Next item: the brag sheet.
Despite the tongue in cheek name, it’s a useful tool for teachers.
Your teachers likely have fond memories of you (hopefully) but their memories aren’t going to be the same as yours. It may be hard for them to pull specific anecdotes from 100 class sessions they had with you.
So, for each teacher who’s going to write you a LoR, you write some information they can (or may choose not to) use to give texture and unique anecdotes for your LoR.
In it, you include little stories, whatever may apply from…
why you love their subject
your favorite memories from their class
what you learned and how you learned it and why it matters to you
your favorite/the most exciting… book/reading/concept/activity from the class
a time you helped others and/or others helped you
the hardest part from the class for you and how you overcame that difficulty (… or not and why it matters to you)
Then you give it to each recommender and tell them you were told it was helpful for teachers to have some material for their LoR, that they don’t have to do anything with it but you hope it can be helpful, then thank them for writing etc. (You get the idea. You may discuss it with your GC first if it’s not commonly done at your school, as I assume - it’s considered a common courtesy at high performing high schools/prep schools.)
Well, the technical problem I’ve just realized is that my school has technically only existed as it’s current institution for about four years. It was part of a national academy, but decided to break off and just be state-wide not long ago. It changed it’s name (somewhat) as well, so I don’t know if they’d compare me to the students before, or what.
I actually already did that as part of an assignment in my school, and I wrote down literally everything remotely brag-worthy, so they can kind of pick and choose. I may have made a bad decision by picking my Honors Chemistry teacher to write one of my LoR, because in my first semester I think I really annoyed him with my constant pestering and such. I believe he wrote reliable information about me and reflected my grit and everything, BUT he wasn’t one of those teachers who just goes on and on about loving his students. He said I was his top student in the class, I improved a lot in my second semester, and showed a lot of understanding beyond basic topics. He didn’t say he loved me or anything (he was a tough teacher). My OTHER LoR, however, did really like me I think, and also being the Literature Teacher, I think she wrote a pretty favorable letter.
“Bragsheet” is a misnommer in that you don’t really write brag-worthy things but rather you write about the class, the subject, and the teacher. (That’s also a way to thank the teacher because they see how they impacted you.) It helps them develop stories. Teachers really do NOT have to say they love you or list 15 adjectives “brilliant, funny”… They do need to write anecdotes they see as representative of you as a learner and as a person. Basically the stories are illustrations and justifications. It’s easy to write “so and so is brilliant” but harder to prove it. // the writing principle known as Show/not tell.
The “bragsheet” thus provides them with little stories that may spurr their memories and that they can use in a pinch.
You can always have a 3rd teacher write a LoR. Some colleges will accept a 3rd letter, usually from an employer, a faith leader, an arts teacher; some may accept a third letter drom a teacher who can talk about you differently, usually another subject than the previous ones, so for you it’d be your pick from math, foreign language, or history/social science, or an elective.
If your school split from a larger school the GC still has a frame of reference for the larger school. Basically it’s better to be compared favorably to 100 strong students than to 3 strong students…
Right, I realize I kind of misread your prev. thing. I was thinking of my LoR form, where I just had to list what I had accomplished both inside and outside of school.
I’ll have to see what my counselor has to say about me lol. No idea what she thinks honestly, I haven’t been too active with her as much as my advisor.
That LoR standard form isn’t enough for top colleges that have to distinguish between hundreds of top students. That’s where the poorly-named "brag sheet"comes in: not only does it tell the teacher what kind of an impact they and their class made, but they also allow them to personalize the letter in ways that help adcoms distinguish you from other good applicants. In addition, if most top students at your school go to UO or OSU, teachers may not be used to writing this level of details that top private schools expect.
(Over the past few years have students from your school gotten into any prestigious or top 50 university/LAC?)
Join the mailing list for Whitman btw. They meet need and would likely provide you with a near full ride if you got in.
(Create a college-dedicated email that you check regularly; join the mailing list with it then open their messages and click on whatever links look interesting. They track this so doing it at all colleges you applied to will be in your favor.)
Which QB colleges did you end up ranking?
To preserve anonymity you may want to list them alphabetically not in the exact same order as you ranked them
People from my school apparently got into Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Polytech, and one other one which I forgot. That’s what it says on the school profile.
Some of the schools I ranked include Grinnell, Hamilton, Scripps, Vassar, Swarthmore, Davidson, and some more which I shall not divulge at this moment ( I actually am just too lazy to do so and have not finalized my list). My list was kind of shaved down based on which schools had a good study abroad program. (This isn’t the order in which I ranked them).
Thanks.
No need to provide more details.
Cornell, Duke, Harvard are all very encouraging. It means your school is not totally unknown and that teachers have been used to writing detailed LoRs (not to be taken for granted).
I was somewhat suprised by the list of elite colleges students had gotten into. My school is just so… isolated lol. Like, it’s based kind of in the middle of nowhere.
ANYWAY, I’ll check on doing that drag sheet. Thanks for the advice.
I don’t think it would be possible for me to leave that in there, just because I get obsessed and reread the same phrase like 30 times. But clearly not always, because I just said I’d look into drag or whatever I said.
Drag sheet harmless&funny don’t worry about it.
(I’m often the worst with typos, especially when I use my laptop which has sticky keys or when autocorrect decides to go wild).
One thing you might want to think about is not automatically sending your test scores to colleges. They offer it for free if you sign up before you see your score. That’s tempting, but since you don’t know how you’ll do, you might want to wait.
They do need to write anecdotes they see as representative of you as a learner and as a person. Basically the stories are illustrations and justifications. It’s easy to write “so and so is brilliant” but harder to prove it. // the writing principle known as Show/not tell.
It means your school is not totally unknown and that teachers have been used to writing detailed LoRs (not to be taken for granted).
harmless&funny don’t worry about it.
