Juniors, Four Great Tips for Writing Your Brag Sheet

Almost everyone I know, students and adults alike, hate writing anything close to a brag sheet. For adults it's usually something you write before your annual review, for students it's what you probably have to write for your college counselors, and can be used for your teacher letters of recommendation as well. After all, who is really comfortable bragging about what they can do, it feels artificial and odd. Here are some tips because for students in large schools the "brag sheet" might be the only way your college counselor will get to know you and a college counselor recommendation is required for almost every school. The good news is that you'll be able to use these good thoughts you write about yourself to give to teachers to write a recommendation, and quite possibly to start you off writing your personal statement! 

Here are some tips for writing a brag sheet that helps counselors who may not know you well write a great recommendation anyway. The examples I give here are real examples from students we've worked with.

What adjectives describe you? - This is sometimes the first question, brainstorm this and you'll have a lot to add for all the additional questions. "Determined, I have always been interested in theatre and my sophomore and junior years my creative self worked on set design, my senior year I gained the courage to audition and was selected to play Tanya in Mama Mia." Your counselor, and college, probably has no idea that auditioning was a hurdle you had to work to overcome.

Focus on character - How are do you show your most important qualities? Are you caring? empathetic? bold? curious? Tell them what you've done. "When it came time to join a group for physics experiments I chose to work with students who needed my help rather than one with my friends" In one example you've shown your character and telling them that you were captain of a team that any college will see on your extracurricular activities list.

Give concrete examples - How do you interact with your peers? with teachers? "When a student was having trouble with drawing special effects I showed them how to find the tips in Adobe." Colleges want to see teamwork and collaboration, the counselor letter is a great place for them to learn this.

Tell what programs interest you and why - Your counselor might see STEM classes but how you use your love of STEM is more important. "I'm applying to programs that specifically focus on both the art and technology behind set design. My career goal is to interface between the set designers and architects for stage productions, films and themed entertainment. I served in this role in the production of Seussical when I designed a rotating stage." Let your counselor know your goals and focus so they can write their letters with them in mind.

Some schools have their own brag sheet, often for students and parents to complete, others ask you to write your own (which is much harder). Just remember, the goal is to provide information that is not found on your transcripts or extra curricular activities, and that uses concrete example and your character to explain your accomplishments. Writing this list will also help you start to think about qualities you want to emphasize in your personal statement.