These surveys in Naviance, Scoir, or whichever platform your school uses, are the primary sources that high school counselors use to write your letters of recommendation. While counselors would welcome the opportunity to know every student well, the system doesn’t allow this. It’s up to parents and students to fill in all the blanks, and there’s no reason not to do so now.
Counselors are busy with seniors now and won’t likely address these letters until later in 2025, but there are real benefits to thinking about them now. That’s because writing an effective parent/student survey, aka “brag sheet,” can inform the other elements of the application that you complete and create, including the college list, activity list, Common App and supplemental essays, and perhaps the “additional information.” If you apply for scholarships, what you write in your surveys can make that easier too.
Once these letters are opened in the admissions office, they are reviewed and balanced with other elements in the application. Do they support the story the student tells? Well-written letters allow admissions officers to craft their classes with institutional goals in mind.
Start by opening the surveys and cutting and pasting the questions into a Google Doc. Don’t answer the questions quickly, but really think about them in relation to your child (or yourself). Every person is more than a string of adjectives, and each of those adjectives wouldn’t make your point unless you can support it with an example and story. Though they are referred to as “brag sheets,” I recommend humility, not bragging.
De-stress the college process by finishing this step early, before the application process picks up steam later in the spring. Let me help you write surveys that will create stronger counselor letters!
First we heard that there was a 15% drop in college enrollment. That made sense, given the drop in the number of students of the age to apply to college. Then, last week, we got a correction: enrollment had actually increased. The National Clearinghouse Research Center apologized for its incorrect calculation with this data:
Freshmen enrollment grew 5.5 percent this fall (+130,000). Building on last fall’s increases, the growth was strongest at community colleges, which added 63,000 freshmen (+7.1%). Overall 18-year-old freshmen also saw enrollment gains this fall (+3.4%, +59,000).
Enrollment increased across all regions this fall. Institutions in the Northeast saw a 4.7 percent increase, the first gains since prior to the pandemic. The South (+4.7%) and West (+4.6%) saw similar gains, followed by the Midwest (+3.1%).
There has also been a significant increase in the number of applications submitted per student since 2020. But colleges are banking on admitting students they believe will enroll, not those who are merely qualified. That’s called “yield.” To students who “have worked hard and done everything right,” this defies logic.
Each year, I see many of my students with the highest level of rigor, numbers, and extracurriculars from top-ranked high schools deferred by highly selective colleges, especially if they are applying to the most competitive majors (generally Computer Science, Engineering, Business). Why? There are too many applicants who look similar. Colleges receive over one hundred applications from some of these high schools!
Colleges defer these exceptional students, assuming they are applying to a range of highly-selective colleges and are not safe bets to enroll.
Who is being admitted? I’m seeing some students with lower numbers or lower level extracurricular activities being admitted to the colleges that are deferring the stronger students. These students may attend smaller high schools and/or parochial schools that send fewer applications to these colleges. Will they enroll, or “yield?” The colleges, enjoying higher enrollment, must believe they will.
High schools debate the need for two kinds of GPA (academic weighted and unweighted). Is there a preference for any of these from the college side, knowing that GPA is so locally influenced that many colleges recalculate the GPA using their own standards?
Total (9-12) GPA - includes all courses with a A-F grading scale. “Courses” like advisory/staff assistant/etc. receiving a P or F grade are not included.
Academic (9-12) GPA - includes all grades but only courses noted as "academic". Essentially, these are our A-G courses (college prep). Does not include things like PE, SPED academic support classes, weight lifting, etc.
Academic (10-12) GPA - same as above but doesn't include 9th grade. This is on there because it This is on there because it best estimates the CSU/UC (California State or UCalifornia Collges) A-G GPA, which doesn't include 9th grade in the calculation.
Verdict from Jonathan Burdick, Admissions Leader at Cornell, University of Southern California, University of Rochester over the past 38 years
"As a long-term college guy I'd say it matters, but likely a bit less than (parents?) think. All things equal the admissions reading process would initially default to looking at the reported weighted GPA, but it would still be important to label or demarcate on the actual transcript which grades were weighted (and unless it's very simple, how much weight). These two ideas are separated because the reported GPA is much more likely to enter the student's record as a data point just because it's so much easier to find. And sadly, there's a non-zero chance that that data point persists all the way through to reporting, scholarships etc. But the actual admissions read, if it's serious, includes perusing the transcript as a direct source of important information."
That means that the courses a student chooses matter at least as much as GPA.