Lucie,
I am not sure which pool of guidance counselors are picked for each school, but I would imagine that the majority of guidance counselors rating UA and Auburn, are in the state of Alabama. Maybe I was exaggerating a bit when I said Auburn folks consider it the Harvard of the South, but they definitely seem to think Auburn is the better school, and in the past, they were probably right, at least when it comes to STEM programs. Growing up in Alabama, Auburn definitely had the reputation for being the science and engineering school.