<p>Please help. My counselor's really busy during this period and she cannot write me a recommendation:(</p>
<p>There is no meaningful answer without some idea of where you are and what colleges you are considering. You have large numbers of colleges throughout the US that don’t require any counselor recommendation, you have large numbers for which a counselor’s “recommendation” doesn’t mean anything more than the counselor filling out a form which merely verifies who you are, your grades, and current courses being taken which the counselor sends with your high school transcript and I don’t care how busy your counselor is, the counselor has to do that because your transcript has to be sent. You have others which actually require the counselor to say something meaningful about you. You really need to look into the schools you are actually considering and see what their rules are.</p>
<p>University of Oregon</p>
<p>@hugedilemma,
I think there’s a miscommunication between you and your guidance counselor. Over 1,000 colleges and universities do not require a letter of recommendation from your guidance counselor. However, some school official – usually the guidance counselor – must submit the school report, as described on the common application website: <a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/DownloadForms.aspx[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/DownloadForms.aspx</a>. This form does ask for the author’s opinion of you as a student, but this is not a “letter of recommendation.” In addition to the school report, you must submit one or more (depending on the school) letters of recommendation from teachers. Perhaps your guidance counselor thought you were asking him/her to write the sort of letter of recommendation commonly produced by a teacher? Go back and clarify things with the individual.</p>
<p>All of the CA public colleges and universities.</p>
<p>i’m applying post-results by the way. I received my IB results in 2007 and underwent compulsory military service. </p>
<p>which form do I need from the commonapp? the secondary school report form or the final report form?:)</p>
<p>^ If you completed your secondary education, you’ll need the final report from you school.</p>
<p>It’s part of your counselor’s job to write you a recommendation. Was there some miscommunication? Maybe she meant that she can’t write it right now, but will get to it later on. Most college apps aren’t due until late December.</p>
<p>@calalum ah ok thanks:) one last question though: there are places to add in teacher recommendations in commonapp, but not the counselor’s final report. does this mean that there’s only a hard copy version of the final report?</p>
<p>University of Texas.</p>
<p>A guidance counselor does not need to complete the secondary school report (aka guidance counselor’s recommendation). Many schools don’t have guidance counselors. In this case the SSR is completed by an administrator, dean, faculty advisor or whoever else the school designates to do the job. If your GC is “too busy” maybe you need to ask if your principal can complete the form instead.</p>