rbk mama Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I'm having trouble making it concise. What should my goal in length be? And how should it be formatted (spacing/font size)? We have an unusual situation with international moves and a lack of "normal" ECs (and a bunch of less normal ones) - its difficult to explain everything in a concise way. And I'm sure I'm not the only one with a kid who's just all over the place in terms of interests/achievements. I cannot imagine fitting everything onto one page. Any guidelines you can think of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 My first draft was 2 full pages (I could have gone longer). I managed to cut it to 1200 words and it fit 2 pages because I used a size 11 font that was naturally smaller than some other types of font (Candara). Then I polished, tweaked, rewrote till I cut it to 700 words-ish and managed to fit it all into one page. Perhaps, if there is time, you could just write everything that you feel is important, step away and come back to it every few days to see what to add/ delete/ pare down? Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I also only chose a few achievements to talk about. I spent a little more time expanding the examples, providing details a reader might not expect to hear from such an applicant. I also focused on possible areas of concern (mathy kid but won't write a lot -- how to show college level maturity, engagement and ability?). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann.without.an.e Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I had such a hard time with this. I think I must have edited a bazillion times. I cut and cut and cut. No real advice, just commiseration haha. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I stopped counting after my 17th draft (there were many mini edits/ drafts in between too). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 (edited) Mine is a page, Times New Roman 12pt, 1.15 spaced. The counselor letter is supposed to be about the student - what is the student like? Peronality, interest, special things? Any information that is really more about the schooling of the student can be put in the homeschool profile and does not need to take up space in the counselor letter. So ,if the international moves influenced the schooling methods, goals, materials, opportunities - that can go in the profile. Edited March 1, 2017 by regentrude 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbk mama Posted March 1, 2017 Author Share Posted March 1, 2017 Any information that is really more about the schooling of the student can be put in the homeschool profile and does not need to take up space in the counselor letter. So ,if the international moves influenced the schooling methods, goals, materials, opportunities - that can go in the profile. What about school-y interests - off-transcript pursuits in areas of physics, or in music, etc. That belongs in the counselor letter, right? I was assuming that the stuff in the school profile applies to ALL of my students, and the things that are specific to the student goes in the counselor letter. Is that right? Or am I putting too much in the counselor letter? Where do you mention all the stuff that isn't on the transcript? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I just let my counselor letter be as long as it needed to be. Write it first without worrying about length, then edit each point to be as concise as possible. Mine was 1 3/4 pages, with 1.5 spacing and a readable font. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 (edited) What about school-y interests - off-transcript pursuits in areas of physics, or in music, etc. That belongs in the counselor letter, right? I was assuming that the stuff in the school profile applies to ALL of my students, and the things that are specific to the student goes in the counselor letter. Is that right? Or am I putting too much in the counselor letter? Where do you mention all the stuff that isn't on the transcript? There will be a section in the college application where the student is asked to list extracurriculars. That is where my kids have listed all their activities that are not part of the transcript: sports, choir, volunteering, English honors society, being a physics tutor, paid jobs... In the counselor letter I have referred to extracurriculars only as far as they pertained directly to my student's character and development. Since for DS sports played a big role, I wrote about that in the letter - but how many years of what he trained where goes in the Extracurricular section of the student's application. For DD, one activity that was important for her personality development was training a horse, so that got mentioned briefly. Any details (how much riding how long where; highschool athlete status) and any other activities (choir, volunteer work etc) she addressed in the extracurriculars section. Edited March 1, 2017 by regentrude 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I just let my counselor letter be as long as it needed to be. Write it first without worrying about length, then edit each point to be as concise as possible. Mine was 1 3/4 pages, with 1.5 spacing and a readable font. That was my approach as well. Mine was also about that long. I did not worry about trying to fit on a single page. I had a 2nd reader for Brown read mine and give feedback. She offered constructive criticism on a couple of sentences, but she liked the content and said not to change anything else. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I was assuming that the stuff in the school profile applies to ALL of my students, and the things that are specific to the student goes in the counselor letter. Is that right? I have to say that the school profiles for my two kids are different: their educations had overlap as well as some unique aspects, so not a straight cut-n-paste. I'm not sure what you're asking in terms of physics work that did not go in the transcript. If it's not on the transcript, it probably doesn't belong in the school profile or the counselor letter either. The purpose of those two documents is not a backdoor way to give extra credit. If it was student-led it goes on the student half of the application as an extracurricular as suggested above. