<p>Hey idk if any of you guys have this problem but it is REALY FRUSTRATING...I want to apply to a bunch of colleges that require counselor recs for general admission. Every time I ask a counselor at my school, and there are three, for a rec all they do is ask me what clubs im in and write a paragraph about the activities im involved in. I recently asked one of my counselors who knows me very well just to throw in an anecdote or two and I still just got a generic letter that seemed like she just filled in the blanks to a preset letter with my name. how can i possibly get better recs from them and how much will it kill me if i cant???</p>
<p>I don't think it will kill you, but I think it will make your teacher recommendations even more important, so hopefully you'll have better luck with them. I think admissions offices realize that some counselors have too many students to work with to really know them, so they are probably used to less-than-helpful letters. It would have been great if the counselor who knew you had written something more personal, but you can't control that, so just work on the rest of your application.</p>
<p>yea thats what im definately hoping..thanks</p>
<p>A college admissions guy from a highly selective LAC told me that counselor letters are usually like that. They don't expect the same level of familiarity as you might have with teachers. Mostly they're looking to make sure you don't have some big blot on your record that the school would know about (petty crime, discipline problems, etc) that a single teacher might not know about. I wouldn't worry about it. But then, you could call the admissions office and ask them how much it matters. If they say they would prefer more from your counselor, at least then you can go to the counselor and say "they want more."</p>
<p>yea that makes me a little more confident because thats a pretty logical explanation as to why universities reccomend them if they know counselors might not know students the best</p>