College application - supplementary documentation

[Nan in Mass]

Regentrude - About the overcoming a challenge... perhaps you could talk about how your child had to learn that other people are not as bright as she is and had to learn to be patient and lower her expectations? You would have to phrase it MUCH more tactfully, of course. Or has she lost anybody or anything? Has she wanted to do something and been disappointed and had to carry on anyway? Does she show? Does she always win? Perhaps you could talk about learning to be gracious and cheerful when she loses and gracious and generous when she wins? Has she ever switched barns and had to learn to fit into a new routine? What about rising to the challenge of taking college physics and learning to deal with the less supervised instruction at college. Perhaps rather than overcoming a difficulty, you could talk about rising to a challenge?

 

Nan

[regentrude]

Regentrude - About the overcoming a challenge... perhaps you could talk about how your child had to learn that other people are not as bright as she is and had to learn to be patient and lower her expectations? You would have to phrase it MUCH more tactfully, of course. Or has she lost anybody or anything? Has she wanted to do something and been disappointed and had to carry on anyway? Does she show? Does she always win? Perhaps you could talk about learning to be gracious and cheerful when she loses and gracious and generous when she wins? Has she ever switched barns and had to learn to fit into a new routine? What about rising to the challenge of taking college physics and learning to deal with the less supervised instruction at college. Perhaps rather than overcoming a difficulty, you could talk about rising to a challenge?

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions, Nan. "No" to most of your questions, no major loss, no major disappointment. (And at 45 years of age, *I* am still having a hard time to lower my expectations, LOL). She does show, but does not like it too much and does not really care. She wins some, loses some, but is not really emotionally invested.

She really had no trouble jumping into college courses; since the first class she took from somebody other than me, I was not allowed to have any involvement, and she has been handling it on her own just fine. I can't say effortless, because a tough course requires effort, but it was straight forward.

 

I am leaning towards referring to her former perfectionism and talking about how training the horse taught her patience and perseverance. Because it really did, it was terribly hard at times, and was good for her personality development - she has not yet encountered an academic challenge that did this much for her. Compared to working with a stubborn animal, college is easy because you are much more in control of what happens.

[creekland]

 

(And at 45 years of age, *I* am still having a hard time to lower my expectations, LOL).

 

Just FTR, I'm also having a tough time with this - esp with my youngest and our ps. Iti sn't so bad when it's other people's kids... (sigh) but when it's mine and I know what he's capable of...

 

I just hope we can afford a college that fits his niche as I feel he could really fly at one.

 

But I digress. I think you've done a great job with your daughter and whatever track you take on the app, it'll be just fine. Her achievements will stand high. Sometimes, afterward, it just "is" the "lottery" and you wait to see what happens (assuming you're looking tippy top). Have a good safety school - there are many out there. She'll do well wherever she goes.

[Nan in Mass]

 

Thanks for the suggestions, Nan. "No" to most of your questions, no major loss, no major disappointment. (And at 45 years of age, *I* am still having a hard time to lower my expectations, LOL). She does show, but does not like it too much and does not really care. She wins some, loses some, but is not really emotionally invested.

She really had no trouble jumping into college courses; since the first class she took from somebody other than me, I was not allowed to have any involvement, and she has been handling it on her own just fine. I can't say effortless, because a tough course requires effort, but it was straight forward.

 

I am leaning towards referring to her former perfectionism and talking about how training the horse taught her patience and perseverance. Because it really did, it was terribly hard at times, and was good for her personality development - she has not yet encountered an academic challenge that did this much for her. Compared to working with a stubborn animal, college is easy because you are much more in control of what happens.

 

That's how mine felt about gymnastics competitions. We thought that was wonderful. Some of their coaches were less pleased lol.

 

Well, it sounds like the patience/perfectionism/horses answer is the most honest. I think that if you wanted to give an answer involving academics, you could say that taking college classes as a young student is hard work but she worked hard and did well. Or something like that. You would talk about the challenge as a challenge generally, for everyone, and then talk about your daughter specifically only in the second half of the statement, the half involving the overcoming by working hard and doing well. That way you wouldn't have to state specifically that your daughter struggled. Probably that wasn't very clear.

