<p>Will a letter of rec from the principal be considered a teacher rec? Can I use it as a counselor rec (since many schools require one from the counselor). And if not, will a letter of rec from my principal really be better than a letter of rec from a teacher who probably knows me as a person better?</p>
<p>In general, colleges want recommendations from teachers because they are the people best able to evaluate your work as a student. Your principal might know your grades and class rank (or if you go to a large public school and you aren’t one of the top or bottom few in your graduating class, she might not), but she won’t know as much as your teachers about how you work as a student, day in and day out. So, generally, teacher letters should come from teachers who have taught you recently.</p>
<p>The instructions for the Common App’s School Report Form, however, say that you should “give this form to your secondary school counselor or another school official who knows you better,” and they also tell the person who is completing the form that “[a]lternatively, you may attach a reference written by another school official who can better describe the student.” There’s no reason why your principal couldn’t complete the form or write the letter, if she’s willing.</p>
<p>But I will also say that if I were a principal, I wouldn’t go near this form. For one thing, I would expect that if I do one form, it will bring a flood of requests from other students, who also think that a principal’s letter will somehow be “better than” a guidance counselor’s letter. (I’m not at all sure it makes any difference.) For another thing, if I am a principal, and I do a task that’s normally a duty of another staff member in the school, that could look to others as if I don’t have confidence in that other staff member.</p>
<p>Unless you were a student in a class taught by the principal, the principal does not count as one of your teachers.</p>