A private school application generally includes two written materials: an essay or short-answer responses written by the student, and a letter or questionnaire completed by the parents. Names and formats vary by school. For example, the Mater Dei High School application for fall 2027 entry requires a Parent Letter and a Student Letter. Together with grades and recommendations, these materials help the school understand the student and the family beyond the transcript.
Two materials, two different questions
Student essay
Lets the school see the student
- Self-introduction: what kind of person you are and what matters to you
- An experience: a challenge, a failure, or something that changed your thinking
- Choosing this school: why you are applying here and what you hope to do once enrolled
Parent letter or parent questionnaire
Explains the student and the family
- Who the student is: personality, interests, strengths and areas still developing
- The environment in which the student learns best: through discussion or through independent study
- Why the family has chosen this school: specific courses, programs and school culture
- The family's educational values: what the parents prioritize and how they plan to take part in school life
Three principles for a strong student essay
Principle 1
Describe specific events
Rather than writing "I am very responsible," describe one task you were responsible for and how you handled it.
Principle 2
Use the student's own words
Schools read a great many applications, and writing polished too heavily by adults is easy to spot. Language appropriate to the student's age is more credible.
Principle 3
One or two events per essay
With a limited word count, writing about one event in depth is more memorable than listing five.
Student essay
I am a very responsible and conscientious person.
Last year I was in charge of our class reading corner and updated the checkout records every week. One time three books were missing. Instead of simply buying replacements, I asked my classmates one by one and eventually recovered two of them.
Both versions describe responsibility, but the specific event lets the reader reach that conclusion independently.
Parent letter
Our child earns excellent grades and has won several math competition awards.
Our child keeps working on a difficult problem until it makes sense, and at times becomes anxious from caring too much about the outcome; we have been helping our child learn to adjust.
The school already sees grades and awards in the transcript and recommendations; the parent letter should describe the student that the transcript does not show.
Two common problems in parent letters from Chinese families
Covering only grades and awards
- The school already sees this in the transcript and recommendations
- After reading, the school still does not know what kind of person the student is
Describing the student the transcript does not show
- Use one or two events to show the student's personality and learning style
- Describe honestly the areas where the student is improving and how the family provides support
- Explain clearly why the family identifies with this school
From brainstorming to the final draft
- 1
Gather material
Parents and the student each write down the student's important experiences, interests and changes over the past two or three years.
- 2
Choose a topic
Compare each school's prompts and select the one or two events that best show who the student is.
- 3
First draft
The student writes first, without aiming for perfection, focusing on telling the events clearly.
- 4
Revise
Revise content first, then structure, and finally language.
- 5
Adapt for each school
Rewrite the section on why the student chose the school for each school individually.
- 6
Proofread
Check word counts, formatting, school names and program names one by one.
The last step cannot be skipped. Putting the name of School A into the application for School B is an easy mistake to make and a difficult one to repair.
What an advisor can and cannot do
What EDUBUS advisors do
- Help the student explore experiences and find material worth writing about
- Organize the structure and point out where the writing lacks specifics
- Give revision feedback on each draft, with the student doing the revising
- Help parents organize the key points of the parent letter and its English expression
What EDUBUS advisors do not do
- Write the essay for the student: schools often ask about the essay during the interview, and ghostwritten content does not hold up under follow-up questions
- Decide the content of the parent letter for the parents: the parents decide what to write
