<p>I have not asked my counselor for a recommendation yet and am thinking about applying ED to Penn. I have almost everything filled out and have regular teacher recommendations. So does Penn require one and is it optional or required? The reason I am asking is because I don't think my counselor is really qualified to write me a recommendation as I've literally only talked to her twice over the past 4 years.</p>
<p>Really? No one?</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation as you…I go to a really big school and my counsellor is in charge of a lot of kids. I hope not, and I haven’t seen instructions in Penn’s supplement to the contrary, so I’m just going to assume that it’s not needed.</p>
<p>Yeah, one is needed. :/</p>
<p>tell your counselor to acknowledge that she does not know you well</p>
<p>Chill, people. Penn knows the difference between schools where the people writing the counselor’s recommendation might just as well have adopted their students and schools where the counselor has probably met the kid once or twice.</p>
<p>The main function of the counselor recommendation isn’t to provide personal details about what a great kid you are (although a counselor who knows you well can certainly add that). The counselor rec (a) accompanies an official transcript from the school, (b) provides a bunch of data about the school so that if the admissions office doesn’t know the school it can figure out whether it’s more like Exeter or more like the Little Schoolhouse On The Prairie, whether your 4.0 uw GPA is on a 4-point scale or a 6-point scale, and whether your basket-weaving course was a choice or a requirement, (c) tells them whether you have had any disciplinary issues at school, and (d) characterizes your curriculum choices in the context of the school as “most challenging”, “challenging”, “slacker”, etc. They really don’t have to know anything about you to do the letter. They just need to understand the school and its course offerings, and to have access to your file. The description of the school is a standard document they send to every college that wants one; it doesn’t vary by applicant.</p>
<p>My kids went to a high school where there are a total of 5 counselors for about 2,200 students. If you didn’t flunk courses or exhibit behavioral problems at school, you probably spent no more than 20 minutes with your counselor cumulatively over the course of four years. And the school sends multiple kids to Penn every year. It doesn’t matter that the counselors probably couldn’t recognize most of the kids if they bumped into them in the hallway.</p>