As the program director for the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship with fifteen-plus years selecting and working with the CDB Scholars and families, I’m asked this question more than any other, so I’m here to provide some inside information that you won’t find on High School Confidential or through the grapevine.

Every eligible CDB application is read thoroughly by at least two members of the CDB staff at the Institute for Educational Advancement and logged into our online data system, one folder for each CDB applicant. If any elements of the application are missing, we will e-mail the applicant well before the submission deadline. We also send a DEADLINE COMING UP!! e-mail to every applicant who has begun to fill out or worked on an application within three weeks of the deadline. Staff members evaluate each application individually with written notes pertaining to each element of the application as well as an overall score and assign a numeric to the applicant. This score is then added to an evaluation grid comprised of the totality of that year’s eligible CDB applications. This compilation is what the CDB staff uses to determine which applications will move forward to one of three national selection committees comprised of deans and directors of admission at selective high schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States, heads of independent schools, educators who work with gifted students and CDB alumni, two-three per committee. Our CDB Scholar alumni are outstanding ambassadors and having successfully gone through the application process themselves, quite capable of helping select the Finalists.

The selection committee meetings last two days and result in the selection of between 45-55 Finalists from across the country. These Finalists will be interviewed in person or via zoom (as occurred for the 2020 Scholar selection due to the pandemic restrictions on travel and in-person gatherings) throughout the summer with one or both of their parent(s) or guardian(s) present for a portion of the interview. From the Finalist pool, each year’s CDB Scholars will be selected early in September to begin working with the CDB staff to help find each Scholar’s optimal high school fit.

In reading and evaluating hundreds of CDB applications annually, here are some tips for prospective applicants:

We always offer choices in the essays to help applicants find areas that resonate with them academically and personally. We hope that you will use the 500 word count or a close approximation to elaborate on the given topic and help us get to know what drives and motivates you as an individual in response to the prompt. In my experience, it has rarely if ever been the case that a two or three sentence “essay” has the ability to wow. If anything, it feels to the readers that you’re completing the application under duress and not of your own volition.

By all means use engaging, sophisticated vocabulary and concepts IF you have a clear understanding of their correct usage. Few things stick out more to an experienced application reader than “big” words or phrases put in for effect rather than to enhance a thought or statement. Clunky word choice is not a note you want next to one of your essays.

If you identify as a math or STEAM/STEM person, you are not alone in this applicant pool, so what can you write to set yourself apart from the pack? Well, you can be creative with your words and describe what it is about math that excites and engages you, and you don’t need to be a wordsmith to accomplish this. As readers, my team and I look forward to understanding what drives and motivates an applicant to complete this long and complex application, so help us better understand you. There are few more positive notes I write than, “I want to meet this person and get to know him/her!” It means that you’ve successfully captured my attention through an aspect of your application that presents YOU as the unique individual you are in YOUR voice.

Select your recommenders with care. I cannot emphasize this enough. Since the recommenders—academic and professional—are required to submit their grids and comments directly to the scholarship, you won’t have the opportunity to see what’s been written about you. Few things can derail an otherwise solid application more than comments by someone YOU’VE chosen who either does not have positive things to say about you or who just goes through cursory motions to complete a form without providing any real insight or approbation to heighten your application. Make sure your recommenders are people who know you well and who have shown themselves to be supportive, encouraging, helpful mentors or role models—people who you admire and respect and who feel the same about wanting to encourage and support your CDB application, because they know you well enough to be a staunch supporter of your candidacy.

You are welcome to employ your parents or teachers as proofreaders, but the core ideas should be yours, as well as the writing of your essays, submission of your work sample and finalizing all aspect of the application components. The CDB application is meant to be a reflection of you as an applicant, not your parent. There is a one-page parent letter that should handle that aspect of the application. More to come on this element in the Parent Section of this blog.

If you describe yourself in your CDB application as a dancer or a musician or an artist or singer or inventor or photographer, by all means SHOW US, either as a work sample or in the additional information portal. This is less about you impressing us as a superstar and more about sharing your passion(s) with our team. It’s frustrating to repeatedly read about a special skill or area of interest in your application and not see any visual or oral indication of this element of you.

