I moved to a new high school senior year and my new counselor is refusing to write me a letter of recommendation because “she doesn’t know me”. I filled out her entire questionarre but she still thinks that she doesn’t know me well enough to write me a letter. She says she’ll “make comments” on my common app but won’t write me a letter.
So I went to my counselor from my old high school out of desperation for a letter and she agreed to write me one, but I’m not sure how that would work in terms of common app. My new counselor is supposed to do my school report and mid- year report but I want my old counselor to write my actual letter. Common app only allows me to add one counselor to the list of recommenders… can somebody please help me?
Is my old counselor allowed to do my school report? because all my grades from 9-11th grade all came from my old high school anyway.
Most counselors don’t know students well enough to write a rec letter and all colleges know this. Your new counselor’s reply isn’t unusual. But she should have said that what she does write will be sufficient for colleges.
If you feel your old counselor has something salient to add, you can snail mail copies to your target colleges or add her as the “supplemental” rec letter; your current counselor must still be able to add her comments/documents – this is a brief overview of your current school – which is what the colleges will need.
Depending on the schools- the counselor at your current school might have to write you a letter. If you thoroughly filled out the questionaire, there should be no problem. Your GC can’t refuse to write a letter for you, it’s part of her job. If you really feel stuck in this situation I would advise speaking to a school administrator about it, maybe they could talk to her. A lot of public school GC’s don’t really know their students that’s why those questionaires exist.
if she doesn’t want to write it, don’t force her. It probably won’t be good. can’t you add the old counselor to the common app instead?