<p>@Rellielou: Daughter was wondering about that, too…so I told her to cover nonacademic non-sports or “official” EC stuff. More of the “hobby/what I’m into/what I’m good at” angle.</p>
<p>All we have left is financial aid and parent statement. Anyone have any suggestions about appropriate length for parent statement?</p>
<p>Exeter’s form is 1) academic strengths and weaknesses, 2) personal strengths and weaknesses, and 3) “anything else you’d like us to know about your child.”</p>
<p>Could write a novel about my kid, of course. What’s reasonable? Seasoned parents, how long was yours? </p>
<p>(Sidebar: I know WHAT I’m going to say, just need guidance on scope)</p>
<p>My thought was for her to use the space for “what I’m looking for in a school” as TwinsMama suggested. Maybe she will go with that, if she doesn’t come up with an alternative. I think her ECs are well explained in her other essays as well as in the interviews she completed.</p>
<p>Booklady, I am no expert, but I think one page or less is usually considered appropriate.</p>
<p>I just checked our SAS parents’ statement for 7D1 and it was about 300 words/1700 characters (with spaces). SPS one was about 500 words/2800 char (w/spaces). Both were “good enough” that she was admitted, FWIW.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone! Helpful ;)</p>
<p>If the “what else would you like to share” can be customized to each school, student may want to mention what specifically attracted them to the particular school - name programs, clubs, courses, even teachers, and why they have a passion for those things. </p>
<p>Exeter parent statement had to be pretty short, they just gave us a little box to handwrite in. It was a few sentences about why I thought D was a good match for Exeter, based on academic and personal strengths. For weaknesses, it was one of those make a weakness out of a strength answers, something like “D loves learning so much it is hard to keep her challenged”, and I think I said I could not foresee any factors limiting her full participation in the Exeter experience.</p>
<p>@2prepmom, it does not say that it needs to be handwritten?</p>
<p>That’s true. I typed in using Acrobat with a reduced font and spacing. So I managed in about five lines in each question. Still, that was a lot shorter compared to other schools’.</p>
<p>@booklady123 - I don’t remember handwriting the parent statement for Exeter last year. Students have to handwrite the essays.</p>
<p>Student essay form also says to attach separate sheet (but still needs to be handwritten). I was assuming I could do the same?</p>
<p>Of course, you can always hand write it in.</p>
<p>Last year we scanned everything in (hand written essay) and sent a PDF file in an email.
Since we were doing electronic, I edited the PDF file and sent the parent statement file in over email.</p>
<p>Student essay form also says to attach separate sheet (but still needs to be handwritten). I was assuming I could do the same?</p>
<p>Student essay form also says to attach separate sheet (but still needs to be handwritten). I was assuming I could do the same?</p>
<p>I had originally started to fill out the Culver application online (before deciding to go with the SSAT standardized one) and the form for parent statements only allowed 1000 characters per response. I kept cutting, then highlighting, then pasting again after checking character count. And for the kids, its 500 characters per response. I saw that and was like, “three tweets? They have to sell themselves in the equivalent of three tweets?” I caught myself shortening people to ppl and two to 2. 'Cause that’ll go over real well. </p>
<p>With the SSAT form, I can’t remember if there was a limit (once you finish there’s no looking at it again or anything like SevenDad mentioned) but regardless, I wrote a lot and didn’t have to cut anything there.</p>
<p>All we have left is the English teacher and my son has two more essays before I paste and submit his complete student statement (yes, I’m pushing the button for him).</p>
<p>It sounds like they want bullet points rather than an actual statement! Maybe they wanted to make it easier for parents? You could just note:
*intelligent
*hard working
*curious
*persistent
etc. </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I have a question on school visits.
Last year we visited schools once and did the tour and the interview, the standard 2 hr visit.
(I visited the schools without the child over the summer before.)
Next year, we are thinking of doing multiple visits, attending open house, etc, on a whole different set of schools for child 2.
If you already visited and toured the school before, on your interview visit do you just do the interview? or do you do another tour? What else do you do or not do?</p>
<p>We did the tours in the summer and doing the interview over December/January. You just have to tell them, that you have tour already and want the interview only. They are ok with that, for the AO there is no change in time (beginning o the interview and or length), as the tours are usually done by students.
We also got asked to have lunch at all of the school we have interviewed, so factor that in, if you appointment around lunch time and the school is open.</p>
<p>We always took the tours. It gave DC3 a chance to see what the school was like and, even more importantly, to ask the student guide questions. It also gave me a chance to see the school through a different child’s eyes. For DC1, we were happy to bypass the athletic facilities. For DC3, those facilities were a critical piece of the tour.</p>
<p>I interviewed at the same school twice and took the tour twice (reapplying). It gave me a fresh look on the campus even though I’d seen it before.</p>