Hello! I am a rising senior and planning to apply early to a T20 in the fall. I’m really worried about my hs counselor messing it up for me, though. I go to a very underfunded school with one counselor. First, in terms of the quality of her letter, she started mid-year and doesn’t know me at all (we’ve literally never met). Second, in terms of her being reliable, she didn’t upload some needed docs (not sure which) for last year’s seniors and didn’t seem to know what she was doing overall, based on what they said.
Could someone explain what steps I have to rely on her to submit the common app on time for a T20 early round? I believe she uploads my transcript and writes the counselor letter and uploads that. What else? Is the document where she gives my class rank etc., part of her recommendation form or a separate step? Basically, the less I need her the better.
Your counselor will upload the common app recommender form, probably a letter of rec, transcript, and a school profile to common app (these may go thru Naviance or Scoir if your school uses those, or a similar software, in conjunction with common app.)
Specifically, your counselor will fill out this form: Salesforce, and for the letter of rec you should provide her with a brag sheet and/or resume to facilitate that. Here’s something you can use:
You can use this (free) AXS Companion (created by a team of counselors) to guide you through the common app, it does have everything you need (instructions, videos, etc.) to know how to complete every section, and how the various moving parts work together.
https://open.oregonstate.education/axscompanion/front-matter/getting-started/
Also, common app has resources here: https://www.commonapp.org/counselors-and-recommenders/common-app-ready
You can also ask questions here, many people will be willing to help you as the process unfolds. Have you asked two teachers to write letters of rec for you?
Remember that your counselor has a lot on her plate and is new in her job…so come from a place of understanding and grace. By educating yourself on the application process, you will not only help yourself, but will help her too. Start with your brag sheet and resume, and you might also share that AXS companion site with her (and your friends), because the more students who use it, the better. And your counselor may learn something from it as well. Good luck!
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You are so kind to give me all this information! Thanks very very much.
Could I please ask again for the link (Salesforce) for the version of the actual form the counselor fills out? That wouldn’t open for me for some reason? But everything is so helpful and I’m really grateful.
I do have two teacher recs requested and those come from people I know super well, so that should be all good. Just have to make sure the counselor part is sorted. It will help me a lot to understand all the steps myself, just in case the counselor doesn’t know them herself. Thanks so, so much!
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Wait–the form loaded now! Thanks so much 
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I see on that form that there is a “requirements grid” to click onto that tells what colleges use that form. However, the link isn’t clickable. Does anyone have access to that link as the colleges the OP is going to apply to may not even require this to be done?
The requirements grid is in your kid’s common app account. Click on college search, then application requirements, then download requirements, and you will see this:
Here’s part of the first page (note that this is for last year, and it’s always best to verify things on each college’s website):
Lastly I will also say that some counselors at schools where they have hundreds of students per class do not complete this form, even though it may be ‘required’. In that case, a typical note on this form might read ‘due to the volume of students we have, counselors from X HS will not be completing this form.’ Colleges get it.
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