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Archive for: University Admission and Parents

Parent Letters and College Admission


Smith College, Parent Letters of Recommendation, College Letters of Rec, Smith College Application

At Smith College, parent letters are optional. That’s right. Letters from parents can be included with the application.

Parent letters and college admission. When you think of a letter from a parent being included with a student’s college application, you might think it’s utterly ridiculous. Why would a college want a letter from a parent, asks writer Justin Pope in “The Huffington Post”? Of course the vast majority of parents (and every parent we know) want their children to earn admission to the colleges of their dreams, but isn’t including a letter from a parent like the “Everybody Loves Raymond” episode where Marie lobbies an interviewer to give her son, Robert, a job?

The answer is that, yes, it is utterly ridiculous, but it is an option at certain colleges. And at these schools, parents should indeed take the option to submit letters. So what colleges? How about Smith, Holy Cross, and Mt. Holyoke? That’s right. At these colleges, parent letters are considered optional. And in this case, that means parents should do it to improve the odds for their children.

But what should be written in these college admission recommendations from parents? These letters should shed insight on your child that isn’t necessarily present in teacher or guidance counselor letters of recommendation. These letters should describe your child in a way that only you can. What these letters should not focus on is how your child’s favorite TV show is “Glee” and how he always leaves his dirty clothes under his bed. But they also shouldn’t be about how he’s such a good boy that he never leaves his dirty laundry under the bed. These letters must share significant insight.

Sometimes sharing an anecdote can be the best way to convey the kind of person your child is. While we’ve said it before as students write college essays, we’ll say it again: Show. Don’t tell. You have an audience for these letters. An audience with a short attention span. So engage them right off the bat! These letters are ultimately not the most significant components of one’s application to a school like Smith but, in college admissions, every component counts.

Crazed Parents and College Admission


Crazy Parents and College Admission, University Admission and Parents, Parents and Ivy League Admissions

Parents naturally worry during the college admissions process. It’s normal. But try to avoid saying ridiculous things you’ll later regret during this stressful time.

There’s a blog that’s getting some press called “The Neurotic Parent” by J.D. Rothman. We’ve written about Ms. Rothman’s amusing blog on the highly selective college admissions process before. This country need more parents like her who are able to not only recognize the craziness and ridiculousness of some parents going through the college admissions process with their children but are able to write about it in a humorous way that so many others can relate to.

Ms. Rothman writes about comments she overhears from parents (or sometimes they’re comments said directly to her) that are so outlandish. Here’s an example: “From our daughter’s school, you need to play golf or water polo to get into Stanford.” Really? You certainly don’t need to golf or play water polo to get into Stanford no matter what high school you go to. It’s possible that the water polo coach recruits annually from your child’s high school but to say that you need to play one of those two sports to get in should make Anderson Cooper’s “RidicuList.”

Here’s another comment reported by Ms. Rothman: “Harvard was a big diss because she’s not only a legacy, but someone who could absolutely do the work.” Wow. We don’t have to add any additional commentary to that! And one more: “In a four-hour period last Thursday she was shut out by four Ivies, as well as Williams and Tufts.” Yikes! Even worse that everyone is talking about it! But that’s life, unfortunately.

Bottom line: Don’t be one of these crazy parents. Don’t be the parent who obsesses openly to anyone who will listen about your daughter’s chances of getting into Princeton. It’s normal to worry about this. It’s normal to talk to your spouse about this. But there’s no reason to have to talk about it at the grocery store so all can overhear it. There’s no reason to gossip about every other child’s admissions results. Just worry about your own kid.