I really don’t know how to write a brag sheet for my son. Could someone please send me a copy for reference? Thanks a lot for your kind help.
It’s time for you to step back and for your son to put on his big boy pants and write his own brag sheet. After all, he’s the one going to college, not you. In the interim, let me google that for you:
https://lmgtfy.com/?q=college+recommendation+letter+brag+sheet&p=1
One approach is to view the brag sheet as a list of accomplishents (achievements) & awards.
@skieurope our school specifically asks for separate brag sheets from the parents.
Our school did also. They wanted our perspective on my sons accomplishments. When visiting Emory after seeing Georgia Tech a few years ago the AO said that" girls will tell you every little thing about them even how pretty they are and with boys you have to pull it out of them". That was my son to a tee. He now puts down everything on his LinkedIn page /resume in college.
We communicated a lot with my son using Google docs and shared it so we could all see things like this.
His suggestion so we didn’t need to keep asking him if he put down this or that activity. So why? Because being a stereotypical boy he didn’t think anything he did was a big deal!
One good advise from our friend the college counselor was “you don’t get to decide that, the college does”. National Honor Society… He didn’t think it was a big deal since lots of kids have that. Same with Illinois scholar and awards he had and chess scholarship as a freshman etc etc. Like everyone’s a peer to peer math tutor… Right…?
He got the point. Boys don’t like to brag also from what I have experienced with other kids.
So we simply made a sheet that listed 9th grade, 10th grade and so on we had him start the list and then we would say. "heh, what about this or that activity that you did? The typical answer was.
" yeah, forgot about that "
Interesting. I had never heard that before. My apologies to the OP, then, if that’s the situation. You learn something new every day.
Our school counselors wanted a list from each student of what they had done both in and out of school…and they didn’t give two hoots who wrote it.
I (the Parent) had a word doc for each of my kids which I started the summer after 8th grade. All activities and the hours spent on each were on the doc…added to whenever something new happened.
Both of my kids…their most significant ECs were done outside of their high school, and the GC would have had no way of knowing about the activities or awards received…without our list.
My kids’ school also asked for information from the kid and separately from the parents. Agh! Three words that describe your child and why, what makes your child unique, and on and on. Suspecting that good verbage would be cut and pasted, I tried to write things the GC could use. Now I’m curious to see what I wrote years ago. I’ll have to hunt for the documents.
Back in 2006, my DD applied to a college that wanted a recommendation written by a parent. That was a doozie to have to write.
Both of my kid’s schools requested this from parents. It was no problem for me. I wrote about personal qualities (such as empathy) and gave specific examples. I chose things that might not be known by the GC.
School sanctioned lawnmowerism, nice. I wonder if it was in reaction to the school realizing that parents were already writing the brag sheet for their kids and wanted even the playing field!
Another approach to writing a brag sheet about one’s child is to fashion it as a perspective about an applicant not typically highlighted in a college application. For example, the brag sheet might mention how the applicant cares for others or any difficulties faced and overcome on a daily basis.
D19’s school also asked for a brag sheet from the parents, but they helped by setting it up as a list of questions about the student. I no longer have access to the school site to download it, but I’m sure there are similar examples on the web.
It varies a lot by school. We were just asked to write a joint parent-child mock recommendation letter, and we tried to make it so that large parts of it could be lifted verbatim for the actual counselor’s letter. Generally you want to include things that the counselor might not know about your child, but you want the college to know. Awards and activities are already on the application, so you may want to emphasize soft skills. I wrote, for example, how my son was on Skype for hours every day helping many friends with their homework.
We are asked to write one too. I just say things that I hope the counselor will use in her recommendation letter - such as how my daughter spent 12 to 15 hours a day at school during theater season AND maintained an A+ average in honors and AP courses etc…
Our guidance counselors also ask parents for a brag sheet. It is to augment a list of accomplishments. It also makes the GC job easier. Students have limited experience and often only find out how their experiences are different those of many other people when they attend college.
Below are the questions we were asked to answer.
What do you consider your child’s outstanding accomplishments during the past three or four years? Why do you believe these are most important?
Describe one or two major events that you see as turning points in your child’s academic or personal development. Explain why you view them as such.
Describe your child. What are his/her strengths and weaknesses? What makes your child unique?
What contributions has your child made both in and out of school activities? In what leadership, improvement to the quality of life of others, or contributions to organizations has your child participated?
What else should the author of the recommendation letter know about your child’s personality? Please cite specific examples from your child’s life that I may not be aware or – particularly but not limited to experiences outside of school that highly your child’s motivation, independence, originality, and/or initiative. Remember, the idea is to have your child stand out in a stack of recommendations.
My S and I share a google doc with his course plan for the 4 years of HS and at the bottom he lists all the ECs, recognitions and the associated time commitments by grade (since we learned from his older sis that you have to add that on common app. ) He just updates it the end of each school year and I take a look. It should be a handy reference when he does his apps.
I don’t think it is lawnmower parenting, but helping the GC craft a recommendation letter that reflects the student. The kids write a list of what they have done, but the parents can add further information and nuance. This is especially important for the kid that does not have a huge list of academic accomplishments and is likely not aiming for a super elite school, but still deserves a GC letter that shows them in the best light possible.
As to the OP’s question, it was hard for one of mine as he didn’t have a lot of amazing accomplishments (a bit of a slow starter), but as I recall I wrote about him moving out of his comfort zone or about how he overcome some obstacles. It was more informational than braggy. I would also focus on non-school accomplishments, even they don;t seem to be a big deal. The goal is to present him in the best light possible.
Good luck!
Our school required a brag sheet from the student and one from the parent. It helps the teachers and counselors write LORs. Just write about what he has done, academically and personally. State major accomplishments and traits you find special or unique in your child.
I was, as parent, asked for something like that also. I took the opportunity to talk about things that were not obvious to the GC from the transcript and college apps she saw. Our family background/kid’s challenges, how she made some sacrifices in specific ways, stuff unique to her own situation.
Ours had a Q&A format - not just “make a brag sheet”. Does yours not ask specific questions of you as parents @yijianmei ?
@ultimom ours was basically the same.