<p>Well, your essays probably won’t be all polished up and ready when you ask for your recommendations. In my D’s case the guidance counselor and one teacher asked her to fill out a a form about herself to help them think about the letter. The other teacher and one supplemental letter she had (just for one college, one of her activity coaches is an alum) did not really ask for input, but they know her pretty well. Her “branding” was not showing anything she actually wasn’t – it was just highlighting and focusing on those areas. She left off some freshman/sophomore activities that were extraneous – she had plenty of other things to list (for example, left off a year on a sports team, a couple of half-hearted seasons of debate). But she included a few things outside of school (like that she monitored a bluebird trail for nine years and hatched over 220 bluebirds in our neighborhood – showing a long term interest and it was a biology related activity). So even picking and choosing which activities to put on was part of it.</p>
<p>If you have a specific career in mind and the colleges you are applying to can help you get there through specific courses not offered at a lot of other schools, majors/minors, professors researching in fields you are interested in, facilities on campus, internship opportunities, etc – those are great items to put in your “Why College X?” essay that almost every college asks for. I think your common app essay is better left to some other revealing topic (not career focused) – just in case you are thinking of that – but you still want your “theme” to come through. Or at least make sure you don’t contradict/step on your theme.</p>