Tips For Writing Your Common App Brag Sheet- writedeal.com

Jan 30th 11 Posted by Ashley Artmann in Blogging

Tips For Writing Your Common App Brag Sheet

One of the hardest things to do for the Common App is editing your resume to fit into a 500-character brag sheet. How is an Ivy League school supposed to get a complete picture of you in so little space?

To put your best image forward, you need to break down your resume and pick out your best accomplishments from the merely good ones.

Start by answering the following questions from your resume: What are my awards? What are my leadership positions? What are my membership/volunteer positions? What are my achievements that don’t fall under any of the above?

Then group by interest: academic, artistic, employment, athletic, community service, misc.

Step three: Now that you have a visual map of your resume, pick the most impressive thing from each category to write on your brag sheet.

Never repeat information on your application- for example, your GPA or SAT scores are stated in other areas of your application, so there’s no need to include them on your brag sheet. Also, leave the brag sheet for things that don’t need a large amount of description- for example, one-off awards.

Here’s my brag sheet, that I wrote starting from a three-page resume. This wasn’t an easy task, but I did while keeping the above principles in mind.

IB (7 SL Calculus/6 SL Chemistry), AP (all 5′s), AP Scholar with Distinction, National Merit Semifinalist, Forensics President/Junior Representative, 7th Public Forum Nationals 2007, Two Time Qualifier NFL Nationals, NFL Academic All American, Quarterfinals Nationals Extemp Com, 4th ASU USX (US Extemporaneous), State Champion Public Forum, State 2nd USX, NHS Treasurer, 3 year Varsity Softball Letterman, Team Captain, Scholar Athlete, Outstanding HS Junior Mathematics 2007 GVHS, Varsity Quiz Regional Champions 2007, Radio Show Co-Host

I put my academic achievements first, making sure to list a wide variety of items to portray me as a well-balanced student. I used acronyms for IB and AP since they are pretty much universally recognized. Putting these test scores on the brag sheet tells the reader that I was well-accomplished in standardized tests. I put both because I aced both tests, but if you have one that you did way better in, list that one.

The second part talks about my forensics career. I was Forensics President as well as an Academic All-American, and I felt that listing these two went a long way in painting me as a well-rounded academic who was accomplished in extracurriculars as well.

Since I had so many speech and debate awards, it was difficult make the decision to cut out the majority of them. A good rule to follow when thinking about listing awards is to prioritize your awards as international, national, state, and local. I ended up listing everything I had accomplished at the national and state level, dropping the local awards. Even though I had won many awards through Rotary International and Lions club, I left them out because they were not as well-known competitions.

The third part lists things that sound great but weren’t so important to me. This is a good area to put impressive-sounding things that round out your resume. For me, it was NHS, Varsity softball, and my math award. I also listed that I co-hosted a radio show to end the brag sheet with a bang.

Some things I left out were piano and clubs I was a member of but didn’t participate much in. I left out piano because I knew there would be applicants who were highly competitive pianists, and my mere Level 8 National Music Teacher Association tests didn’t look very impressive in comparison. I also wasn’t planning on pursuing music as a career or even continuing with music in college. In the same line, I left out my Mu Alpha Theta, IB Honor Society and Varsity Football team statistics work since those were mainly filler activities for me that didn’t really convey who I was as a person. It was hard to drop “Caucus Club,” a club that I started senior year of high school to encourage fellow students to vote; ultimately I took it out because it would take too much space to explain the clever name and what the club was about.

In your brag sheet, it’s important to list items that speak to who you are as a person and as a student. Give them a taste of your best, and put activities that don’t get much attention in the rest of your application.

ivyleagueadmissions.org has a boatload of articles, guides, and examples written by students who got into their dream schools!