My son’s GC went on maternity leave in late May and won’t be back until January. She had him submit all the paperwork (brag sheet, ECs, etc) before she left with the intent of writing his recommendation, but the substitute GC can’t find either the paperwork or the recommendation. We are now faced with the possibility that a GC he met for 10 minutes will be writing his recommendation. Both S and I have a great relationship with the regular GC and we had discussed how his recommendation was going to include insights into his course selection for junior and senior year and how they relate to his academic and career aspirations, among other things. I’m hoping she did write it; both S and the substitute GC have emailed her about it but she hasn’t responded yet. I’m now concerned that a stranger is going to be writing his college rec–we had really counted on a strong letter.
In addition, when S met with this substitute GC, she told him he missed top 10% by 0.02 points. The school only reports deciles, so suddenly he goes from 10% to top 20%. He attends a very competitive public HS. He has several APs; what isn’t AP is honors; and he has had only As and A-s since freshman year. He will be applying to top schools–had an Ivy as a reach, but mostly applying to just below Ivy level. Now I’m wondering if it’s worth submitting to the Ivy at all.
Between these 2 things, this usually calm and unstressed Mom is now totally over the top stressed. Please calm me down.
It will be fine, deep breaths. The recommendation - first, he will also have teacher recs, and generally those are the ones that know the student best and talk to the personal traits. Course selections jr/sr year and how they relate to his future - frankly, there is not much you can do to dress that up, it is high school curriculum after all. So I really don’t think that is as great a loss as you think. Frankly, a lot of people have recs written by GCs that don’t know them very well if at all, so you were lucky to have that going for you, but not at a big disadvantage because you now don’t. Give new GC all the information to write a great letter, you can basically write it for her. She will appreciate it and you will get what you want. She is having to deal with new everybody, so give her all the help you can. Most GCs ask for a “cheat sheet” to be filled out (usually early in the year). If she doesn’t, you can politely help her and get your points in there,…“I’m sure you have so much on your plate and we wanted to give you this background on little Joey since you haven’t had time to get to know him, hope it helps”…etc. So don’t panic, think about what you would want the rec to say and find a way to get that info to her. I would be very surprised if she isn’t asking for info.
In terms of class rank - well rankings shmankings. Our high schools don’t even report class rank. His classes and grades speak for themselves. It really is not an important number in the overall application.
Every high school is competitive nowadays - and there are zillions of parents freaking about something this time of year. So take that deep breath and relax, this can all be addressed and he will not be at any disadvantage because of a change in GC or a .02 difference.
He will be at a disadvantage if he knows his mom is super stressed about all this because you will transfer that stress to him and his application process. It will all be great in the end, hang in there!
Thank you. The Vice Principal is in charge of guidance. I know him very well and was thinking of asking him for a meeting to discuss all this.
We submitted a cheat sheet to the GC back in May–but it doesn’t appear to be in his file. Hopefully it is saved on our computer here at home so we can print it out again.
Regarding courses–he selected some engineering courses which were only offered at the honors level, at the expense of taking non-STEM AP classes for his electives. She was going to explain those choices in the letter.
I am very cognizant of not letting him know I am stressed about this. He was a bit upset by all of this today and I told him not to worry. But it’s 4:30AM and I can’t sleep!
My daughter’s HS GC went on maternity leave the summer after junior year. My daughter had known her since freshman year. This was in a large public HS with very few GC so most didn’t know many of their students.
I believe she had already written her recommendation and it was the one which was sent. The temp GC did what she was supposed to do submit applications etc. and I don’t think it at all affected my daughter’s results.
Write a new cheat sheet/letter and give it to the new GC. Don’t submit any rank/percentiles - just the GPA and grades/transcript required. The engineering courses should speak for themselves especially if that is what he intends on majoring in.
I would second contacting the vice-principal. You want to understand who will be responsible for writing the LOR, sending the transcripts etc. I also wonder if the regular GC may have taken the brag sheet and wrote the LOR from home. If the brag sheet is lost forever and the substitute GC will be writing the letter I’d have your son prepare a new one even if it just an informal outline.
It is frustrating when the guidance counselors are out for these critical periods but things tend to work out.
My D just got a new GC this month when she is applying to colleges. Honestly, I don’t think any GC in my D’s school knows the students well enough anyway as each one needs to take care of near 400 students. They would just go through the transcript and brad sheet to get info for the GC report.
Breathe…
At the end of the day, there is really nothing to discuss; the situation is what it is- The counselor is on maternity leave and the school has someone to take her place (or redistributed the caseload) for the short term. These things happen every year at some high school; people go on leave, people retire, people get sick, people hit the lotto and quit, people move, people change schools and yet students still get through the process and attend college.
