At my school, each counselor has somewhere between 300-400 students to manage. What do you even go to the counselor for? How can they write a letter of recommendation if they dont even know me?
Sometimes they have you do a ‘brag sheet’ for them, to summarize the things you are involved in. In the case where your school is too big for your counselor to get to know you, your teacher picks are especially important.
I would try to stop by from time to time, or write them an email. Also, if you can think of any important questions (especially as you get older), that provides a good excuse to start a conversation. Here are some samples:
Do you have a list of local scholarships?
Which schools would you recommend for me?
Could I have a check-in soon? (talk to them about your workload, classes, etc.)
What do I need to do to be recruited?
What clubs are there to join?
Do we do class rankings?
The issue is we already have a career counseling lady who answers all questions about scholarships, I don’t do sports- so recruitment doesn’t matter. I can’t join many clubs as this point as I’m a senior. It’s obvious that we do class rankings because we have access to our transcripts…
Can’t think of any excuses.
We are at a large school, also. as with the previous post, our school has a brag sheet all students fill out and a matching one parents fill out, and a mandatory junior meeting with students and parents. This supposedly enables the guidance counselor enough info to write every one of their juniors a letter of rec. I would shoot an email to your guidance counselor and ask them about recommendation letters and if they have a process to write them.
At most large public schools, the GCs know only a small fraction of the students (most of whom have had problems that required GC involvement.) College admissions committees know that and rely on the GCs letter less for personal insight into the student and more to get the profile of your schools, how you rank vs. your peers, and how rigorous your schedule is - all of which can be done without face time with you. Teacher letters is where they get the personal insights. If you don’t know your GC and your school doesn’t ask for a ‘brag sheet’ (which many schools do), then don’t sweat it. Dropping in to chat about colleges or whatever might work at smaller school or a private school where the GCs are paid to provide college counseling, but at a large public school, they may be a bit more abrupt if you don’t have a specific need that they can address, and their knowledge of college admissions may be minimal or restricted to the local state schools and community colleges. Don’t be surprised if that’s the case.