</p>
<p>However, im afraid 1)this would make me seem too race-sensitive 2) its not a real accomplishment 3) it does not demosntrate intellect</p>
<p>Do you think talking about founding a club would be better?that would demosntrate more intellectual ability</p>
<p>Oh my god you are doing this all wrong. What part of “HONESTY” is SO FREAKING HARD TO UNDERSTAND??? I hope none of the people going to my school have your attitude towards getting into college. Good grief.</p>
<p>Why do you like distance running? Imagine yourself explaining why to a kid who’s about 10–old enough that you don’t have to censor yourself vocabulary-wise. Imagine that you’re trying to get them to understand why you love distance running. Imagine yourself getting excited as you talk. (For me, that would mean I start to move my hands more. I can definitely feel it.) Now write that in words, possibly deleting your first one-three sentences if it took you a while to warm up/stop sounding awkward.
Then you can address your concerns about your achievement in it, after you’ve explained why you love it. (Going slightly cheesy is okay in the first part.) Something to the effect of “I’m aware that I haven’t achieved as high a rank as I would like, but I have improved a lot [specifics] since when I started. I’m definitely in a minority race-wise at the level I am, which is another thing I’m proud of. However, as I said earlier, the main reason I like distance running is not so that I can get first in state and get into college, but because [reasons in your first part.]”</p>
<p>Your post is further wrong because:
(a) Your story makes you sound like a jerk. “You taunted me? OH WELL HAHAHA EAT MY DUST SUCKERS!” If I was your counselor, I would ask you who the people were and when they said it because I would want to talk to them about racial relations, and your story might fall through.
(b) The goal of this is not to demonstrate the same point in every question. It’s definitely not “this was my favorite class LOOK HOW SMART I AM” “this was my favorite extracurricular LOOK HOW SMART I AM” “i spent a lot of time working at taco bell and because i was bored i learned AP bio in the dull moments LOOK HOW SMART I AM” Nononono boring. It’s supposed to be: “Look how passionate about running I am!” “Look how caring I am because of all the time I spend volunteering!” “Look how persistent I am in facing financial difficulties!” as /well/ as “[example] Look how smart I am!”</p>
<p>i dont think honesty actually works…
if I just talk about how much I improved, I look like a scrub…so thats definitely not an option</p>
<p>what if I talk about something like this?:Ill talk about how I set an example for my team. During this very important meet blah blah blah, I had a 101 degree fever. I threw up seconds before the race. However, I ran through it blah blh blah put my self through 17 minutes of torture blah blah blah showed my courage and set an example for my team blah blah blah…</p>
<p>Lol, honesty certainly works. The fact is, colleges don’t need to see how smart you are from your guidance counselor recommendation letter. They can see that from your grades and test scores and high school courses. This is just one way for colleges to see who YOU are. I had to fill out one of these sheets too. Basically all of my answers were a couple words or only a sentence long. If I were you I would set up a meeting with the guidance counselor so he/she knows a bit more about you and would have an easier time writing something meaningful in your letter.</p>
<p>Guidance counselors have been known to take the sentences right off your sheet and throw them into your recommendation. Be weary, but be honest!</p>
<p>Don’t stress too much about it, the guidance counselor’s recommendation is one of the least important things on the application (as it should be). Just wriet what comes to you.</p>
<p>Dude, I got into Harvard after rambling incoherently about physics and a little bit of English and history for my whole thing. And my counselor says that she wrote me one of the best recs ever of the year (which is quite an improvement over her ABSOLUTE SHOCK that I, stupid little me, could POSSIBLY have broken 2300 on the SAT three months earlier.) I have dozens of national accolades in Latin (some more prestigious than others), and participated in my school’s literary magazine for a couple years. See any physics extracurriculars? Or history? Or English awards? No! That’s because I /am/ interested in physics, even if I’m a scrub at it.</p>
<p>You are a moral failure if you have to lie your way into colleges, and good god if you get in somewhere better than you deserve, I hope it haunts you for all of your years in that college. I will probably be lambasted by the other forumites for being harsh, but DUDE. DON’T LIE. Truth is important, especially in a system that so much relies on self-reporting. Lying either doesn’t make a difference or screws over truthful kids who did deserve that spot.</p>
<p>2) And SERIOUSLY, just be brutally honest. Lying is like saying you know that you aren’t capable of getting into college the way you are. You need a handful of BS to throw in their eyes to get in. Is that rally how you want it?</p>
<p>And I doubt they care your distance running ranking. As long as your passionate, they’ll think highly of you for it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You sound like a scrub for progressing over time and working at it, instead of being born with such talents? Where’s your logic in that? Yup, colleges want kids who don’t know what working at something feels like. (Sarcasm)</p>
<p>And your second paragraph proves to me, that you think colleges want some tear-eyed drama about obstacles and overcoming. You are dead wrong my friend. They have seen it all, and want nothing but cold hard realism. Not some pretty fairy tale.</p>
Give it some thought, and you’ll certainly be able to think of something that genuinely (and accurately) defines you for each.</p>