It is up to you—not your parent—to check in with your recommenders and school office to make sure that the materials they’re compiling for you —recommendations, standardized tests and transcripts—are submitted well within the CDB deadline. You don’t have to make a nuisance of yourself, but go about completing each element of the CDB application in a timely fashion, so you’re not driving everyone around you CRAZY with completing the application minutes or hours before it’s due.[blockquote text=”Make sure your recommenders are people who know you well and who have shown themselves to be supportive, encouraging, helpful mentors or role models—people who you admire and respect and who feel the same about wanting to encourage and support your CDB application, because they know you well enough to be a staunch supporter of your candidacy.” show_quote_icon=”yes” text_color=”#000000″ width=”90%” quote_icon_color=”#aa230d”] 

And now to the parent responsibilities…

While you are always welcome to call or email the CDB Scholarship team with questions or information that’s needed to help with the application, please do not word your questions to us as, “I’m completing the CDB application for my son or daughter.” This is a HUGE red flag for us as to the efficacy of your child’s application and not at all what you should be doing in regards to his or her submission.

As parents or guardians, you are offered a page to let us know about your son or daughter—what makes him or her unique, special talents, areas that perhaps only you as a parent see or know from having lived with this young person more than anyone else. Please don’t use this as a forum to reiterate what’s already been noted in other places of the application such as grades or awards received. This is meant to be your personal statement, and we always appreciate you staying within the one page limit without utilizing the smallest font and no margins top to bottom or side to side. We want to know as parents, what you see, know, feel and value about your child that you want to pass along to us. If you want to tell us about particular vulnerabilities or issues that your son or daughter has had to contend with or overcome, we look upon this as informational and not judgmental. Strengths and weaknesses as well as other aspects of character only help us round out the reality and clarity of an applicant. Perfect superstars as described by parents are immediately suspect to an experienced reader. If your child meets the CDB Scholarship eligibility criteria, by all means support their application, but please do not coerce, bribe or force the issue. The decision to apply—as well as complete and submit—a CDB application should be the responsibility of the applicant. As a parent, you can certainly support the process, but from the sidelines and not as a “co-writer.”

Finally, when decisions are made—whether it’s in selecting the Finalists or ultimately the annual CDB Scholars– please understand that in any competitive process, there will sometimes be results that are not to your liking or expectation. The decisions have less to do with what your child did “wrong” on his or her application or wasn’t “enough” in any given area and more with the reality that the CDB Scholarship draws an incredible, awe-inspiring applicant pool of truly stellar young people from all echelons of the seventh grade national gifted population. The selection process is one that the CDB team takes very, very seriously and meticulously as we evaluate and discuss hundreds of highly accomplished young people and always wish we had the resources to recognize many more of these highly accomplished young people than we are able to do each year with the 25-30 CDB Scholarships we award.

I can’t reiterate this enough, but the CDB team always looks at the multiple aspects of an application, not the singularity of test scores or an applicant’s GPA. Every Institute for Educational Advancement program is centered around the whole child—his or her academic, social, emotional and character-based aspects that all work together to comprise an exceptional individual who will find engagement and fulfillment as a Caroline D. Bradley Scholar within a cohort of peers, mentors and role models spanning selection since 2002.

When it comes to sharing what’s so unique and special about Academy, our students tell it best! This fall, we asked students to share what they like about their class, what can make it even better, and what classes they’d like to see offered this spring. We would like to say thank you to our students for their feedback, and share these highlights from two questions on our survey:

“My Favorite Activity/Topic So Far Was…”

• Subatomic particles.
• Building a beaver dam!
• The virtual microscope.
• Designing adaptive Xbox controllers.
• Building a catapult.
• Making story boards.
• Exploring and talking about philosophical arguments.
• Learning the elements and the rings of bonds.
• Talking about each other’s stories and giving feedback.
• Castles.
• Rodents.
• Silly poems.
• North America.
• South America.
• The periodic table song.
• Structures and support design.
• Siege engines.
• All of them!

“Because of this class, I am able to…”

• Do fun experiments.
• Build cool stuff.
• Think laterally better.
• Tell better stories.
• Talk to other kids.
• Identify stars.
• Make chemical equations.
• Write and enjoy poems.
• Use Tinkercad to create my own designs.
• Have a digital microscope and make observations.
• Learn about the world and its cool features.
• Learn about different ways to think about life.
• Think in a new way about how to make things for people with disabilities.
• Tell my parents facts they don’t know.
• Tell my friends all this cool info.
• Have fun while learning.

