I am curious how much weight a guidance counselor recommendation carries in admissions process? My d19 goes to large public high school, guidance counselor doesn’t know her very well. We fill out brag sheets for the counselor to write recommendation and I have heard the counselors basically copy and paste what they get from student/parent. This year, my D has had an issue with class scheduling and had to really push with guidance department and I had to get involved. Long story but caused some problems and D19 had to reveal a few personal issues she was having (she is extremely private). Now D19 is worried counselor won’t give her good recommendation. I told her that is ridiculous but she is concerned nonetheless. She is top 5% of her classes, very strong stats. I can’t imagine that counselor would not give strong letter but who knows. Curious how much weight the letter carries?
The weight accorded counselor recommendations in the college admissions process probably varies based on the particular school & on the contents of the recommendation.
And she thinks the GC will “get back” at her by writing a crappy rec? No. They’re professionals.
I don’t think that the GC is trying to get back at her, but may write about how she handles situations, deals with adversity, has grit, problem solves, which are important as to who she is as a person.
I once had a kid who was #1 in the class and was a jerk and an academic thug to the other kids. Teachers did not want to write recommendations for him.
Which are good things about which to write. 
I think a lot of schools push their GCs to get the kids into the best ranked schools they can get into, so it would be against the GC’s best interest to intentionally tank a kid with a bad recommendation. Since you are in a big school district, I’d be surprised if the GC writes much about any of the kids, so a bare-boned recommendation wouldn’t stick out as strange.
Some GCs do write what’s basically a form letter. Some admit they hardly know a kid. The letter is important, but adcoms know some GCs are just not as into it as others.
If she’s concerned they see her as a pain, why can’t she go make nice now? Have an intelligent question, thank them for their help, make a positive impression.
And revealing personla issues (depending on what they are,) is not always a negative.
I don’t think colleges really expect GCs in large public schools to know the students very well. If they do - bonus. If not, well, its the survey that discloses if the kid took the most rigorous courses available and the data sheet with the school stats that will interest the AOs more.
Thanks. My daughter has a wonderful disposition and is a very strong student. Will have excellent teacher recommendations. She is on the quiet side but speaks up when she has to and advocates for herself. Does not like to “make waves”. However, she is still a minor and there are some issues that are “bigger than her”. In this situation, she is a twin and when schedules just came out she was upset because she does not want to be in same class as twin for personal reasons - it strains their relationship at home and she wants to be separate. Guidance refusing to change a class and she is upset. GC was not nice to her in conversation - harassed her a bit (I heard the whole conversation). I got involved. Now she is worried that GC will bring up that she got “emotional” in conversation and may put the not wanting to be in class with her sibling in the recommendation as a negative.
The issue was not disciplinary by nature and therefore I HIGHLY doubt it will be mentioned at all in the GC’s rec (especially if they are known to essentially copy/paste the brag sheet).
Regardless, I think most GC recs are seen more as a formality than as a piece of heavily weighted criteria. Teacher recs matter a whole lot more.