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<li><p>There’s exactly the same double meaning for “counsel” in English as there is for “conseiller” in French. Most U.S. schools have counselors. In some schools the same people handle normal advising (helping pick courses and colleges), discipline, and helping students with academic or family problems. In other schools, those functions may be split among different counselors.</p></li>
<li><p>This is something for which it makes sense to call or e-mail the Admissions Office at Harvard and ask them. The admissions staff that handles international applicants deals with this issue every single day, and will have a definite answer. I would hurry up – there isn’t much time left. You should have been paying attention to this months ago.</p></li>
<li><p>If you look at the counselor form included in the Common Application, there are three broad types of information colleges are looking for. </p></li>
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<p>First, they want basic information about your school. They can’t evaluate your school record unless they understand the context. It will take some work to pull together this information if no one has done it already, especially since the form assumes certain structures that French schools may not have. (Because many, many U.S. students need this form filled out for their college applications, most U.S. schools of any size have a fact sheet that they keep updated on a regular basis, and the counselor just attaches it. But putting one together for the first time is a project.)</p>
<p>Second, they want to know if the applicant has had disciplinary issues, and what they were.</p>
<p>Third, they want to know how the applicant compares with other students at the school, not just in terms of class rank, but also in terms of how challenging his course choices have been, and all sorts of other personal qualities.</p>
<p>They also want to be certain they are getting the official school record, or “transcript” from the school itself.</p>
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<li><p>The form explicitly says that if there is no counselor any school administrator can fill it out.</p></li>
<li><p>Chances are at this point you are going to be late with this form. Don’t worry about that too much. If you can get an administrator at your school to complete it and submit it with your official record within a few weeks, you probably won’t be penalized at all. If it’s more than a few weeks, though, that could be a problem.</p></li>
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