<p>A hypothetical example might be say a kid who was active in Model UN, but didn’t choose to write about it on one of his essays. The GC could point out that the kids travel experiences brought an extra dimension to the team. Ideally a GC will both reinforce the message the student is giving colleges and add anything that the student had to leave out.</p>
<p>For students who are applying to the most competitive schools in this country, what a GC says might be important. Likewise, a parent observes things that not even the child knows about himself/herself. I was a Girl Scout leader for years and managed Destination Imagination teams for several more years. I also am a teacher. I see things in my children that set them apart from others and that is where my input for the GC would be relevant. </p>
<p>Additionally, my older child transferred in to a small high school in tenth grade that was 35 miles (and a world) away from where we live. She continued to participate in acitivies near home that the GC would know nothing about, so some additional input from someone (adult or child) was essential.</p>
<p>Although this thread has degenerated into what parents should/should not do for kids, I think parental input is quite important for some applications. Often, young people don’t see anything special about themselves, but a parent who knows what they have done can often point it out. My first child never did anything so it would look good on an application, but when the time came to fill in applications, many of her activities were related; she had simply done things that she loved or wanted to learn more about and it took someone else to help her see the relationships.</p>
<p>One has to be careful in the essays and letters, obviously, not to make statements which sound judgmental or pretentious (like “not that there is any architecture worth admiring in the US”). Maybe have someone outside the immediate family read it with an eye to seeing how it comes across. It strikes me that offending an admissions committee would be a black mark on one’s application.</p>
<p>“I see things in my children that set them apart from others and that is where my input for the GC would be relevant.”</p>
<p>Still don’t agree, and still find the concept of a “parent brag sheet” objectionable. I don’t have an issue with a parent taking a look at a child’s GC submission to check it for errors and omissions, but that seems to be a far cry from what is being discussed here. With reliance upon parental input, the recommendation is no longer a GC recommendation, but a joint GC/parental one. If what a parent “sees in a child” is not also manifested in the child’s high school persona and accomplishments, it’s far too subjective and personal to belong in a GC’s recommendation. If colleges were interested in a parent’s unique perspective and insight, they would ask for parental recommendations. They never do.</p>
<p>When the GC is overloaded (as is usually the case) and the student is talanted/modest, extra info from parents can be a helpful thing. For better or worse, Common App requires a lot of GC input.</p>
Actually, I believe SUNY-Geneseo has parents submit a letter as part of their application process, so at least ONE place does ask for parents input.</p>
<p>Re: Suny-Geneseo
I suppose if you don’t have a parent you need not apply?
Took a quick look at their web site, they use the common ap. Didn’t see any tabs for a ‘parental recommendation’.</p>
<p>MommaJ - I agree with you, I don’t understand the need or desire for ‘parental input’. I’m cynical, I guess but it reeks of elitism. As in, we need to make sure you are from the ‘right’ family, have had the ‘right’ experiences and parental approval in order to apply. bleh.</p>
<p>My kids went to a public high school, overworked guidance counselors, no parental input and plenty of kids who get into some very ‘good’ schools. I wonder how they do it?</p>
<p>I was very happy to supply a parent brag sheet to my kids counselors’ - one in a big public HS, the other in a small private prep. Same questions asked on both.
The counselors used them as starting points for their LORs. I saw them as tools for more information for the GC - why would that be elitist? It’s not as if we were giving info about country club memberships or family pedigree or annual salaries.
We were asked, for example, to give 5 adjectives that describe each child. My Ds regular counselor left on emergency sick leave in September - the replacement counselor knew NOTHING about any of the students. My H and I were happy to provide that info.
