It's never too early to start thinking about your letters of recommendation. It's too early to ask for them, but not to be familiar with what the form looks like and what the teachers are going to be asked about your student.
The form from the Common Applicaton (which most students will use) asks the teacher what three words come to mind when they think about your teen. Are those three things positive? Does the teacher even know your child well enough to come up with three words?
The teacher will also be asked to rate your student across several areas, including Creative Thought, Maturity, Integrity, and Initiative. In all, there are 15 categories they will rate your student on, plus give them an Overall rating.
It can be helpful for students to know what these categories are, so they can keep them in mind as they go through their high school years. What kind of an impression are they making on their teachers?
Here's a copy of what the Letter of Recommendation Form looks like. Take a look and use this as an opportunity to talk to your teenager about how they want to engage with their teachers and their peers as they move through high school.
Most colleges are still not open for visits. This is causing some stress for both seniors, who would love a chance to get to see some of the colleges they have applied to, as well as juniors, who are starting to think about where to apply next fall.
The National Association for College Admission Counseling typically holds a series of College Fairs every year. But with many campuses still in some form of shut-down to visitors, they have pivoted to offering a series of virtual forums.
Multiple virtual college fairs will be held throughout the winter and spring 2021. Some colleges will have representation at each fair, some will be at only one or two. You can go to their website (https://virtualcollegefairs.org/events) to see the dates of the fairs, and by clicking on the date, you can see which schools will be in attendance.
Within each school's profile, you can see what they'll be talking about on any given date and time. Topics range from Financial Aid 101 to Life as an Out of State Student. and anything in between. Many also offer a general Q&A with an admissions representative, and most offer general information sessions about their college. There is also an option to schedule an appointment with an admissions officer if you have specific questions you want to ask privately.
This is an easy way to get some information about different schools and have a chance to even ask some questions.
Go Deep
Long gone are the days of the well-rounded student. You may have been one yourself... a member of two or three sports teams, a musical or two, band, youth group, camp counselor. You get the idea; you did a little bit of a lot of things. You were very well-rounded. Colleges like that, right?
No.
Colleges now want a well-rounded class, made up of what I call "pointy" students.
When your kid does a lot of activities, it doesn't tell the admissions committee much about them. It doesn't tell them who they are, and what they will contribute to the campus. They are left wondering "What is really important to him or her?"
Help your teen really get involved in what is important to them. Do they love music? Maybe they are in a band, compose music, and write a music review column for the student paper. This will be more compelling to an admissions officer than someone who is in band, volunteers at the humane society, and works at McDonalds. Can you see the difference? All of those things are worthy pursuits, but the kid who goes deep into music tells a better story about who he is and what is important to him.
Of course the pursuits of your teen must be authentic. It's hard to uphold a fascade about being passionate about something if they're not. Don't push them to do activities that aren't part of who they are, just because it will look good on a college application. The whole point is to let your teen be themselves, and let that shine through. Let your teen explore what's interesting to them. They may start off on one path, and as they go it veers them into something else entirely. That can be a great story to be told.
Let me give you an example: Who is a college admissions officer going to remember more vividly when discussing applicants: the high school student who was in honor society, orchestra, competed in the science fair, and played tennis and soccer? Or the student who played hockey, was captain of his team, created a tradition of having Friday night pizzas, developed his own dough recipe, and started selling his dough to donate the profits to local hockey organization that helped procure equipment for under-privileged kids?
The first kid is well-rounded, involved in a lot of activities, and may have great grades and test scores to back it up. But does the college have any idea what is important to them? Any idea of who they are? Not really. But the hockey kid - he delved deep, and took his passion and did something with it.
This isn't to say your kid has to start a foundation or deworm orphans in Somalia (thanks, Legally Blonde). But let your teen direct what they are interested in, and encourage them to follow those interests.
Let them go deep, rather than broad. Let them do what they love and be memorable for it.
