Looking for ideas of what to put on a parent sheet about what I’d want to tell a college that sets my child apart, and what are his/her greatest weaknesses. Anyone have any good ideas - every time I go to write something I get stuck!
I haven’t heard of a “parent sheet”?
I think we had to do that for the high school counselor so that she could write personalized recommendation letters.
Exactly!
A brag sheet filled out by parents for counselor to use to write personalized recommendation letters.
Have your kid do the sheet, not you. Our kids gave a sheet to their school counsellors that basically had all of their activities from the beginning of ninth grade on. In particular, activities outside of school were noted. I proofread it, and checked dates, but I did NOT write it. It came from my kids.
Did your school ask for a parent brag sheet?
Our kid’s high school had a parent sheet. Assuming this is what the OP means? When filling it out, we were careful to keep it in synch with the story our kid was building in their app. We figured this was one way to keep the GC in synch with the messages our kid was trying to communicate. Anecdotes, adjectives, etc – we thought pretty carefully about that story. Also, we were careful to use strong adjectives because that is what we hoped the GC would use.
We were honest with the GC about weaknesses in the app and concerns, but also specifically stated if it was something we wouldn’t want shared with a college.
How would we know your kid’s strengths and weaknesses? :-S
It is sort of like answering it for a job interview, though. Do you REALLY want to tell colleges your kid’s weaknesses? I get the OP’s dilemma. But you might want the GC to be aware, and to know what you are not telling colleges. Example: Your kid might choose not to disclose a learning disability, but it is an important factor in evaluating colleges were the kid could thrive. So you want the GC on board with that. But you don’t want them telling the colleges.
In case this is a sheet for a college, we actually chose not to fill one out that one of D1’s colleges offered to parents. Didn’t feel like we could help her application – her app, recommendations, etc. spoke for themselves.
Think of the tag line, or one liner, that an adcom would use summarize your child. Then write the strengths to basically write or support the one liner. On apps, we use these one liners all the time to differentiate between applicants.
My son’s guidance counselor specifically asked for a similar letter, in addition to the one she wants the kids to write themselves.
As far as weaknesses: find out what she’s planning to do with the letter. It’s probably in the request letter. If she’s planning to use it to best advise the kids in their college search, then you want to be totally honest.
@YoHoYoHo , could you give me an example of what you mean by a “one liner”?
Our son’s school asked for a detailed activity sheet from each student. While they did not officially ask for input from the parents, I asked my son’s very overwhelmed GC if it would be helpful for her if I wrote her up some bullet points about my son that we thought would round out her understanding and descriptions of him (the carefully worded “anecdotes and adjectives” that inparent describes above). She was very receptive. I will never know what she used or didn’t use from those bullet points, but she seemed to appreciate getting them (or at least politely acted like she did!)
I went and pulled up our Parent brag sheet questionnaire. Thankfully they didn’t ask about a greatest weakness, but they did ask about the area of greatest development. I talked about how he had made the decision to drop his 504 Plan when he entered high school and was learning strategies for compensating for his weaknesses, but that his language grades and his chemistry grades probably reflected those issues.
If you mention a weakness I’d also give some specific answers on how they are addressing it. For example: Johnny natural instinct is to be disorganized, but since he started using the agenda on his phone, he’s been on top of things. Or since discovering the wonders of post-its he’s figured out a way to make sure homework gets done in a timely manner. Or by teaching himself to use macros in Excel, he’s figured out how to track homework assignments in a way that works for him.
Another way to think of it is how weaknesses can also be strengths. Johnny is learning to be stubborn only when persistance is actually a positive. Johnny’s learned that he doesn’t always need to be overly cautious, but that being the one in a group who forsees consequences can also a good thing.
As for the rest of the letter we mentioned how he had taught himself history from games and extensive reading leading to a top score as a sophomore on the World History AP, that he had taught himself origami and was selling earrings, and that he was curious about a wide variety of things. (For example he read Scientific American every month even though he had no intention of ever being a scientist.)
We had done a few college visits when we sent in the letter so I told the GC what had appealed so far.
My kid’s school requires a parent sheet, as well. It includes the brag list, but also things like educational attainment in the family, a section if the parent wants to include anything about finances, outside of school activities, and a spot to tell the counselor anything that the parent wants her to know, whatever that might be.
We just call it brag sheet.