I just received a letter that my childs counselor is changing again. This will be the third counselor she has had in high school. Are my fears unfounded? Are teacher recommendations better than the counselors? I feel that clearly there is no way this new counselor can write a good recommendation for my daughter. I was already ticked because I didnt feel like the last guy was suited either because he was in place for a year.
I woudl ask to meet with the GC at the start of the year so he/she knows you a tiny bit. Many GSs have a ton of kids and don’t write anything very personal. In any event, a new person may be better than someone you didn’t like. If your teacher recommendations are good I wouldn’t worry. Nothing you can do about it anyway.
99% of GC write boilerplate recommendations anyway. What our school does (because with ca. 150 kids per counselor they don’t know them well), is have the kids and parents supply some info (aka the parent brag sheet), they also ask the kids to have two teachers - not necessarily the same ones who will do the official recommendation - give the GC a letter. These letters we got to see, and the one from the orchestra teacher (who had had my son in two classes every semester of high school) was so generic we knew we would never use him for any sort of recommendation. The GC letter is mostly to put your kid in context - more active, better scoring, higher ranked (even if there is no official rank) than his peers - or not. They describe the school population, the grading system, what APs or IB courses are available and typical test scores for kids coming out of the school.
The teacher recommendations are far more important and should be chosen carefully.
Its not that I didnt like the last guy, its just that she had the same counselor 9 and 10, then she retired, so she got a new counselor for 11th grade, so she worked to get to know him, and now she has another counselor. All of her apps have to be done by 12/1, (my deadline not the schools), so I just dont know if she will get a good rec from this new counselor.
That’s a bummer to have have three GC changes. At some schools it probably doesn’t matter much, as others have said here. At my Ds high school, we had such an outstanding GC that we probably would have followed her anywhere if she were to leave!! My D was so fortunate to be able to form a very good relationship with her for four years. She’s one person I’m going to miss interacting with now that my D is a graduate!
My D’s school has a 500:1 student:counselor ratio, so any real “counseling” is in name only. What they do have are tried-and-true systems for the college application process.
I put a lot of effort into cultivating a relationship with D’s first counselor, only to see the counselor transfer to another school after freshman year. I agree with @mathmom about the generic output we will get. Focusing more on the quality teacher recommendations.
Or consider this an opportunity for you to write your D’s “guidance counselor” recommendation.
At our school, there is a >200:1 GC ratio, so we essentially write the rec - they send a form to parents fall of senior year, and it’s basically a tell-all about your kid. I’d assume that most admissions people know how it works with public school counseling depts, so I’d focus on the teachers, which is where your child can really shine.
Our GC’s are assigned alphabetically, so my three kids had the same GC (nine years) … Right up until the summer before my youngest’s senior year, when the GC retired. I prodded my youngest to make an appointment ASAP that summer, which she did. She was one of the first kids the new GC met with. It was fine. The transition was smooth, the application process went off without a hitch, and she starts college in August.
Im just really annoyed. I would think that the school would at least look at the letters of those kids who have been changed twice, who are seniors, and let them stay with the other counselor. Yes for a year, he may have a few more kids but it shouldnt be that many. My daughter has really good grades, etc, and she isnt applying to any super selective schools, so its probably not an issue, but it still ticks me off.
@partyof5 what’s in your control is to do a parent brag sheet and have your daughter get to know the GC. I may be wrong, but I think I may have read somewhere here on CC that the new Common App gives the GC the option to choose they do not know the student well enough to write a recommendation.
I would shift the concern more to the recommendation from her Teachers.
To all, yes we are familiar with the brag sheet, she had to turn that in last year to her counselor. As I said, its probably not huge, but just really annoying that they stick the new counselor in where the kids have already changed twice. She is my third and last child to send to college. I am very well versed on recs, etc. Mostly I was just venting. Im so glad she is my last, as I have no tolerance for the schools and their policies, these days.
LOL. Get it. My older son got changed once, but we did the happy dance because we despised the first GC. The second was extremely nice, though I don’t know how competent she was. She did make every effort to get to know my not at all social son. (But he did help her figure out the computers.)
Younger son did not like his GC, but she seemed to like him. She must have done something right, because he did much better with admissions than we expected!
Come on @partyof5 third time you should be immune by now :-). I hear your frustrations, but this too will pass.
In my school, the guidance counselor rec’s are in by the start of school in September. It’s entirely possible that the rec’s will be done by the outgoing guy, #2.
our D too will have a new counselor; her 3rd, as a senior. so, we’re with you. although daughter will go through teachers for LORs
@learninginprog of course I have to vent on CC, who else would understand? #collegeboundkidsproblems, lol
My son’s GC retired at the end of his junior year. I was worried about having a new person but it’s a large school so he didn’t have a super close relationship with the first one… I filled out the brag sheet. Then I encouraged my son to schedule a mtg with the new GC in August before school even started. He met with her a few times I think and it turns out she wrote him a very strong letter - he didn’t see it but they talked about it. One of those times I worried for no reason lol.
The common app has made some changes int eh use of the counselor forms and LORs This is from the Common app blog, so I hope it is permitted http://blog.commonapp.org/2015/05/29/recommendation-requirement-changes/
@jym626 , thanks for that link. It also mentioned a list of 68 new schools that will accept the Common App-- including several on my son’s list.
We found 3 more schools on his list, which means a lot less work at application time 