Comments on: bragTAG – Students, Parents and Guidance Counselors Unite!

By: John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG

John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:39:55 +0000

Just wanted to stop by and apologize for some harsh words toward Paul Hemphill. Unfortunately, Paul left a couple of negative blog comments both here and on our own blog, and it sort of hurt our feelings that we’d be followed around like that! Shouldn’t have lashed out at independent college counselors, however, or Paul – that wasn’t right, and we’ve learned from our big mistake! Thanks so much, Suzanne for giving us the opportunity to guest blog here, hope we can make this up to you in the future – oh, and by the way – should we get Paul a code for unlimited use of the bragTAG app? He was the single commenter here !!

By: John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG

John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:57:19 +0000

I’m glad we can all agree to disagree – we stand behind everything our application can do for our users, and the doors it will open for them in college admissions. There is a place for all of us indeed!

By: Suzanne Shaffer

Suzanne Shaffer — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:50:35 +0000

Actually John, Paul is a colleague and an expert in college admissions. He’s worth every penny he charges. It’s ok to disagree and sometimes when you look at applications from a different perspective, you can see the value. He’s just working from the framework that most teens don’t make that connection with the admissions officers, and in that case, emailing them a bragSHEET would not be effective or useful. Paul is always open to new ideas and if he feels it’s worthwhile, he passes it along to his parents and students. I don’t think your application or even my toolkit could replace the years of knowledge that Paul has in this field. But I do think that there’s a place for all of us!

By: John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG

John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:38:32 +0000

Thanks for your support Suzanne – we didn’t expect that folks that bill parents for their services (like Mr. Hemphill) to be huge fans of our application. Our application is easy to use, very inexpensive and should appeal to those who don’t have the desire or funds to hire a paid consultant like Mr. Hemphill. We disagree with what Paul says above. In our experience college admissions counselors are very approachable, especially at college fairs where students/parents can easily obtain email addresses to forward their multi-media bragSHEETs. College admissions counselors emails are almost always published on College Web Sites as well. Hey! Thanks Paul for the new blog post idea – we’re going to get right on this!

By: Suzanne Shaffer

Suzanne Shaffer — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:19:49 +0000

Paul,
I think there is MORE value than just creating it for admissions. I think it offers a place to “gather” all the materials online and pass along the info to someone who asks, or create a print out to take along on an interview or include in the application. And some students do build relationships with admissions (my daughter did) so in this case it would help. Since so much is done online, this is an alternative to the paper resume, don’t you think? This might be especially helpful for athletes, musicians, and drama majors to showcase their performances.

By: Paul Hemphill

Paul Hemphill — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:35:06 +0000

There’s a MAJOR flaw in this program, and it was signaled when I saw what was in parenthesis –> (we suggest users have a relationship established prior to sending). Clearly 85% of calls that come into a college admissions office come from parents, 15% from guidance counselors, and 5% from students. That’s just one or two calls, which hardly creates a relationship. Until you have figured out how to develop a relationship, this program is only a wish of the developer. My one-on-one coaching has figured it out, but that’s what parents pay me a lot of money to give them. I can certainly see using this program for my students, and even then, I would prefer to establish a mystery to surround the student by eliminating any direct photos of the student. The element of mystery maintains the focus on the student’s accomplishments (photo of a scholarship award, for example), not on the visual representation of the student. Any hint of a beauty contest torpedoes the objective of the presentation.

By: Tweets that mention Parents Countdown to College Coach » Blog Archive » bragTAG – Students, Parents and Guidance Counselors Unite! -- Topsy.com

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:35:14 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Suzanne Shaffer and Suzanne Shaffer, bragTAG. bragTAG said: RT @SuzanneShaffer: Parents–>Check out this special bragTAG offer– Students, Parents and Guidance Counselors Unite! http://bit.ly/henWkj [...]

By: Suzanne Shaffer

Suzanne Shaffer — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:32:21 +0000

John, I’m happy to feature your company and product. Parents and students need all the help they can get in the college process. Thanks for creating a product that will allow them to compile all the activities online and share with college admissions or anyone else who might be interested.

By: John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG

John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:25:48 +0000

Thanks so much Suzanne! We’re so excited for the opportunity to connect with your readers. The post looks great, and we’ve featured it on our Facebook Fan Page and Twitter – thanks again!

By: John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG

John & Margie Incantalupo - bragTAG — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:33:51 +0000

Thanks so much, Suzanne. We’re so excited for the opportunity to connect with you readers!