Students also shared feedback on what makes Academy different from other classes they take. As one student wrote, “I’m actually learning more about 3d printing, just like how in another (Academy) class I was actually learning about how rockets and engines work.” As these pictures of student work show, there’s no better way to learn than by doing!

NOW ACCEPTING NEW AND RETURNING STUDENT APPLICATIONS

FOR SPRING 2021!

Session Dates: January 25 – April 26, 2021 (no classes April 5-10)
Early Bird Application Deadline: December 18, 2020
Application Deadline: January 4, 2021[button size=”big_large” icon=”” target=”_self” hover_type=”default” font_weight=”700″ text_align=”center” text=”Apply Now” link=”https://ieastaging2.wpengine.com/programs/iea-academy/how-to-apply/” color=”#ffffff” hover_color=”#aa230d” background_color=”#aa230d” hover_background_color=”#ffffff” border_radius=”4″ margin=”0px 0px 0px 0px”]

As the Program Manager for the Caroline D. Bradley (CDB) Scholarship program, I’ve been asked by prospective applicants how to “best” prepare their application so that it not only gets read, but stands out. There really are no gimmicks or tricks to this, but there are effective guidelines that I’ve seen throughout my 12 years at IEA that I’m happy to share:

1. Take the application instructions and directions seriously.

Allow plenty of time to complete your application, so you have time to review and double-check it. Stay within the maximum word counts for your essays and short answers. This lets our selection committees know that you understand and know how to follow directions. Don’t include extra items if specifically given number limits in certain categories such as recommendations. The CDB Scholarship asks for two recommendations. We know that you’re a spectacular applicant, but, again, this falls under the follow directions rule of thumb.

2. Start your preparation early.

Be mindful of the CDB application deadline. To ensure you meet the deadline, start gathering everything you need, begin brainstorming essay ideas and request letters of recommendation months ahead of time as a courtesy to your recommenders who more than likely have a lot in their schedules to take care of aside from your recommendation… and potentially for other program applicants in addition to yours.

Be sure to check the deadlines of upcoming ACT and SAT test dates and register as early as possible to be assured of your requested test date and the location of your test center. It also doesn’t hurt to do a “trial run” to the test site so you know in advance not only where it is but how long it will take to get you there, whether driving or on public transportation. The less stress you can put into test day realities, all the better for you to focus your energy on the test itself… and not on getting there.

3. Choose recommenders wisely.

Make sure that your recommenders know you well enough to support a positive letter of recommendation that makes it clear they know you in the context in which they are writing your letter, and that they have the time to write and submit your recommendation in accordance with the deadline. It is YOUR responsibility to give your recommenders all of the necessary details and deadline information, not theirs to research. You do not want to make this process difficult for them, but should focus on presenting yourself in a positive light to any person willing to support your application. You can certainly provide your recommenders with details, as they may think highly of you but not remember your record-setting time in the 100 meter butterfly or the essay you had published in the school’s literary magazine. Many teachers and coaches routinely write multiple letters of recommendation over the course of an academic year. It’s fine if you supply them with appropriate data on YOU—which is not to say that you write your own recommendation for them to sign. Any recommender who asks you to do this is NOT a recommender that would be appropriate for you to utilize.

4. Don’t lose focus of the detail.

Make sure that you know and are eligible for the specific requirements of the CDB Scholarship. Overlooking a direction or neglecting any of the submission requirements—i.e. not answering the required number of essay prompts, not submitting a work sample, not completing a parent or recommender statement—can disqualify an otherwise eligible applicant from consideration. Read the directions carefully, and don’t hesitate to reach out to a member of the CDB Scholarship team either by phone or e-mail if you have any questions.

5. The seventh grader is the applicant- not your parent.

I’m going to let you in on an insider secret: no one on the CDB team wants to get a phone call from a prospective applicant’s parent that begins, “I’m filling out the application for my son/daughter…”  unless their question specifically refers to the Parent Statement  or general directions-related queries. The application is the responsibility of the student to complete. Yes—a parent or responsible adult can assist with making sure all elements of the application are in order, but it’s up to the actual applicant to be proactive when it comes to requesting the recommendations, school transcript and all of the essay writing and submission of activities, work sample, etc.