The Principal or AP of guidance placed this person in this position and is already quite aware of his/her qualifications to do this work. What do you really expect the vice principal to do? Unless s/he has a relationship with your child and will write your son’s recommendation and do the secondary report, they will listen to your vent and the counselor assigned to your child will still be your child’s counselor.
Keep in mind, even though the GC knew that she was not coming back in the fall, she was under no obligation to write recommendations over the summer or even respond to your emails and write recommendations now that she is on leave. It is a bonus if she does, but she now has her own life events that will take precedence over the job.
Your son’s job is self advocate to put himself in the best position to assist his new counselor in advocating on his behalf and helping to present his best self to the colleges.
Does he have the information he gave the counselor last year in his computer? If he has done a cheat/brag sheet, outlined his ECs or done an annotated resume, print them out and turn them in again. He needs to arrange to meet with his new counselor to answer any questions that she may have, provide clarification and discuss what he is and is not disclosing to the school. This is your son’s opportunity to take the lead in this process- have enough confidence in him to let him do so.
@CADREAMIN, while I agree that OP can probably get very good LORs from teachers, I disagree that “course selections jr/sr year and how they relate to his future - frankly, there is not much you can do to dress that up.”
It was just that – course selection in sr year – that got my daughter into her fairly selective university. There were two physics teachers who taught AP and my daughter insisted on getting the “hard ass” one knowing she wouldn’t do as well, grade-wise. That impressed her counselor and that’s what he wrote in his LOR: her willingness to work much harder for a lower grade (in fact she got a C!) because she really wanted to learn the material. Later, a college admissions person commented that it was that letter that put her “over the top” and got her in. They liked her moxie & willingness to take a risk.
@katliamom That’s great she could actually pick a specific teacher/class and it worked out for her even with a C! It seems most seniors are taking the same 5-6 AP classes if trying to get into top colleges, but I like your twist on it.
If necessary you (or he or both, however it works) can redo the brag sheet.
My D’s GC also went on maternity leave, though later in senior year after recs were done. She did respond to emails though, while out. I think I sent her one to thank her and let her know which college D chose and she responded to that.
She also let us see her letter and it was really a very lovely and strong rec, but it included all the info D and I had given her on the sheets (one from her and one from the parent, in our case).
So I’m thinking even the newly assigned GC can do a good one given the same info as your regular one.
Redo the brag sheet…and give to the new GC. Reality is…many GCs wrote the counselor recommendation without having a close personal relationship with the student. I’m quite sure colleges KNOW this.
The same thing would happen for kids who move and attend a different school their senior year. The new GC would write the reference.
In 2002 and 2005 when my kids were applying…their GC knew absolutely NOTHING about my kids…nothing. They weren’t naughty…and both had significant ECs outside of school. The brag sheet was what she used to write her reference.
(Adding…my daughter was top 5% of her class…8/190 students…and even that didn’t get her the time of day from the GC)
Regarding the top decile or not…the high school will submit a class Profile sheet that will tell the ranges of GPA for the class, as well as other info about your school. That, and your kid’s GPA and class rank will be there. It is what it is.
Our GC retired at the end of last year (unexpectedly), so we now have a GC who doesn’t really know our kid. I would do more than the brag sheet. I would ask sub GC if it would help her if you wrote a sample letter, given that she is new and likely overwhelmed. See if someone can give you a template or typical GC letter and fashion yours after it (maybe the sub GC can give you one). Our Naviance survey actually asks parents to write that letter. And it is a common tip among parents and schools.
Frankly, if the previous GC produced docs for her students, then the VP should contact her and ask where they are.
Boy, my kid’s school made it clear that we, the parents, had no business knowing what was said in the letters of recommendation. We had to sign some form to that effect. I can’t believe that some schools allow that much input from the parents. We filled out a questionnaire (I guess brag sheet), but that’s the extent of our contribution to the GC letter of rec.
Thanks everyone. I’m feeling a bit better after reading these comments. Both the sub GC and my S emailed the regular GC about the LOR so I’m hoping she responds. The sub GC is not another school GC, she is a temp hire and I don’t think she’s ever been a GC before so I doubt she has any experience writing these letters. It’s frustrating because we rushed in the spring to get the brag sheet in, with the promise that she would write the letter, and it’s entirely possible she did but no one seems to know. I’m less concerned about the transcripts, etc getting in because that’s standard stuff, but the letter was really supposed to show who he his. He will have 2 teacher and 1 coach recommendations so they will have to do, I guess. I am still going to reach out to the VP though.
I also looked at some of the schools S is applying to and according to college board, class rank is either not considered at all or is not considered important. I have our school’s 2016-2017 profile and his GPA last year was top 10%. Obviously his class is more competitive than last year’s class. Wondering if the hs can leave the decile blank and if the school really wants it they can ask for it.
the common app secondary school report will ask if the school ranks and how they rank numerical or decile. The GC will answer to if the school ranks, how they rank and will put in your son’s rank