<p>hi! i'm from singapore; currently in JC (junior college). that's equivalent to grade 11th and 12th. the problem is that my school allows us to apply to a MAXIMUM of 4 US universities (so as not to get overloaded with admin stuff...) and as i wanted to apply to more, they suggested i get my own counselor.
so, a few queries regarding this...</p>
<p>1) who all can be my counselor?
2) i'm on a scholarship in singapore. can the counselor from my school back in my home country be my counselor?
3) does it in ANY way affect my chances?
4) is the role of a counselor VERY important?
5) if my previous school was one of the top schools (ranked 1 since like forever- i think) in my country, does getting the counselor there to do my apps help my chances? (cuz from what I can see, being from the top school in singapore definitely does! lol! RJ pwns us!! :P)</p>
<p>yup! thanks in advance for the replies!
signin' off,
100%Tuna :)</p>
<p>Max of 4? That sucks. Did they tell you who can be your counselor then? As far as I know it must be the JC counselor, but I’m not sure about whether that can change since there’s the limitation from your own school. Probably you just have to explain about that in your applications.</p>
<p>addendum: Eh… But I thought my friends who come from your school applied to more than 4 US unis..</p>
<p>hey thanks! well… they were like… ANYONE who knows you well can be your counselor… even some random uncle!! but that doesn’t sound very convincing does it now? umm… yeah, our usual counselor left the school, i think. 4 is what is actually allowed from this year onwards. they can stretch it up to 5 or 6 if you really beg n plead!! thanks, though!
anyone else…? someone…??</p>
<p>PS: can i really explain that since i’m applying to 10 other schools except you peeps and my coll doesn’t allow that, i need to go to my sec. school teacher? wouldn’t that like affect my chances to show that i’m applying to sooo many schools…?</p>
<p>Just explain that your school only allows a max of 4 (don’t say how many you are applying to). Now all unis in the US should know that 4 is a way too little - they know that some people even apply to 16 unis. So in that sense, I don’t think that it’d be a disadvantage.</p>
<p>I suspect you need a counselor to be from your school, because they will be the only ones who can authoritatively give your A-level predicted results for the year. However, if you are out of JC with your A-level results, your counselor can pretty much be anyone.</p>
<p>1) It should be your JC’s designated uni counselor. If your school doesn’t have one, it can be your form teacher.</p>
<p>2) I don’t think so, since you’ll be graduating from high school, and submitting your final high school transcript, from Singapore.</p>
<p>3) Uh, I don’t really see how it would.</p>
<p>4) I’d say pretty important, but it’s not like any counselor anywhere can perform miracles (e.g. get someone in who is not in any way qualified to gain admission).</p>
<p>5) I don’t think so.</p>
<p>PS. RJ does very well for uni admissions not just because it’s RJ or because of whoever their uni counselor may be. Don’t waste your energy worrying over the fact that you’re not from RJ; just do well in school, and concentrate on your applications after A Levels (assuming you’re not applying ED), and then let the chips fall where they may.</p>
<p>i agree with limitedvocab. if you get someone from pre-jc, the schools will suspect that you have something to hide from them… plus how can teachers from a few years back judge you on your CURRENT academic progress?</p>
<p>anyway, i heard hwachong has a 5-cap and rj has a 6-cap. good luck!</p>
<p>RJ has 8 actually. But 4 is definitely too few. Well you should find someone experienced in your school and ask what you should do. If a school as established as your school says that you can find other “counselor”, try asking them who exactly qualifies for that. But yeah talking about predicted grades, I don’t see how anyone else, other than your CT, can do that for you.</p>
<p>well… thanks for all those replies!
we have this handout which says “Your counselor should be someone who knows you and is ready to recommend you. This can be someone you know outside college, perhaps a teacher from your previous school. At <insert name=”" of=“” school=“”>, this is your favorite tutor who is willing to recommend you!"
sooo yeah.. the school says it can be any mentor, teacher, music-teacher, course-instructor etc. etc. etc. you’ve had in the past… yup…</insert></p>
<p>Your counselor is supposed to be someone who has access to all your academic records. S/he will have to comment on where your grades place you in comparison to the rest of the class (top 2%? top 10%? top 25%? top 50%?) and if you have ever faced any disciplinary actions.</p>
<p>ohh… actually my JC is willing to supply the external counselor any data required… so i guess that satisfies that requirement… but basically, what i want to know is whether having an external counselor, would in any way reflect badly on me or make my application look fishy.</p>
<p>ehh. i’ve never heard of anyone doing it like that. i don’t know if it would actually reflect badly on you, just that… it’s weird.</p>
<p>and aside from all the academic bit, your counselor has to write about how you’re actually doing in your current school, you know. like, how you get along with your peers, blahblah stuff like that. not exactly the kind of “data” that your school can just supply to someone from outside.</p>
<p>My school counselor didn’t know anything about US. She was a counselor namely for the sake of helping students with emotional- not career stuff. I asked her to write my recommendation after giving her a list of stuff i had done and some sample recs.
i made all the packages, My class teacher filled up the international student required form for the commonapp.</p>
<p>My counselor just checked the originals to make sure all the facts like marks were correct and signed everything.
I applied to 15 colleges- so she had to approximately sign 90 times as i needed original signs on 5 documents in every package.That basically was all her contribution.</p>
<p>Maybe you could convince your counselor to do that?</p>
Well, yes and no. If the OP’s actual counselor completes the school report and gives a copy to the other counselor who is just responsible for signing 20 copies and mailing it to colleges, then I don’t see a problem. If the other counselor is actually supposed to complete the school report on her own, it might be a bit problematic.</p>
<p>Well, sadly ur school cap at 4. I am from HC and could only apply 5:(
I guess ur counselor should be a person who could provide relevant information abt ur academy and rigour of school curriculum. Probably u could have a look at the forms that a counselor has to fill in. That is a lot and rather detailed. U need to be sure that ur counselor knows all those things. They are not statistics which can be readily copied.</p>