6. Stay organized.

Keep track of various deadlines and test days with your planner or a calendar app. It’s also a good idea to keep an online or paper folder with all of the components of the scholarship application as “saved” documents prior to submission, as well as the specific people and dates you’ve gone to for your recommendations and school transcripts. Stay on top of the application components that others are responsible for in a respectful manner which does not mean asking them every week if they’ve completed and submitted your materials. With the CDB application, you can check online under your name to see if and when outside pieces of your application have been submitted.

7. Make sure you know the scholarship.

It’s irritating to a reader when an applicant misspells the name of the scholarship or mistakenly lists the incorrect name if they’re applying for multiple scholarships.

8. Proof your work and have someone else review your application for errors.

It’s perfectly acceptable to ask another person—parent, teacher, older sibling—to read your work and ask for their input or to check your grammar and spelling. A second pair of eyes can often spot errors that you might have missed in the umpteenth reading of your work. But to be clear– this application should be the work, ideas and creative submission of the applicant who is a 7^th grader, not that of an adult. Our readers are well versed in reviewing applications, and the “voice” we expect to be presented with is that of the student applicant, not an over-arching parent.

9. Pay attention to presentation.

If you’ve written great essays and have followed all of the scholarship directives and guidelines but submit an application that is sloppy or not what should be considered as a final draft, you could jeopardize your chances of being a stand-out applicant. All things being equal, the student who submits a neat and professional looking application is going to have an advantage over what appears to be a rushed and not well-proofed submission.

10. Be original.

Many of our readers say that a great essay opening line or a slice-of-life story captures their attention and makes that applicant memorable. Write about specific aspects, experiences, memories or moments of your life in your responses to the various prompts that are unique to you.

11. Share your passions.

As important as your scholastic performance may be, we want to see what you do outside the classroom that has your interest and focus, which is why the CDB application asks for the time commitment and length of time that you’ve put into a particular commitment, as well as any leadership roles you have assumed in your extracurricular life. It’s fine to dabble in a lot of different pursuits, but the limited number of response slots on the CDB application are meant to reveal your passions— the areas that you have seriously devoted your out-of-school time, effort and outreach towards.

The Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship and the annual cohort of selected CDB Scholars takes into account more than an applicant’s numerics—grade point average and test scores.  Our team looks at each application as an amalgam of the multiple aspects of what contributes to present you as an accomplished, multi-faceted, high-potential individual, which we hope is indicative of the CDB application in all of its component parts.  We want you to be as engaged in the application process as we will be in its reading and getting to know you.

Interested in becoming a CDB Scholar? The 2018 application is now available. Apply by April 10, 2018.

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Bonnie is the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship Program Coordinator at IEA. She has extensive experience working with gifted students and supporting them through the high school and college application process.

As the program coordinator for the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship, I have been fortunate to get to know, work with and be guided by the experiences and expertise of independent school, college and university admissions deans and directors throughout the United States. This blog is a composite of what I have learned from dialoguing with them.

Last April, a few weeks after sending the acceptance and rejection letters to college applicants, a dean of admissions at one of America’s most selective universities told me the following story:

“Two days after we announced our incoming freshman class, I received a reply from an applicant’s father. It was curt and written on his corporate letterhead: ‘You rejected my son, he’s devastated. See you in court.’ The very next day, I received another letter, but this time from the man’s son. It read: ‘Thank you for not admitting me. This is the best day of my life.’”

All threats aside, receiving a letter like this never warms the hearts of anyone in admissions. It is the consensus of admissions professionals from preschool through college that more and more, today’s parents are getting too involved in their child’s school admissions process – and not merely at the college level. High school and middle school admissions staff have expressed horror stories about parental actions and involvement so completely out of hand that it seems impossible and implausible for otherwise rational people to behave in such off-putting ways. And this behavior never serves the applicant in obtaining the desired positive outcome.

