well, I applied REA to Yale, so I didn’t know my senior year teacher well enough at the time to ask for a rec. Additionally, she reached out to me about writing my rec letter, so I assumed we were good to go. We were not and when I saw the rec letter, I was so disappointed and I cried, but it was submitted. In between I learned my lesson for other schools.
In general, the GCs at my school at least are really unhelpful and are more focused on behavior issues- I only see my counselor twice a year.