midorifamily Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 How long should the School Profile and the Counselor Letter be? 500KB PDF file is big enough to accommodate long ones, but they probably should be only couple pages long? And what about the line spacing? Should it be single, 1.5, or double? It seems that I go a few steps forward and then get stumped with a new question. Would anybody please help me? Midori Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 My counselor letters for each boy were about 2 pages, single-spaced. (No one will be red-inking it I hope.) I think my school profile was about 1.5 pages. I had section headings for each section, plus I had a table for my grading scale info, so that took up some space. I had no difficulty with the space limitations after it converted to a PDF. Heck, my transcript plus course descriptions was 14 pages and that was within the file space restrictions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 My counselor letter was one page. School profile was a bit more than a page all 12pt Times Roman 1.5 spaced. It should be legible when it is scanned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Girls' Mom Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 Are there any good links to examples of these? I just entered the murky world of Common App last night. I didn't realize how much I didn't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted August 26, 2014 Share Posted August 26, 2014 Are there any good links to examples of these? I just entered the murky world of Common App last night. I didn't realize how much I didn't know. Me, too! I'd love to see multiple examples of counselor letters and school profiles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midorifamily Posted August 26, 2014 Author Share Posted August 26, 2014 OK. So it looks like they should be 1-2 pages long. Yes, I wondered about legibility too, because the single space looked so packed. Thank you so much for responding. This forum is GREAT. Thank you, SWB! Midori P.S. For Apryl and TechWife, I looked at the following for information on actual documents: http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/applications/counselor-tips On the "Related Downloads" on the right, they have "Outline of a counselor recommendation." http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/counseling/profile This one has a link to the actual sample, although it's for brick and mortar kind of schools, of course. Overall I found CollegeBoard website very helpful, with lots of "How-to"s and videos for novice high school counselors. Also, you might want to do a search on this forum by typing "school profile" or "counselor letter." There is an amazing amount of valuable information from moms who's been there, done that. I learned a lot from their posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Girls' Mom Posted August 26, 2014 Share Posted August 26, 2014 Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Florida Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 My counselor letter was "too long," based on most of the advice I read, but I just couldn't find anything I could stand to cut. So, I sent it out at 1.5 pages (12pt font, double spaced). Our school profile was about 2.5 pages (12pt font, double spaced). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssbmem Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 http://www.aiminghigherconsultants.com/the-counselor-letter/ This article is about the counselor letter. I found it very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted August 31, 2014 Share Posted August 31, 2014 Are there any good links to examples of these? Me, too! I'd love to see multiple examples of counselor letters and school profiles. I'd be happy to share a copy of the school profile that I created when my daughter applied to college. Simply send me a personal message with your email address, and I'll email it to you. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Hen Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you my school profile, counselor letter too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Florida Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 I wonder if there's a way to create an archive of samples? We'd have to "scrub" them of names and identifying info before posting them, of course. But it might be really helpful to each new year's crop of parents of seniors to have samples available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isaelijohjac Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Oh goodness I personally would really appreciate this and would be happy to share when mine is complete.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimtaxi234 Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Since I wasn't sure about the school profile, I found this from a internet search: The School Profile Placed on your professional-looking school letterhead, the school profile basically tells about your school – when it opened, how many students there are, where you live, whether or not you have access to public school activities, your general philosophy. I give a brief description of the type of classes offered (whether they are taught at the gifted/talented level or AP level) as well as how many credits in each academic area are required for graduation. It is important to explain our assessment tools: what is our grading scale, whether grades were weighted or unweighted, and what do we use to calculate credit. I chose to use the Carnegie credit standard of one credit equaling 120 or more contact hours. While it doesn’t matter what standard you use, I feel that the closer we get to speaking the same language as our public school counterparts, the more successful we will be. Finally, I list academic achievements of the student, test data (SAT, AP, SAT Subject, IB) as well as volunteer service hours. This part of the document will probably fit in two pages. My daughter used a software program to box off related information and use colored shading within boxes to match the letterhead. The result is a very professional document that shows our school at a glance. She also designed a footer for every page that had her full name, date of birth, and social security number (you can also use the Common Application number if it will used as a part of that application). Be aware that many schools want all or part of this information on EVERY page submitted to them. http://www.aiminghigherconsultants.com/creating-school-profiletranscript-legend/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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