Congrats to your D @Mom2aphysicsgeek – am sure that feels great!! And thanks so much for the power point post as well - very interesting to see - and sobering as well.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek congrats to your kid, that’s awesome.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Let’s just say you’ve given enough info to figure it out. I am quite astute. :)) No worries or need to divulge if you don’t feel comfortable giving specifics. Since you seem involved with homeschool community just wondering if you had enough info to figure out the cut-off given ambiguity in your post (Same thing happened with KY poster that left everyone, including Art, wondering).
@Ynotgo as best I can tell there is no such thing as a brag sheet in our Naviance. There is a resume they can fill out but unles sit’s required I think S will be better served handing his new GC and his LOR writer, a resume. Or emailing i I guess lol. We’ve received NO direction this year and as best I can tell, here is how it went down last year.
Late sept has a personal essay workshop, at night, that is optional.
Kids who want to, can schedule an October session with their counselor
The only other direction they get, as best I can see is to move colleges to the “apply” bucket, ask the teacher directly, link them in Naviance per the school in question and give the teacher at least 3 weeks.
Which, if you have a 10/15 EA Date and don’t even meet with the counselor until October…clearly that will not work. I want S to determine all EA schools before school starts so they are at least in the apply to bucket and then as soon as the stupid LOR piece is actually working in Naviance, link his teachers. Allegedly yes, the upgrade/enhancement is so that you can pick which teacher for which school. S has determined his primary LOR writer and will use that for all but he needs at least one more. I haven’t been able to see if any want 3 but think there may be one.
Of course, our Naviance has NO 2017 info, it’s still showing stuff for the class of 2016. It also has incorrect EA info in there. 2 of S’s schools added EA this year and that is not reflected and some of the others look off. UGH. And…it appears we have a new counselor.
Personally I am unclear why a parent would need to complete a brag sheet on their own, it’s the kids application not the parents. I can see the parents aiding the kid with their resume or brag sheet but to have two really doesn’t make sense to me. The student should be able to tell their own GC and letter writers what they should know about them that makes them special.
@itsgettingreal17 I don’t know anything about anyone other than dd. The letters give no information other than how to log in in order to create an acct for the next step of the process. (In our entire county, the last couple of yrs there have only been 2-3 qualifying students and zero homeschoolers.)
The brag sheet function is not turned on for our Naviance either. But the LORs do get uploaded to Naviance. Schools definitely pick and choose what functions of Naviance they want to use.
Hello!
First post on this thread, but I have been following for a while and sense a great community and solid advice. So I am delurking to ask a question:
D has her first college interview at the end of this week. What all should she bring with her? I was thinking at least an activities resume; should she also bring a transcript (would have to be unofficial) and ACT scores? She hasn’t applied yet, so interviewer will have no information about her at all.
Thanks for your help!
Is it common knowledge what the essay question is for NMF application?
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Congrats to your DD! :-bd :-bd :-bd
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, Congrats on your D’s great accomplishment.
I found the pp interesting. I could figure out my S’s number for Academic. I figured a 7. My problem was figuring out the number for Personal Character. My son has not won or competed in any academic stuff. Yet he is a 3 time class President, and now Student Body President. His community involvement and employment are significant. What number do you give that… Opinions…
@RightCoaster, I think you have a very healthy perspective on this whole process. Congrats. I do disagree with putting SAT ahead of GPA and Rigor. I have yet to see any presentation by adcom folks that support your premise. Sorry and no disrespect meant.
MY D was an Admission Officer at a large State U. They sent all applicants to a third party company. They would take GPA and give it a numerical value, the same with SAT or ACT. They used some formula and gave every applicant a number. They were then put in deciding order. Below a certain number was an auto reject. Close to the cut off, got a read. I the read, the first thing they did after checking the number was count honors and AP classes. Then gave a quick read. Any doubts would get a second read. At big schools, they spend very little time fretting over all the things we have spent years worrying about. I am sure at top 30 schools, the process is more involved.
@Aida,
Yes your instincts are correct. I would bring an unofficial copy of transcript and resume. If the interviewer wants to find things to talk about, this may serve as a jumping off point. They may to look at it, but can’t hurt to have it with you…Good luck and welcome to the world of non lurking
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Congratulations to your DD and to you!!! Well done!
@eandesmom – I have heard that the reason for the parent ‘brag sheet’ may be to assist the GC in writing her LOR. So…when writing, think about how a string of words might look if the GC were to lift it from your responses.
We do not have a brag sheet, per se, but a parent packet to complete that asks for demographic details (parents’ education) in addition to asking will FA or merit aid be a consideration? What size of school? Do you anticipate any conflict/issues/concerns with the college app process. I think part of its purpose is to see if parent and child are on the same page.
@Aida – what to bring to interview…I had my son bring a copy of his resume and his unofficial transcript. His standardized test scores are on his resume, so he did not bring copies of test scores. One school he interviewed at states on their website that the interviewer is not allowed to accept transcripts or resumes. Good luck to your D.
I find that the resume can sometimes help start a conversation.
@Aida Welcome! I’d have her bring an activities resume. If she wants to bring anything else like a transcript, it might or might not be used, but it might make her feel more confident to have some reference materials. Have her prepare a few questions about the college that can’t be answered by reading the website.
@eandesmom DS didn’t like the resume feature in Naviance, and uses Google Docs. He will probably also give a resume to his recommenders once he has the Brag Sheet done.
The direction we get from the school is similarly lacking unless you ask or poke around deep in the website.
Our school has several coaching sessions for filling out our state schools apps in November.
There’s a College Night this Wednesday for juniors and seniors, about “about creating options in the college search.” We’ve been before, and it covers stuff seniors and their parents should already know, but many don’t–like “there are 3 public college systems in CA with lots of campuses and there are lots of privates”. Other than the rep for our local UC, there aren’t usually too many colleges represented that interest us. DS talked to GTech and UAlabama last year. Others were mostly small religious colleges.
Regarding the Brag Sheet, I didn’t have to do an entire 12-question sheet, just had to answer the following prompt:
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Thank you so much for sharing that PowerPoint! You are such a resource. I do not know how you gather all the information you share with us. But I am glad that you do, and I am very grateful for your generosity.
And I am very happy for you and your daughter!
@BigPapiofthree I had a hard time with that as well. I went by the classifications at the bottom. Obviously my dd has zero in school type activities, so only go 2 pts.
@Aida I would bring a transcript, and maybe a resume that includes courses for senior year, lists some extracurriculars and lists a score of highest sat/act.
Good luck!
The PowerPoint presentation was really interesting. It seemed to imply that the Essays are rarely helpful. I have the impression that for highly selective schools once you are past a certain threshold on scores and grades the essays and recommendation letters can make or break you. What am I missing?
Thank you for your responses. She will bring all three (resume, transcript, test scores.) I’ve heard that at some schools the interviewer doesn’t ever have access to the applicant’s transcript even after they apply, but I know at this school they do, because when my son interviewed there several years ago, his interviewer had a copy of the transcript in front of him (my son didn’t bring it) and even asked him questions about it (such as “What’s up with the C in Spanish?” lol.) So I assume he/she will want to look at D’s.