 

I can see how an experienced teacher working with a student she knew well could build a nice smooth ramp for that student with no sudden steps up which required an academic struggle. Challenge, yes, but struggle, no. Perhaps you should focus on challenges that she's met rather than struggles that she has had. I tend to take words like that more literally than other people do, so I am not a good person to tell you whether this is ok in this particular case, but perhaps you could ask if struggle could be interpreted as doing something challenging? If so, then taking uni classes would work because they are challenging, despite your daughter meeting that challenge without undue effort. I'd only worry about that if you were worried about giving a non-academic answer to the question. I think the horse answer would imply that your daughter had managed her uni classes without a problem, something that you certainly would like to imply if you can find a way to do it.

 

Nan

[regentrude]

thanks for all your thoughts, Nan.

 

That's how mine felt about gymnastics competitions. We thought that was wonderful. Some of their coaches were less pleased lol.

 

 

We are fortunate to be at a very relaxed stable, where the riders are not cut-throat competetive, but rather friendly and supportive. When we have shows with our sister barn, all the riders cheer for each other, there are no hard feelings, and it is more a fun atmosphere than tense. I do not need DD to stress about riding, YKWIM?

So, she has learned to stay away from "fancy", competetive shows and big barns, and just participates in the local low key events where it is more about learning and having a good time.

 

I'd only worry about that if you were worried about giving a non-academic answer to the question. I think the horse answer would imply that your daughter had managed her uni classes without a problem, something that you certainly would like to imply if you can find a way to do it.

 

 

I have no problem with a non-academic challenge. In fact, I might actually prefer that, because it shows another dimension and highlights her as a person who puts effort into pursuing nonacademic interests. It shows that she is not the kid who is chained to a desk and thinks about formulas all day long. And it really IS true that this did wonders for her development.

 

Her coursework speaks for itself; it should be rather obvious that taking the classes she did at the age she did should have been challenging. I am thinking that I will briefly refer to this in one sentence and say that the work ethic and determination she acquired contributed to her impressive performance in her college courses and leave it at that. One of the people who will write her a LOR is her physics professor and mentor of the tutoring program she works for, so I can count on him to focus on the academic side of the college classes - thus I think I would focus more on the things the other two letter writers can not, i.e. those outside the academic area.

 

Thanks everybody for giving me a chance to think out loud, this is very helpful.

[Gwen in VA]

Perhaps you should focus on challenges that she's met rather than struggles that she has had.

 

 

I love that idea!

 

Sometimes parents do not want to share the big challenges their kids have faced because of concerns about how the university would react. (I am thinking particularly of chronic medical conditions here, but there are huge numbers of personal challenges that do NOT necessarily belong on a college app).

 

But we all have seen our kids MEET nice normal, non-eyebrow-raising challenges by tapping into their own particular strengths. And we can certainly all share how our kid have met and surmounted those "normal" challenges, be they academic or extracurricular.

[Vida Winter]

You have a great deal of wonderful advice on this thread and I would like to add one more thing - Lee Binz, The HomeScholar, has some excellent free transcript samples on her site, as well as other useful samples. She also has a book on Amazon. We were members of the gold care club for a while. Her advice is spot-on. http://www.thehomescholar.com

[Brenda in MA]

I am leaning towards referring to her former perfectionism and talking about how training the horse taught her patience and perseverance. Because it really did, it was terribly hard at times, and was good for her personality development - she has not yet encountered an academic challenge that did this much for her. Compared to working with a stubborn animal, college is easy because you are much more in control of what happens.

 

Regentrude,

 

Personally, I think the horse angle is a great one. Most folks have experience with stubborn animals in one sort or another, and her patience & diligence would definitely shine through in that sort of story. I think folks would easily see that those characteristics would most likely transfer to how she deals with her schoolwork and with other people. If there were dealings with other people over the horse training (other kids, leaders, etc.) you might want her to bring in that angle as well.

 

My oldest wrote his college essay about how he rehabed his grandfather's old computer so he could show it at our hs group's show & tell fair. That project definitely highlighted his perserverence and strong work towards an end goal with a deadline. He also talked about the people at the fair and their responses to the project. He ended with a mention of the next project he planned to do. The whole thing came off very much "like him" and it was well received.

 

When we did our college tours with my son and spoke with various admissions folks, many encouraged my son to write an essay about something out of the ordinary. The counselors read hundreds of essays about school and sports teams. Choosing a different topic can make the essay more memorable for them.

 

Brenda

[Nan in Mass]

Regentrude -

 

I like your plan (not that I am any expert lol). I used that letter as a place to talk about some of the non-academic things my sons did and what they had learned from them, also. Their college courses spoke for themselves.

 

Nan