<p>Since all guidance counselors have to write somewhat decent recommendations for their students, do colleges take them seriously?</p>
<p>Obviously if a student has done nothing in their 4 years of high school, it will show. But for the most part I get the sense that guidance counselors will write decent recs. no matter what.</p>
<p>I ask this question just because my guidance counselor wrote me a glowing rec. and I just want to know if that will stick out or they won't really take it into consideration since most recs. from counselors are good. It's to be expected that colleges will weigh teacher recs. a lot more heavily, but does the counselor rec. count at all? If a college reads a rec. that not only shows that the student is involved/passionate, but also a really great person etc., will that stick out to the admissions reader?</p>
<p>I don't understand how that's possible. A teacher will have taught you for one or more semesters, in a large public school a counselor might have seen you for about 5 minutes when you drop in to ask for a rec.</p>
<p>I agree. I have had much more interactions with my teachers, in and outside of the classroom, and they have actually seen what I do in the classroom. The counselor at my school (4-5 counselors for more than 700 seniors, not to mention the junior and sophomore class as well) can only interpret my grades and accomplishments from our little 10-minute discussion. If colleges give more weight to the counselor rec, that wouldn't make much sense.</p>
<p>What caught my attention was the phrase "glowing recommendation." That is what will make a college view the rec less seriously: an all-positive recommendation. Colleges want information about the student as a person, not a list of all their positive attributes. And they know a list of all-positive attributes is not a true representation of any person. They know that each student will bring his good and his bad into the school, and they want to know at least something about both of those aspects. I have been told by counselors throughout the entire college admissions process that recommendations that at least mention some areas the student could improve upon are looked at more highly. All-positive letters do not stick out, no matter by whom they are written. Letters that paint a more realistic pictures do.</p>
<p>I would think that because of their position, guidance counselors deal on a regular basis with adcoms and tend to, or at least can, develope a relationship with them. A guidance counselor has access to and knowledge about your overall record which a teacher in a class or even two probably doesn't and is also in more of a position to know where you stand vis a vis others in your class, as to grades, difficulty of course load, activities. They should also know more about the school, where it sends its students, how they do in SATs etc. In many schools the counselor also works with you over the years developing and advising you about what courses to take etc. In my son's school the counselors also have to read and generally approve or at least advise on the essay, approve and verify the list of ECs and coordinate teacher recs, send out transcripts etc. So I would think that a counselor may well be in a position to give a college valuable insight into you.</p>
<p>I go to a 500 person high school with 3 guidance counselors. My counselor knows me REALLY well, better than most kids, because I have spent more time with her talking about college/life etc. I made more of an effort (i.e. scheduled more meetings on my own time).</p>
<p>Although my teachers knew me in THEIR class, with the grade that i got from them, my guidance counselor knows my strengths/weaknesses as a student and all about how i've taken advantage of my community.</p>
<p>Carpe Aeternum: I agree that an all positive recommendation is not necessarily better, but if a guidance counselor knows the student well and can truly attest to that, isn't that a good thing? I don't think guidance counselors are supposed to show weaknesses very often...i feel like thats the teachers job to expose strengths/weaknesses in the classroom.</p>
<p>But my real question is...if a college admissions person reads a guidance rec. that shows how well they know the student and is pretty nice, will the college take that into consideration or just use the rec. as a means to get to know the student and what they've done in high school?</p>