I am currently a senior in high school and apparently I need a counselor recommendation for the college I’m applying to. Bad news: the counselor I’ve known for three years from freshman year through junior year moved out of state and I have a new counselor whom none of the other students have met. I know that there are deadlines to submit these recommendations and it may be challenging for me to get them to know who I am before they start the recommendation.How can I still get a counselor recommendation from them?
This happens more often than you would think. The counselor recommendation is supposed to be the one that addresses the rigor of your classes, anything that might have impacted that such a scheduling conflicts, and then anything else such as illness family situation have a school might want to know. The school will be providing this person with what they need to know about the school profile. In fact, the person who left may have had the framework of these done for all rising seniors. This rec can be less a personal one and more one that reflects the school and what you have done with it. This person will be inheriting your file.
Try to schedule a meeting as soon as possible, even before school starts, to introduce yourself. Ask what this person needs from you to do that rec. You can prepare a brief summary to leave behind. I would bet that if you took the initiative, were polite and asked how to make this easier for both of you, you’ll stand out.
It will be important, in this situation, that you make sure your teacher recs can address who you are.
This is actually a school problem, as opposed to an individual problem. They have to figure out how to get those counselor letters written.
It’s entirely possible that your old counselor wrote them before leaving. Or that she left notes, and the rest of the guidance department wrote them over the summer.
Yes, make sure you get in to meet your new counselor-- but that’s already on her agenda. Obviously she’ll want to meet each of you ASAP, starting with her new seniors.
Don’t sweat this one, it’s more of an administrative issue.
I would not worry to much about this. It happens frequently. Your new counselor will still be able to write a great recommendation for you. They will have the old counselors notes. Another helpful thing might be for you to write down some things about you and provide them with a resume. Our school asks all seniors and their parents to fill out a senior profile and provide information about the student that they can incorporate into their letters. Counselors know how to handle this and they want to provide you with the best letter possible.
If your school has Naviance, you may have already filled out one of those surveys for your counselor(s) to use.