<p>Ok so my counselor decides OVER christmas break to quit and go to a different school. I never knew about this until today 1/4. I submitted all my apps. saying she was my counselor and everything.</p>
<p>She is not now.</p>
<p>Now I have this other lady. Never have seen her once. She has to do all 5 mid year reports and she never has known me let alone met me. </p>
<p>And plus I already said my first counselor was my counselor for all my apps.</p>
<p>So how should I deal with this? Should I just ask the new one to fill out the forms, give them to me, and add a letter in each letter for each school saying "this counselor is new blah blah. old one left"?</p>
<p>Please help me. This new counselor doesn't seem good. I just cant believe my old counselor quit right after submission of all the colleges.</p>
<p>Get the counselor rec from your old guidance counselor...if she wrote for you for ED/EA (if you did EA/ED) it's only a matter of mailing a copy to each college. And then have the new counselor do the midyear reports and you, along with the old and new counselor, should calmly explain in an addendum that your old counselor quit in the middle of the year and you didn't know about it blah blah blah. Your counselor resigning over break is completely beyond your control, but it's about how you deal with an unexpected setback like that that counts.</p>
<p>Is it normal for people to know their counselors well? I've spoken to mine maybe twice while at my school. As for your apps, is seems like you shouldn't have to worry if they've already been submitted, but if you need to submit some others, just attack a note explaining that you have had two different counselors this year (you don't really need to explain why, colleges have to many apps to look at to really care about the details of your situation).</p>
<p>Then you need to get proactive. At my son's high school the kids fill out a huge form with all of their accomplishments etc. Then the parents fill out a form with information about what they want the GC to know about their kid. Then the GC writes a rec. For a big HS, the GC often only knows the kids with problems so they don't really know the kids personally when they do the GC rec. If your school doesn't have such a form, make up your own. Our was ECs, stuff you do outside of high school, qualities you feel you possess, etc. Even if it is a counselor's first week, to be a counselor, you have to have a masters degree so he/she isn't incapable of writing a rec.</p>
<p>No they won't. It is not up to the colleges to just "understand your situation". It is up to the student to get to work and make things happen. Do not sit back and wait for them to understand. It is not a huge problem but the OP needs to get moving and follow the suggestions in the previous posts.</p>
<p>No, they will understand! His counselor quitting is beyond his control, and colleges aren't going to hold it against him if he explains the situation to them. That is all he can do, and nothing more. The counselor's rec/mid yr reports aren't valued more than the teacher recs because colleges know that all students don't have equal access to their counselors or the ability to develop a close working relationship with them in some schools. Therefore, colleges will indeed understand a student in a situation where a counselor quit and they must have someone totally new fill out information.</p>
<p>OK, everyone - just CALM DOWN. The OP is concerned only with the Mid Year Report; that assumes that the original GC recommendation has already been sent. I just took a look at the Mid Year Report form for the Common App, and it requires new ratings/recommendations ONLY if the recommendations or ratings have changed since the initial one. The new GC doesn't have to make any comments or remarks, or would just say "new GC for this student since 1/3/07" and just send the transcript.</p>
<p>There's no "information" that the GC has to fill out. This is not a big deal.</p>
<p>Exactly. The recs. have already been sent in. This is not even a small deal. All the new G.C. is sending in is grades from first marking period and midterms. Don't sweat it. GC's leave all the time, and even the ones that stay are often useless in what positive and personal information they can offer. Colleges know that GC's do not really interact with students in most schools.</p>
<p>Just a thought to keep in mind during all of the GC bashing - some of the members of CC are hard-working GC's trying their best to help all kinds of students with their after high school plans and dreams.
chevda and chocoholic are correct, of course, GC's are professionals working in an education environment and are used to handling this type of situation - as are the adcoms. You'll be find, Gyros, just be sure your new GC is aware of what you need sent to your schools.</p>
<p>So, mastert tang, it's a bad thing for a guidance counselor, on his or her own time, to answer the questions of anonymous students on a message board?</p>
<p>Or perhaps you have better things to do (like studying, completing your homework to get better grades, helping your parents with cleaning and laundry) than posting on this message board?</p>
<p>Well i looked through my forms. i have 5 midyear reports. 2 of them ask for nothing but grades. One asks a bit and asks for checking in the boxes. The other 2 have an option of "if your view has no changed since your rec. etc.". So I think I will just attach a note to each of the letters i send out explaining the situation. Thanks everyone.</p>