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I was assuming that the stuff in the school profile applies to ALL of my students, and the things that are specific to the student goes in the counselor letter. Is that right? That would be the way a b&m school with hundreds of students has to do it, but as a homeschooler, you don't. My schooling goals, methods, and materials for both kids are similar, but not identical. I changed the profile slightly to reflect that difference. Anything that talks about how I have been educating the student went in the profile. The goal was to explain how my school works. Anything that talks about the student's personality and character and interests went into the letter. The goal was to explain how my student ticks. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 That would be the way a b&m school with hundreds of students has to do it, but as a homeschooler, you don't. My schooling goals, methods, and materials for both kids are similar, but not identical. I changed the profile slightly to reflect that difference. Anything that talks about how I have been educating the student went in the profile. The goal was to explain how my school works. Anything that talks about the student's personality and character and interests went into the letter. The goal was to explain how my student ticks. As you can see by Regentrude's approach being very different from mine that there really is not right answer. I wrote my school profile and my counselor letters very differently. My profile was my general homeschooling philosophy and why we homeschool, how long, etc. Bc we have 4 homeschool grads, I gave a very brief bio on each (just a couple of sentences). I included the profile of our local public high school (which only rates an 11 on a 100 pt scale.) My counselor letter was child specific. My methods for are very different from child to child and this Dd opted to not take APs or DE. I told why and what she had opted to do instead, etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbk mama Posted March 1, 2017 Author Share Posted March 1, 2017 (edited) If it's not on the transcript, it probably doesn't belong in the school profile or the counselor letter either. The purpose of those two documents is not a backdoor way to give extra credit. If it was student-led it goes on the student half of the application as an extracurricular as suggested above. Does everything a student learn about need to go on a transcript for credit? DS has spent huge amounts of time learning about quantum physics and Beethoven (among other things...) - neither of these things are on his transcript. My point in mentioning them is to show these other aspects of his interests that wouldn't come through on his transcript alone; I think his focus, and the manner in which he has gone about learning is part of his personality. His transcript is loaded already, and these things were very much student-led and for fun, not tallied up in any official manner (nor are they extracurricular activities, right?). Does this not belong here? ETA: I think I started down this path with the injunction in my head to "show, not tell" when it comes to aspects of his personality - and talking about these off-transcript research things or various extracurricular activities were ways to do that. Edited March 1, 2017 by rbk mama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbk mama Posted March 1, 2017 Author Share Posted March 1, 2017 That would be the way a b&m school with hundreds of students has to do it, but as a homeschooler, you don't. My schooling goals, methods, and materials for both kids are similar, but not identical. I changed the profile slightly to reflect that difference. Anything that talks about how I have been educating the student went in the profile. The goal was to explain how my school works. Anything that talks about the student's personality and character and interests went into the letter. The goal was to explain how my student ticks. This is very helpful. I kept thinking about the other highschooler I have, which is silly because I doubt that when he applies they will pull out his sibling's school profile to compare! :001_rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Does everything a student learn about need to go on a transcript for credit? DS has spent huge amounts of time learning about quantum physics and Beethoven (among other things...) - neither of these things are on his transcript. My point in mentioning them is to show these other aspects of his interests that wouldn't come through on his transcript alone; I think his focus, and the manner in which he has gone about learning is part of his personality. His transcript is loaded already, and these things were very much student-led and for fun, not tallied up in any official manner (nor are they extracurricular activities, right?). Does this not belong here? No, not everything a student learns needs to go on a transcript. Nor does it need to be mentioned anywhere on the college application. Both of my kids did stuff they just ... did. Without it occurring in any official paperwork. These are extracurricular activities. Anything a student does outside the academic curriculum that is reflected on the transcript is by its very nature extracurricular. Reading copious amounts of books for fun is an extracurricular. Hiking is extracurricular. Playing the piano is. Going to the opera and learning a ton about composers is. The term does not just refer to organized and structured activities. The student has the ESSAYS to showcase his special interests and passions. A student who is passionate about quantum physics might choose to write about that. It will stand out much more that way. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbk mama Posted March 1, 2017 Author Share Posted March 1, 2017 OK, I think I am trying to do way too much with this letter! :tongue_smilie: Need to snip away now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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