The increasingly bad “parent etiquette” that admissions officers are seeing right now comes from a confluence of several characteristics of our boomer generation: our sense of entitlement, our suspicion of authority and our bad habit of sometimes living too vicariously through our children. It all adds up to some pretty ugly parental behavior often played out in front of our children. A college admissions dean told me, “Today, parents call the admissions office more than the student applicants, often faxing us daily updates on their children’s lives or asking us to return an application already in process so the parent can double-check his/her child’s spelling.” A high school admissions counselor noted a parent who asked whether they should use their official letterhead when writing a letter of recommendation for their own child. It’s not unusual to know parents who openly write their kids’ essays and even attempt to attend their interviews. They make excuses for less than stellar grades or tout athletic promise as “Olympic team potential.”

With many high school and college applicants averaging 6+ extracurricular activities, parents have assumed a new role in their children’s lives: parent-as-manager. Most kids are so busy now that they rely on their parents to attend to the many details associated with being a student, including applying to the next level of their education. Parents need to realize that their many efforts to be helpful are often misinterpreted by admissions officers and can actually be detrimental. When parents visit a high school or college campus and ask all of the questions on the tour, in the information session or at an open house, they may think that they are modeling positive, assertive behavior for their child. Instead, admissions officers may see a passive kid who is too lazy, bored or uninterested in the school to think of any pertinent questions. Ultimately, when parents dominate in any way through the admissions process, in attracting attention to themselves, they are detracting from the perception that their child is mature enough to handle this process on his or her own, whether it’s at the high school or college level. Parent over-involvement can also rob a child of a chance to develop resilience and self-confidence, two key components for a happy, fulfilling life that should begin to be developed in adolescence.

Students should be directed to do all of their own work on their applications, including calling for application materials, setting up interviews and asking questions on campus/school tours—yes, even at the high school level. It is a cop-out for parents to assume these roles with the argument that their son or daughter is “too busy.” Initiative is crucial for young adults because it is the act of trying their wings and acquiring a sense of personal accomplishment as the primary navigators of their high school or college paths.

Here are some “etiquette” tips for parents during the high school and college application process:

1. Ensure decision-making about applying to any prospective school is a two-way street, made by you and your child together. Ultimately, it’s your child who will be attending the school. Listen to your child’s pros and cons about a school and have a frank discussion, adding your thoughts after you’ve heard your child’s overview.
2. Don’t micromanage the whole process for your child or nag him or her about deadlines and tasks to do. If you absolutely can’t leave this area to your child, perhaps create a calendar in easy view or with easy access for your son or daughter listing due dates, etc. You can also put important deadlines into your child’s smartphone calendar or create a Google Calendar and set reminders that will come through to your child but not to you—there’s a big difference in the dissemination of this information.
3. Set a good example by being courteous and polite when you communicate with admissions officers. Thank them if they spend time answering your questions or meet you in person. Greet them with their proper titles. Encourage your child to research the schools before visiting and ask questions that show that he or she has put thought into them reflective of a particular school.
4. Let your child be himself/herself. Don’t try to overly “package” your child into something that you think admissions officers want to see. Schools value individuality and a student pool with a diverse range of experiences, passions, learning styles and accomplishments.
5. Don’t add your voice to your child’s essays or personal statements. You can review the essays by offering suggestions and offer to proofread for grammar and spelling, but do not try to control the content. Your voice is not your child’s voice, and more often than not, it will come off as wooden and lack the nuance and passion that counts more in the overall picture of who your child is than the more sophisticated vocabulary or syntax you are trying to add.
6. Self-advocating is an important part of life. Allow your child to be his or her spokesperson on all school tours and interviews.
7. Never make this an overly competitive process by comparing your child to friends or siblings. Provide your 100% support and encouragement. Your role as parent and primary adult figure is to help guide your child through the ups and downs, the stresses, successes and setbacks of the application process from first thinking about schools to ultimately enrolling. During this time—in between ongoing school, test prep, extracurricular activities, school visits and compiling the many parts of an application—do your best to help your child maintain a healthy lifestyle and stay focused on all that’s positive in the here and now—not only what lies ahead.
8. If a letter from a high school or college—or a highly competitive program such as the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship—brings sad news, the appropriate response for frustrated parents is to realize that the decision is not a reflection on their parenting, nor is it a value judgment on the worth of their child. Most often, rejections are due to too many excellent applicants and too few available spaces. It’s that basic. The support and encouragement of parents are especially important when their child isn’t accepted to the school or program that they’ve set their heart on…and feel they deserve. Helping your child focus instead on other options and moving forward in a positive direction is the best way to model good adult behavior for the next generation of adults.

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