THE SCHOOL REPORT/ COUNSELOR RECOMMENDATION

Many colleges, and most selective colleges, require a letter or recommendation or statement from your school counselor. Be certain that you have taken enough time to talk with the counselor to whom you have been assigned long before you have application materials due so that he or she can write a specific, comprehensive, and informed letter about you. You may have to take the initiative in arranging the meeting(s).

Many colleges ask that you have your counselor complete and submit a Counselor Report Form or a Secondary School Report. Before submitting these forms to your guidance or college counseling office, be sure that you have provided any biographical information requested at the top of the form (you should type this information). If a school does not require a counselor letter or school statement, it will still want a copy of your transcript. You must let your counselor know that you are applying to such a school so that your transcript is mailed on time. Some high schools have forms and/or releases to complete for this purpose.

November, December and January get very busy in most high school guidance and college counseling offices, often with hundreds of applications being processed in a month's time. While you must be attentive to the application deadlines of the schools to which you are applying, you must also be aware of the internal deadlines set by your school’s guidance or college counseling office, as those deadlines often occur earlier than those of the colleges. Determine your earliest application deadline work from there.