<p>Yes, another large public high school here with a LENGTHY student and parent brag sheet (which is what they are called by the school). And my daughter agonized over it because she hated boasting. It would be very interesting to read the counselor and/or teacher recommendations and see how much is "lifted" from these.</p>
<p>I'm with Garland on this one; doing everything wrong, never having toured colleges, etc. I think a one page letter is a wonderful idea, perhaps giving the GC some new phrases to use.</p>
<p>It was standard practice at my son's private school. The GCs also asked students to write a letter about themseleves.</p>
<p>This is standard practice at my daughter's private school as well. The college counselor also likes to interview parents and students separately in the late junior year, then together early senior year. Both to get to know the students and to gauge the reality level of the family. Only a small portion of the class applies to selective schools, so those students get a lot of attention.</p>
<p>The parent's letter and interviews were important in DD's case because she had an EC that was unusual, done outside of school, and that she had had to drop after only a year and a half. She was reluctant to highlight this activity because she had to quit, even though she had leadership in it, had truly enjoyed doing it and it was out of the ordinary. Left to her own devices, she would have barely mentioned it, but between her putting it on the brag sheet and us describing it in our essay, the CC encouraged her to put emphasis on it.</p>
<p>That is just neat! I think such a letter would both be fun to write, and difficult, too.</p>
<p>Two different schools, both with 'guidance' not 'college' counselors. The selective maagnet program asked each parent to fill out short essays in response to student attributes, please include anecdotes. Then there was a parent-student-counselor meeting(s) looking at schools which may attract a student of similar profile, interests based on the high school's prior successes there.
The private 'college prep' school gave a form to student with activities, jobs, honors, awards sections, one for a parent(singular!) asking for a letter describing son/daughter, and two for student to give to faculty of their choosing to check boxes regarding student attributes and a short generic letter of recommendation. Guidance counselor writes letter of recommendation after reviewing all submitted forms. Generally there were no meetings with students and/or parents unless specifically requested (never offered).
Both schools are of similar size with similar counselor loads. Luckily oldest went to magnet school. Mom found CC and was well schooled when it was time for second child.
Looking forward for number 3. Already have brag sheet started!</p>