"Brag Sheet" - Have your students done one?

[Jenny in Florida]

I'm a planner, okay? You know how there's that cliche that sharks have to keep moving forward or they die? Well, that's me with projects and planning. So, yes, my son is only a rising 11th grader. And, yes, he's not planning on applying to Ivy league schools. So, sure, I'm over-thinking this whole thing.

 

With that said . . .

 

I'm reading a lot of books about applying to selective colleges, and most of them recommend creating a "brag sheet" or student resume. The idea, as I understand it, is to list in a complete, consistent format all of the student's extracurricular, community service and work experiences. But, judging from the advice from various books and the examples I've found online, there seem to be some very different ideas about what, exactly, this should look like.

 

One problem I'm seeing as I start playing around with this is that some folks strongly advise keeping this document to a single page, while most examples I see run several pages. And, honestly, there is no way we could fit any significant portion of my son's extras onto one page without making the font about 6 point size.

 

Therefore, I'm curious to know whether your students have written or will write up such a document and, if so, what it looked/looks like and what they included? I'd be especially grateful to anyone who would be willing to share a copy of your student's version.

 

Thanks!

[Jen in NY]

Hi Jenny -- if you pm me your preferred e-mail, I can send you a copy of what we used for dd#1. Hers looks fairly short because the kind of things that we included were long term projects... but I'm happy to share.

[Jenny in Florida]

Hi Jenny -- if you pm me your preferred e-mail, I can send you a copy of what we used for dd#1. Hers looks fairly short because the kind of things that we included were long term projects... but I'm happy to share.

 

Thanks, Jen! I PM'd you.

[Luckymama]

We were given a small booklet (5x8 ish) when ds entered his private high school. The idea was for the student to keep track of extracurriculars with hours spent, awards received and such. Each school year had sections for school-related extracurriculars, sports, outside activities, community service, Scouts (it was a boys' school), and work. This booklet was very useful when it came to filling in the Common App and scholarship forms. I didn't see the need to maintain a one-page listing as different forms/applications required specific information.

 

It was a bit easier to keep track of dd18's activities as they were either plays/musicals, different choral groups, and Girl Scouts.

 

I'll keep a file running for dd13.

[Gwen in VA]

We submitted an "Activities Sheet" with each of my kids' applications. We modeled the sheet after the sheet in Michele Hernandez's book "A Is for Admission" (which I highly recommend).

 

My kids' activities' sheet was 3-4 pages -- yes, my kids did a lot, but most of the space was taken up explaining / describing the activities. ALL of their activities were odd enough that a one-line explanation would have left the admissions people scratching their heads.

[Jenny in Florida]

We submitted an "Activities Sheet" with each of my kids' applications. We modeled the sheet after the sheet in Michele Hernandez's book "A Is for Admission" (which I highly recommend).

 

My kids' activities' sheet was 3-4 pages -- yes, my kids did a lot, but most of the space was taken up explaining / describing the activities. ALL of their activities were odd enough that a one-line explanation would have left the admissions people scratching their heads.

 

 

I've seen several recommendations for the Hernandez book. I'll have to see if our library has a copy.

 

Yes, the length is part of what's worrying me. My son has just finished his second year of high school, and even with what I consider pretty ruthless cutting and keeping explanations pretty cryptic, I can't get his list under three pages. Understanding that a good number of the things he's likely to do over the next couple of years won't require whole new entries (because they will be continuations of things he's already doing), I'm still concerned that the document is just too long.

 

It's nice to know a similar format worked for your kids. Thanks!

[Muttichen]

We did a one page summary of the highlights -- most important extra curriculars, community service, and awards -- to give to the recommenders along with the transcript. With our oldest two, we included it with the application as suggested in A is for Admission, but with the next two we didn't because all of the information is included in the Common App and we got the impression from admissions people that they don't really want to see the same information repeated. Our kids were accepted at very selective schools (ds#4 got into Harvard, Princeton, and Yale).