Every time I think I know whats going on, I find there is so much more out there. I have read on a few threads of consultants “packaging” kids for college admissions? What does this mean in reality? I assume that once a kid is a Junior, there isn’t much more that can be done. She already has the activities and grades she is going to get. What can a consultant do to package a kid? By the way, I only recently learned about consultants too. Who knew?
You don’t need a consultant. Your kid needs a “story” and her application should have a consistent theme. Is she a volunteer person who loves basketball? Make sure her app tells that story. Is she a math nerd who loves dancing? Show it. Show her personality.
Packaging does not mean "make up a bunch of extra curriculars or fake leadership positions in clubs. It means show who she is, in the best light possible, so she’ll be remembered. Oh, “that’s the volleyball player who loves gaming”. That kind of thing.
Ditto to what @suzyQ7 says! My son is waiting for admittances right now – what he tried to do was make everything he put in his app tell his story. He wants to major in music, but he also loves math, so in his essays he referenced these things. He has gone to math and music summer programs and wrote about his experiences. He volunteers to play music with the homeless, and he tutors students in math.
He used A LOT of examples in his essays – stories of figuring out a math problem, and a story about a scary music teacher who ended up becoming a mentor. For certain schools that allow double majors he mentioned what their schools could offer him, by pointing out specific classes that he would want to take. He has one UC acceptance as of today, so fingers crossed that his “package” spoke to other schools he applied too!
Thank you @astute12 and @suzyQ7 ! Thats excellent advice. I’d love some ideas about how you can do that with the common app. My understanding is that the ECs just go in a list. Do you make sure that the common app essay conveys all these things? I assume if easier if the school has supplemental essays as well.
How to manage your activity list on the common app:
You decide how to order your list. You decide what to combine under one heading or list as separate headings. You get to write a very brief description, usually as sentence fragments, for each activity. Write and rewrite your descriptions until they capture the importance of what you did- both for the activity and for you.
Interviews and essays continue the impression.
So do recommendations. Your guidance counselor may ask you for a Student Brag Sheet by the student and a Parent Brag Sheet by the parent. Those probably will become the basis of her letter of recommendation. Your child’s teachers may ask her to highlight her interests and activities in writing. Again, those will affect their recommendations. So write your parts to match well with the way you hope colleges will see her.
@thegreyking Thank you! This is really wonderful information.
Some schools also allow students to send in arts supplements, so my son did that as well.
To the excellent advice offered so far on this thread, I want to add another idea. The student’s “brag sheet” should contain a line or two about each college on the list. To the extent that letter writers tailor their recommendations to specific schools (even a little bit), make sure they have something to work with. Not just a list of EC’s and awards.
My daughter wrote just a sentence or two about each school, emphasizing why she was attracted to the school as well as something that “fit” her to the school’s program. The letter writer could add a simple sentence such as: “I know that Greta is especially interested in your program in [X], and if she’s admitted I think she will make the most of it.”
^^^Both of my kid’s teachers and guidance counselor wrote one letter that got sent to every school so be careful about the idea above to be sure it is feasible at your HS. Both of my kids used their supplemental essays to express why a particular school was a good fit.
My older son’s application was basically - “I’m a computer nerd. Take me or leave me.” His essay started with the results of a computer program. His guidance counselor loved him because she could never get his schedule to work, so she’d get him to sit at the computer and figure out how to get classes that worked. (And she probably said something of the sort.) He got a lot of rejections, but he ended up at a school that was perfect for him and is in his dream job, making more money than either of his parents.
Younger son got the game of college admissions. He had a variety of interests - music, history, Science Olympiad, the literary magazine and he thought he might major in International Relations. He told anywhere that asked he was undecided however. Instead he focused on his quirkiness and his creativity. His main essay was about how his habit of folding origami turned into a little business of making origami earrings. His essay was funny and self-deprecating. His U of Chicago “Why Chicago?” essay started off with all the reasons he didn’t think he wanted to go there. And the main Chicago supplemental essay “How did you get caught?” was a recycled essay that end “So did you catch me?” I have no idea of they got the joke or not. They accepted him though. For Tufts there was a supplemental essay where you got to imagine the history of the US if the US had lost at Lexington. He did his essay as a series of newspaper headlines and diary entries. The last entry was an excerpt from mathson2’s American history textbook. I think it conveyed the message that he was a kid who when he got interested in something he really got interested and creative… And he just came off as someone who didn’t take himself too seriously.
