But Top Tier, admissions offices are QUITE aware that the students at a small, private high school, especially one that routinely sends kids to elite schools, are going to have the benefit of a GC who knows them intimately - and they also know that the students at Average Public High have GC’s who have hundreds of kids on their courseload, are also playing the role of social worker, and are writing their recommendations based off a form letter and wouldn’t know that Johnny likes history and Susie likes chemistry because they wouldn’t know Johnny or Susie if they tripped over them.
Adcoms KNOW this - they aren’t stupid. If you think outside the box of affluent suburbia, who do you think the “guidance counselor” is in a rural high school in Montana – someone who is plugged in, or some administrator who gets the title “GC” hung onto his shingle because someone needs to have that title?