<p>I go to a HUGE high school... 2K plus kids and it can be pretty easy to get swept up in the crowd. My school is by no means 'elite', and a lot of the guidance counselors' time gets caught up in either catching up failing students or helping seniors.
That being said, I wanted to know how to better my relations with my guidance counselor. The guidance office is almost never open and you MUST schedule an appt... but I can't just schedule one to get to know my counselor. (It would also cut into class time). I'm in a pretty small town where pretty much everyone knows each other, so my counselor knows a lot of her students, but she doesn't really know me.
I don't really know how important guidance counselors are in the college process since I have been in a meeting with mine one-on-one maybe twice in my 3 years of high school. So would a negative or just luke-warm letter from my guidance counselor hurt my chances of getting into a college?</p>
<p>Honestly, my guidance counselor didn’t help me one bit with my college application process. It would be a bad idea to get your guidance counselor to write a letter of recommendation in your situation. Instead, get a letter of recommendation from a teacher that may know you better. Maybe a teacher that you’ve had more than once, or a teacher whose class you have the highest grade in. Even a teacher that you talk to will most likely write a more impacting recommendation.</p>
<p>If your guidance counselor really does have to deal with 2K+ kids, then she most likely will be using the same format for each of the students which will probably sound very generic, unidividualized, and unimpacting.</p>
<p>I don’t know about new CApp next year, but the amended version this year allows counselors who have too many students (like yours does) to simply fill out the quanitative fields (courses taken, grades, school profile, etc.). So unless you stand out in your counselor’s memory as either extremely good or extremely bad, you probably won’t get a letter of rec, just a check for a)counselor doesn’t know you and/or b)counselor has too much to do. Don’t worry about a lukewarm letter.</p>
<p>At my D’s high school, students and parents are asked to write a “brag sheet” at the beginning of senior year, to make sure the guidance counselor has a complete picture of each student for their recommendation. The school website has an individual account for each student for grades, emails, information, guidance etc. They also have an entire resume information section for each student which students are encouraged to update every time they participate in any activity. (starting freshman year) Resumes are also encouraged. This helps guidance counselors keep track of what you are doing inside and outside of school. Some colleges require the guidance counselor recommendation to be submitted. Therefore, I would recommend that you put together a resume with your activities and set up an appointment to meet with your counselor to review your college plans. There is nothing to stop you from initiating a meeting and getting to know your guidance counselor. If you wait for someone to contact you, you may be lost in the shuffle. I am assuming your school has more than one guidance counselor, but if a GC has 100 seniors, it is easy to see why personal attention may be lacking. In fact, My D’s guidance counselor retired at the end of her junior year, so this type of information helped the new counselor and she was able to write an accurate and complete recommendation. Be proactive and get your ECs together.</p>
<p>Thanks! My aunt helps foreign students get into colleges here in America, so she tries to help as much as she can but some things are VERY different (she told me PSAT’s don’t matter… yeah right). She did say something about putting a resume together for colleges and counselors, so thank you!
Yeah, I plan on getting some of my better teachers to write me letters. Thank you everyone!</p>