<p>I just received a letter from Smith in the mail today asking for a letter from the parent. Is this standard procedure? What have people written about in the past that seemed to work?</p>
<p>I can't remember what my mom wrote about exactly, but her letter had some spelling and grammar errors which certainly did not keep me from getting into Smith (she wouldn't let me read the letter until after I was accepted). I think it was mostly qualities she wanted to share about me that I wasn't likely to reveal in my own essays.</p>
<p>I though that the parent letter is optional. Nonetheless, I didn't believe in leaving any tern unstoned. </p>
<p>I rejected writing about anything covered in other parts of her application. So I found three examples, over a number of years, that illustrated her inclination from an early age to intellectually process the world through somewhat skewed or non-standard lenses, using some quirks of mind to illustrate what her presence as an individual in Smith's academic community might be like.</p>
<p>I took the writing of this letter very seriously, thinking about it for at least two weeks before drafting a word.</p>
<p>I didn't get to write one exactly because, since my d. was homeschooled, I got to write the guidance counselor letter. Same difference. I too spent a lot of time on it, and I made a point of telling them where I thought she still needed to grow, and Smith could help.</p>
<p>We got the same letter for our D the other day. I wrote a parent letter for D's SUNY-Geneseo application; hubby is going to write this one. His trouble will be in keeping it to one page.</p>
<p>Yeah, Irish, editing it down was a problem for me too...or at least it would have been if I hadn't done a lot of the "writing" in my head before touching the keys. Achieving a sharp focus with brisk delivery took a bit of massaging.</p>
<p>I wrote the letter for my daughter, although I assumed a "we" persona to include my husband. </p>
<p>As others here did, I tried to touch upon aspects of her personality that were unlikely to surface fully in her application.</p>
<p>I love some many things about the parent letter: it can be uniquely revealing AND it provides the kids with a subtle incentive to be nice to someone else who's writing a college letter for them :)</p>