My S’s GC had no clue who he was, even after a full 4 years with him. He was an excellent student, but he was not a “student leader.” He could have used a GC who gave him a swift kick in the butt regarding things he should be doing outside of class (he didn’t listen to his parents, of course) … he ended up waitlisted at UMich (instate), with much better stats than a lot of people who were accepted from his school (33 ACT, 3.9+ GPA, near the top of a very large class, tons of AP’s, excellent writer, etc). The school has a strong relationship with the admissions office at UMich, so the bland recommendation I’m sure she wrote didn’t help the kid who spent all his non-school time in a band (and I am not talking about a school band …). The moral of the story is, it doesn’t matter if they are with the kid the whole time if the GC s**ks … even a new GC is better than a useless one. (I am also venting, and I don’t really know why - it’s been 5 years since he graduated from high school, he graduated from college in 4 years, and he is employed - so don’t know why it still bugs me.)
Bjkmom,
This year the common app opened up to schools using a stats only applications. In the past they accepted only schools with a holistic admissions approach. I actually thought we’d see a lot more than the 60+ increase in schools .
Hi all! I am posting from India, so I don’t know if I’m on the right thread. My school does not have any ‘guidance counsellor’ position at all, so what am I supposed to say on the application? Any help is appreciated.
For future reference, this is considered hijacking a thread and is rude to the original poster. You should start your own thread instead.
Anyway, to answer your question, there is an administrator at your school who would fulfill this function. They may have different names - headmaster, dean, principal. Regardless, it’s a level above your teachers.
My younger daughter got a new GC this year because her original GC (who was also the GC for my two older daughters) “retired” and moved south to continue to work as a GC while collecting a pension. Having seen how little the GC knew (or cared to know) my older two, I wasn’t the least bit concerned about the change. I think most colleges don’t expect stellar GC recommendations, as at large schools the GCs don’t know the individual students well enough to write a detailed, helpful recommendation. Focus on your daughter’s teacher LORs and don’t worry about the GC.
Unless your child is unusual it probably doesn’t make a difference. They redistributed the alphabetical lines when my son was to be a senior. Son was unusual among students- gifted, ahead for age so I asked that he keep the same GC. IF you feel it really matters, such as child is well known to the previous GC, go ahead and intervene. Otherwise it won’t matter.
My D’s GC did know her well but when she wrote her rec she followed the answers to the parent questionnaire very closely. She added a couple of really nice lines about D (“only student I’ve ever had who _____”) but nearly everything else was from the questionnaire.
(She gave it to D at the end of the year though D waived her right to see it.)
My D1 got a new GC in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade (only one at school). It worked out okay. #2 & #3 were solid GCs, so the transition wasn’t too tough.
My son had 3 guidance counselors throughout his time at public HS… I really do not think any of them really got to know him very well. I believe the guidance counselors each have close to 300 students. I truly believe my sons letters of recommendation were based on the parent brag sheet that I wrote. Just be sure to write a really great brag sheet.
My son got a new GC in the spring of his junior year. When she started, I told S to march straight to her office, introduce himself, and welcome her to the school. We made a point of getting the brag sheet and all other college paperwork together and having him ask for LORs as early as possible. I think he was the first student in his class to do either. And I made a point of letting him do ALL of the communication.
The old GC frankly didn’t care anymore. She moved on to a very prestigious university job and it was clear that her mind hadn’t been on her students for the time that S was in high school. The new GC was an opportunity for him to build a relationship with someone who was anxious to succeed. I don’t know what her LOR said but I suspect it was crafted with much more care and enthusiasm than the old GC’s would have been.
To the extent that a college uses the counselor’s recommendation, that introduces more “noise” into the process – i.e. the recommendation’s quality may be based as much on the counselor as it is on the student. The same goes for teacher recommendations.
My D barely knows her GC who has been on maternity leave for about a month now. She was at D’s IEP meeting (before going on leave) and had very little to say. She had one college recommendation for D, which seemed like a decent fit, although ended up not having the right program. D and I recently met with her temp GC and her adviser, mostly to talk about concurrent enrollment next year. I asked about the LoR process and the adviser said she and the GC always write the LoR together. I was greatly relieved as D has been with this adviser since freshman year and they have a really close relationship (and the adviser thinks very highly of D). Other parents of kids with IEP’s may want to look into this if they are in a similar situation.
Perhaps you can call the head of the guidance dept. and ask how the guidance counselor recommendation will be handled given that she is changing counselors again. At least you will know for sure what the story will be.