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Maybe we’re lucky, but despite our counselors having two or three hundred kids to take care of (only a quarter of whom will be seniors) they do a pretty good job of getting to know the kids. They meet with them in small groups junior year, and also once with the parents late junior year and early senior year. They ask for a parent brag sheet, get the kids to get two recommendations from teachers that she looks at for her letter (my son didn’t use the same ones he used for his real recommendations), they ask the kids to fill out long forms about their activities. Both counselors knew my kids by name.</p>
<p>I suspect that ad coms won’t think that “hard working” from a parent is code for a kid who has to work hard, but has no natural brilliance. And honestly, what you want is both smarts and the willingness to work with those smarts. No?</p>