How screwed am I when it comes to counselor/principal recommendations on college apps? Our school is getting a new counselor this year and our principal has only been here for 1 school year. The counselor my Freshman year was incredibly reliable and experienced, but unfortunately she retired after that year.
My school you get assigned a counselor, so my assigned counselor is the one writing my Rec.
Generally you shouldn’t ask your principal for a Rec since they wouldn’t know you as well as one of your teachers.
Your counselor at the time of application writes your rec.
The principal will make no difference to your application. The counselor writes your recommendation so it would make sense to meet with him/her at the start of the school year so you can get to know one another.
It’s definitely tough when a new counselor comes on in your senior year! At the end of the day, colleges understand that counselor-student relationships vary from school to school. At a very large school one counselor may be in charge of hundreds of students (obviously this letter will be less personal). At a smaller school, one counselor may only have 20 or so students. Colleges understand this- the main purpose of counselor recs is to describe you in the context of your school and fellow students. Your teacher recs are the ones that go deeper and speak to who you are.
So, in summary, an impersonal counselor letter won’t be a deal-breaker. However, I would advise you to try to build any relationship you can with your counselor once the school year starts. If you can, make appointments and ask questions, talk about yourself a little, etc. etc. Don’t stress out about it, it will all work out! Good luck!
Thanks guys! I’ll try my best to show the counselor what I am all about without being a brown noser