<p>Since in my school system, there is no guidance counselor, I suppose the most appropriate person to fill out the school information would be the principal. I finished high school last year and now am taking a gap year. Before school ended, I talked to the principal and he agreed to help me filling the required forms.</p>
<p>Only that over the summer, the principal was changed. I took a course with the new one in my sophomore year, but I was not too involved in it. Ever since, we seldom talked. While I didn’t take any course with the former principal, he knew me a little better because I was representing the school in many academic competitions with good results and he was talking a lot to me or my teachers about them. I am still more inclined to ask him for help, but now he is nothing more than an ordinary teacher in my school, who did not even ever teach me.</p>
<p>What should I do under those circumstances? Which one should I ask to help me?</p>
<p>The recommendation of a guidence counselor serves a different purpose than a teacher recommendation. Guidence counselors supply information about the school and how you measure up against the other students. If the counselor knows you and can add a personal reference, that’s great, but many students, especially those in large public high schools, do not know their guidence counselors (or their principal) at all. Students are often asked by the guidence counselors to provide a personal statement about their goals and objectives and they may meet once to discuss their educational plans, but otherwise there often isn’t a close relationship. The personal recommendations are provided by teachers with whom the student has studied and, hopefully, developed a relationship. Additional recommendations may sometimes provided by a coach, an employer or a religious leader who has a close personal relationship with the student-but that isn’t essential either.</p>
<p>In your case, I would go to the current principal for the information that a guidence counselor would provide and to your teachers for personal recommendations. You could always offer to provide the principal with a statement of your goals and objectives so he or she has a better understanding of what you are hoping to achieve and any accomplishments that you are especially proud of.</p>