Juniors: Let’s Complete Parent and Student Surveys Soon

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!