Will a bad SSR from my guidance counselor decrease my chances?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>Recently, I was able to see the Secondary School Report that my guidance counselor wrote for me. This is required for the Common App and other schools to which I’m applying.</p>

<p>After reading the recommendation letter, I realized that it wasn’t great. The letter was in no way negative of me, and my counselor knows me well and thinks highly of me. I am very involved in the office and the school in general. However, it was merely a list of my activities and statistics, with only vague references to my personal traits. The language used was not fantastic either, but again, not horrible.</p>

<p>It’s hard to describe the letter without disclosing specifics. This letter, however, will be going to schools like MIT, CMU, and Caltech. I’m worried that it may hurt my chances in some way. Again, it isn’t bad, but I feel as though the letter doesn’t include anything that will make me stand out. </p>

<p>Has anyone had experience with this? I don’t want my chances to be hurt because of something I can’t control. It would be even worse to bring this up to the guidance counselor, because it would be a horrible idea to tell a person writing a recommendation for you that it needs to be more “sophisticated” or “specific.” Any comments?</p>

2

<p>Don’t worry about it. Colleges are used to, and are understanding of, “bad” LORs from guidance counselors. They understand that it can be hard to develop a close relationship with a GC, especially if you go to a big school. If your other LORs are good, you’ll be fine.</p>

3

<p>Here is a link to what MIT says about writing such letters: <a href=“How to write good letters of recommendation | MIT Admissions”>http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>Other selective colleges probably view things the same way. You can read thru the link and decide for yourself what it means in your situation.</p>

4

<p>Many GCs have so many students that they don’t have the time/energy to write valuable recommendations and colleges understand that. As long as your teacher recommendations are good it shouldn’t hurt you.</p>

5

<p>Rec letters from teachers who taught you are far more important and influential.
Many GCs write generic or even less letters, so don’t be too concerned.</p>