As I said upthread, we did not mention our living overseas or our extensive travel. Those facts really did not give any insight into our children’s personalities or strengths or weaknesses.</p>
<p>This still is one big racket, to me. The overworked GC’s who can’t possibly know the kids rely on a few buzz words and a few insights gleaned from a brag sheet, and don’t know the right tonality / buttons to push for elite schools, and the “customized” GC’s who have a very small load and the real means to get to know the kid well write things that are insightful and helpful. I just feel it’s just another version of communicating “kid went to large public hs” vs “kid went to elite public or private hs” – which isn’t data that they don’t already know.</p>
<p>In our case, D goes to a large public high school with not enough GCs and the parent questionnaire is required to get a GC recommendation. Whether we agree or disagree, it is not an optional step in the process if my D wants recommendations. So, my original post was to solicit opinion of whether or not to mention travel. I was aware that it was a controversial subject.</p>
<p>After speaking directly with her GC, she recommended that I do talk about it on the questionairre and then she will decide whether or not it is relevant to use it as part of her GC recommendation.</p>
<p>Don’t understand the fuss here. Student/family submit what the GC says to submit. I have a son graduating from public high school, GC did not require anything from parents. Daughter to be a senior at parochial school, GC does require a statement from parents. How is it elitist, or helecopter parentish, or anything else negative for me to submit what my daughter’s school requires me to submit? There is no question that my daughter’s parochial school has more resources available–one GC for every 125 kids, vs. one for every 375 at my son’s public HS. Daughter’s GC knows her well, son’s knows him not at all. So, my daughter has an advantage over my son, but that seems to me to be a different issue (are our public schools properly funded) than any elitism, etc., involved with submitting what the school requires. And to the OP’s question–based on my experience, the answer is yes. Son went to a small village in Africa Summer between junior and senior year for 5 weeks, worked long days on a school construction/renovation project. It did change him dramatically, in terms of his sense of purpose, what he sees himself doing down the road, what he wants to study, the way he looks at the world. He has followed up with multiple service projects since he has been back. This experience was a big part of his essay. While it may seem humdrum or commonplace to some, that is not what we heard from admissions counselors at several schools he applied to. Anyway, it’s a big part of who he is now, and if the goal in an application is to try to communicate to a school who you are, I think you want it in there that the kid has some international/intercultural experience.</p>
Just commenting to the effect that it is very easy to make an off-hand or ill thought out remark that someone else takes offense to, even if none was particularly intended. (To Whit some BP exec talking about “the small people”). </p>
<p>As an example, I was adjuncting at a small college and volunteered to accompany a group of students on their Spring Break service trip to Kentucky one year. At the introductory meeting, students from previous trips talked about their experiences. One of the things they all mentioned was how amazed they were at how “happy” the people they helped were, even though they were dirt poor and, in some cases, barely had indoor plumbing. There seemed to be a sense that the happiness was somehow a product of the poverty, rather than a manifestation of the human capacity to go on with life and find happiness in various aspects of it, despite the circumstances. Having grown up in a similar state of poverty to the people we were helping, I found the attitude of the students rather an affront, even though they didn’t mean to be offensive.</p>
<p>Unless you are very lucky and go to a school with a well staffed guidance office, the GC will mostly know details about the boasters and the behavioral problems. For the other kids the GC will know what is on the transcript… and heck, colleges already know what is on the transcript.</p>
<p>I do think that Naviance will be a help. That will streamline some of the logistical burden to allow more time for student interaction.</p>
Because your own daughter should be perfectly capable of doing it herself.
Why should she need you to do it for you. I don’t have a problem with the GC sending home a form or asking kids to submit a resume. I am fine with that. In developing that resume or form, I also think it’s fine for parent’s to brainstorm with their kids as to what to include. However, I don’t understand the requirement that it come from the PARENT.
At my kids’ high school, this was all done in their English class. The English teacher spent some class time talking to kids about what to include - in and out of school experiences. After that it’s the students responsiblity to make his/her own accomplishments known. I would think any student bright enough to apply to HYPS (etc) should be able to handle this on his/her own volition.</p>
<p>sylvan - my comment was purely facetious. It wasn’t off hand or ill thought out. If anything, a tad bit snarky; I admit. Personally, I don’t think it is necessary at all to drag a high school student all over Europe to look at architecture. There is plenty of lovely architecture here in the US that is worthy of admiration. It was an aside in recounting the lovely architecture student I know who gained admittance into a very selective program without the luxury of critiquing Rome.</p>