There is a lot of risk in trying to get letter writers to tailor to different schools. We see examples all the time out here where there are screw ups on which recs went to which schools. I’d strongly recommend against trying to micromanage the letters to a school level. Ideally your kid has picked schools that fit their story/package to start with.
Like one of my kids was an extremely bright kid with an intellectual bent and STEM career interests. She applied to schools that clearly attracted that type of kid. Had great results. Some of her success was a consistent story across her essays, types of ECs, test scores, and recs. But some was also taking the time to pick schools where those qualities would be valued.
My daughter had a teacher who insisted on writing a separate letter for each school… only she wrote “Boston College” in the letter that was sent to Boston University. My DD was not applying to Boston College, only BU.
That teacher wrote the most amazing LOR ever and my daugher was accepted to her reach schools… but waitlisted at BU. . I don’t think that the LOR had anything to with it - I think DD got in reach schools because those were more carefully targeted and matched to what came with daugher’s “package.” Plus my daughter answering the “why BU” question on the app with a comment that the school has nice buildings probably didn’t help.
To follow-up on what @TheGreyKing said, My kids both had trouble describing their activities in the two lines allowed for up to 10 activities in the Activity section. They listed the activities in order of importance and based also on their time commitment and passion. What helped is that for their two most important activities they ended the second line with “see additional information section”. And in the additional information section they highlighted in descriptive bullets more in depth about their involvement --in research, clubs, community service and awards and recognition won in connection with those activities. It took up about three quarters to a page max. Remember this is your one and only chance to market yourself and if you can’t aptly describe in two lines all the amazing things you accomplished for your most important activities, then you should do so in the Additional Information section. To leave that section blank is to miss out on an opportunity to sell yourself. It reminds me of when I was young and on an interview, I had a lot of great stuff to say about myself and the company and how I would be a good fit for the job. But the interviewer dominated the conversation about himself and the company and never asked me the type of questions that would have allowd me to show my stuff. The interview ended, I didn’t get the job, and you wonder why? I let the interviewer control the conversation instead of myself being assertive to create the segue to be able to show what I know. The common app is sort of the same thing. Steer it towards your strengths. Show your best self!
My D is a natural leader. Even if she doesn’t hold an official leadership position, her leadership skills are evident. So I figured that would be her story when she started her applications. But it wasn’t. Her story became her desire to create a feeling of community in all her activities. It wasn’t even something she realized she did until she started writing her essays.
So let the story evolve naturally and it will be authentic. My D is a scholarship finalist at a super reach school where her stats are in range, but not at the top. When she interviewed, the panel never asked her about her classes, just about her activities. It was really easy for her to talk about community and bringing that to college.
“I have read on a few threads of consultants “packaging” kids for college admissions? What does this mean in reality? I assume that once a kid is a Junior, there isn’t much more that can be done.”
There is only so much that can be done to present a student well at the end. However, there are many ways to present the student poorly.
Ideally the courses taken, extracurriculars, and essays tell a consistent, credible, and forward-looking story.
My daughter wrote one of her essays on falling in front of everyone in ballet class. I’m sure she was called “the ballerina who fell on her butt.” :))
My kids presented who they were… through their essays, classes, and activities. They packaged themselves and it worked out beautifully for them.
I would be careful about teachers and guidance counselors writing about specific schools. Mistakes happen.
^^Same here, there really was no packaging for my kids. They participated in the ECs that interested them and they were all over the map for both, so neither really had that type of “story” to tell. The advice on this thread is good, but also make sure that it’s really your kid who shines through in his or her app.
I was never a fan of the word “ packaging.” To me …it sounds fake. Be authentic and present who you are… the right schools will accept you.
Telling a story is more how I think of it.