Grandparent assisting low SES, high stats grandson

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Has his guidance counselor seen the term paper? Discussing both the family context that the paper provides, and the recognition he got for the paper itself, could be excellent content for the counselor recommendation. For the rare schools that accept writing samples, submitting the paper itself could be great, but those are the exception. For most, I think asking the counselor to read the paper and use it to inform their recommendation would be the best way to infuse the most benefit from that term paper into the application.