I have a question. I feel students should write a thank you note after a prep school interview. I have seen other CC posts in which some people feel that thank you notes are sucking up. I guess I am old school! I think thank you notes are polite.
My question is this: my profession is marketing and graphic design, so can I professionally design a (simple) note card and then my child hand-writes a note on it? I realize this may be considered sucking up, but where this is my profession, I feel like I should (and want to) do this. Otherwise, would it be a like a fashion designer sending their children to an interview in Walmart clothing? At the holidays, people in my field design their own holiday cards. It is what we do.
I figured I could design a simple notecard that shows a couple of my child’s biggest strengths and interests. Art is not my child’s forte, so it really makes no sense for her to do this herself (maybe unless she wants to show she’s putting in the time and effort)?
Please let me know your thoughts. I do not want to go over the top, be a suck-up, and/or annoy interviewers, but I also want to help my child stand out.
I honestly think this may be a bit much. Buy your child a box of cute thank-you cards and let her write her notes. Have your daughter show you the cards before she sends them so you can check for spelling, but otherwise the work should be hers. An overly slick card could raise red flags for the admissions staff who might give your child’s application extra scrutiny, looking for signs that Mom and Dad were helping with essays or otherwise over-packaging the applicant. I know you want your daughter to stand out but it’s important that she not stand out for the wrong reasons. If you were a fashion designer you wouldn’t send her off to an interview in a ballgown, right? Schools are really looking for kids who are willing to drive the process themselves. They want to know that attending their school is at least as important to the applicant as the parents. A simple commercial card will do.
Agree with the above two posts. Thank you notes should be sent, but what you are describing is a bit over the top. It may hurt your child rather than help her.
Buy some simple plain off white notecards. Have you child handwrite a thank you note. Send it out within 24 hours of the interview. That is all you need to do. Agree with other posters that the rest would be too much, especially if you are trying to design it around selling your child’s strengths and interests.
Some of your other posts were about bringing baked goods and creating an online presence for yourself targeted at packaging your child and yourself for admissions. I think you are really overthinking the whole process. Your child needs to come across as sincere and genuine. These adcoms interview plenty of 13, 14, 15 year olds and can sniff out the real McCoy from someone slickly packaged. This is about your child, not you.
Since when are good manners sucking up? Oh, wait, you want to create a “notecard that shows a couple of my child’s biggest strengths and interests.”
No. Like the desserts, no. Are you worried she doesn’t qualify based on her academics and activities? If so, consider how tough the years at those schools could be.
(I do know artists who create the family stationary, holiday cards, etc. But not designed to market their kids. This isn’t like Max Preps where you feature the recruiting points for athletes. Think about it.)
If you want to design a simple thank you card or something with her monogram that would be fine in my opinion. Think of what you might give a kid as a gift. My kids hand wrote thank you notes after each interview.
It’s common etiquette to send a Thank You note or email. **But it’s just a Thank You note not a resume. ** The AO reads it, ticks a box that it was received, then tosses it in the trash.
If art is not your child’s forte than why the heck show contrived artwork/content that the child does not have the expertise nor printing resources to execute? Is this just an outlet to stroke your own ego?
The only showing off by parents that the AOs want to see is the “development case” ability to write a 60 million check for a new science building.
We bought a last minute, off-the-rack blazer for S to wear because he had pancake syrup stains all over his “good jacket”. The cheapass jacket didn’t seem to hurt his admissions outcomes.
Then shut the engine off and auto-gyrate back down. I’ve already cautioned:
Development case: ADMIT
Helicopter parents: NO ADMIT
Ha ha. Okay, you all have definitely convinced me that an email or store-bought cards are the way to go, and that I am overthinking the process and too involved. :-o
My child actually asked to attend prep school (so that she can be around more kids who are academically inclined) rather than our local public school. Also, I myself attended prep school and think my daughter is cut out for it. It’s just that if she’s going to apply, I want to give her the best chance of getting it. I know there are many qualified students.
