Free printable and editable brag sheet template for high school, college, navy or generic for any purpose that you can edit to meet your specific needs.
There is an old saying about how little people like braggarts, but there is a place for everything. Modesty aside, your accomplishments and pastimes matter greatly, especially when someone is writing you a recommendation. However, since your parents or best friends aren’t always the smartest choice for a letter of recommendation, you may need to choose someone else, like an authority figure or an upstanding member of your community, to get the best possible advocate. So, how do you communicate your best qualities to a person who doesn’t know you as well as your inner circle? The simple solution is to create a brag sheet.
Putting more on these forms than a simple list of things you have done is critical. A good brag sheet can help turn any letter of recommendation into a highly personal document that allows you to shine by showing off your most remarkable features. Even a virtual stranger should be able to look at your brag sheet and compose a stellar fact-based recommendation. Moreover, a properly written brag sheet can highlight the qualities most likely to help you achieve your goals and gain acceptance when you need letters of recommendation or a way to show more of who you are than simple test scores can communicate.
What is a Brag Sheet?
A brag sheet is a form where you can list your hobbies, talents, and other essential information for the reader. The target audience of these sheets are typically people who are writing letters of recommendation for you and might not otherwise be aware of all your achievements, interests, and extracurriculars. A brag sheet is like a list of talking points for a structured conversation. The recipient is unlikely to mention everything you provide, but it helps direct the reader to your best qualities and most noteworthy accomplishments.
Benefits of a Brag Sheet
The benefits of a brag sheet are relatively straightforward. When you create a brag sheet, try to think of it less as ‘bragging’ and more as an autobiography of vital information about your achievements. Below are the six main reasons you should have a brag sheet available and keep it updated. Keep in mind you may need different brag sheets for various activities. For example, a university is looking for a slightly different set of credentials than an internship program, and it’s best to research the values of the school or other entity you are applying to before you create your brag sheet.
- Sharing your accomplishments
- Guiding the writer to the most relevant information
- Creating a highly personal and relevant letter of recommendation
- Offering a more intimate view of you as an individual beyond your test scores and relevant metrics
- Increase your chances of getting into the school of your dreams or another position requiring a letter of recommendation or list of achievements and goals
- Widening your pool of potential advocates who can write a recommendation
- Helping the writer save time and craft a better recommendation letter
Brag Sheet Template
This is a generic brag sheet template, but there are more specific templates below for specific uses. All of the templates are available in MS Word so you can edit them to meet your needs.
Brag Sheet Examples
Below are a few examples of things to include in specific types of brag sheets. Use this as a guide to help craft the best-tailored recommendations.
College Brag Sheet
Colleges focus heavily on academics, but they also want to see a well-rounded person who participates in their community. Include all your scholastic information and present the best possible picture of yourself as a citizen who is also an upstanding community member.
High School Brag Sheet
A high school brag sheet is commonly used to get into colleges. Consider researching what your desired school’s values are and what type of students they are seeking. Once you have this information, you can tailor what you share to represent those ideals best while remaining true to yourself.
Navy brag sheets should include information about your time in the military. For example, you should add data about your jobs, relevant deployments, and achievements. However, you should also add data about your off-duty time, administrative data, and your desired future career path.
This form is based on the enlisted evaluation report input sheet
Brag Sheet for Letter of Recommendation
A brag sheet for a letter of recommendation is the most common use. This should include any or all information in other, more specialized brag sheets.
Parent Brag Sheet
A parent brag sheet is created by the parents or guardians of the student and often submitted to a school counselor. Here, parents can help by showing their student’s best qualities and most notable achievements. Unlike a student brag sheet, parents’ brag sheets come from an outside perspective.
What Should You Include in a Brag Sheet
A good brag sheet is generally about two pages long. That is roughly a thousand words, which may seem daunting at first, but once you get started, you’ll find that you likely have more relevant experience and interests than you thought. Here’s a list of what to include in a brag sheet to help get you started.
- Full Name
- Date
- School
- Graduation Date or Expected Graduation Date
- GPA
- Standardized Test Scores such as SATs
- Awards and Achievements
- Work Experience or Internships, this can include Volunteer Work
- Extra Curricular Activities like sports and clubs or activities outside of school
- Leadership Experience
- Your Long-Term Goals and Dreams
- Additional Information about you that is relevant. This section can include personal information, struggles you have overcome, and anything else that might help people see who you are and what matters to you.
Tips on How to Write a Brag Sheet
A great bragging sheet can literally help open doors for you, so it’s essential to focus on making yours the best it can be. Always type and print your sheet in a standard size 10-11 typeface like Times New Roman, but there’s more to these forms than ensuring you provide enough legible info. Here are some of our best tips on how to create a good brag sheet.
- Start by taking notes. Look at your life almost as though you were viewing someone else’s experiences from the outside. Write down all the things you think that ‘other’ person has accomplished or participated in that have value.
- Ask the people who know you best what they would include. Sometimes another person’s viewpoint will help you include things you might not have thought of on your own.
- Please don’t do it all at once. Setting down your brag sheet and returning to it later with a fresh perspective can help you get a complete idea of what to present. Plus, looking at your sheet later will help you with editing and prevent you from missing any important points.
- Use a pre-made professional format. Instead of trying to make everything up from scratch, it’s best to use our free brag sheet template. It will help you with the layout. If there are items that are not relevant to you then simply edit the text and make the necessary changes.
- Look at other people’s brag sheets and ‘take a page’ from them. Ask people you admire to share their brag sheets to see how they put it together. If there’s anything there you think is especially good, use it. You can’t list their accomplishments, and you should never lie, but the ideas and experiences of others can help you make the best possible brag sheet.
- Update your brag sheet regularly. When you do something new, please take a moment to add it to your brag sheet. Don’t worry if it exceeds the two-page limit for now.
- Edit everything. Before you hand over a brag sheet, ensure it’s all spelled and formatted correctly with proper structure and punctuation.
Final Thoughts
A high-quality brag sheet isn’t about ‘bragging’ to impress most people. Instead, it is a tailored look at your achievements, goals, and personality through the lens of your experiences. Make sure you give specific examples of everything. It is okay to include challenges you have overcome and anything you have worked hard to accomplish as well as your plans and long-term goals. The right brag sheet can help any writer recommend you for a school or position, or it may be used on its own as a part of the data schools, businesses, and organizations use to determine whether they wish to include you in their programs.
My name is