A. HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELOR SECONDARY SCHOOL REPORT FORM AND SCHOOL PROFILE
A student’s assigned high school counselor is the person who most often fills out the Secondary School Report and/or the Counselor Recommendation forms and provides colleges with a School Profile.

DEFINITION Of SCHOOL PROFILE:
The School Profile is a document that provides the following: a brief overview of a school, its location and contact information, the number of students and at what grade levels, grading and ranking systems, the number of faculty, the focus and breadth of the curriculum, whether Honors, AP and IB courses are offered, if it is a coed or single sex school or has a religious affiliation, and past years’ college admissions results with test scores of students.

Your counselor is a very important person in the college admissions process because colleges often rely on him/her to offer a comprehensive, overall take on you as a person and student, including comments about your:

• Accomplishments and honors

• Any extracurricular activities, community service and sports involvements and particular leadership roles

• Special talents, interests and skills in and out of school

• Anything on your transcript that needs explaining, e.g., upward or downward trend in grades and why

With your and your parents’ permission, the counselor can also describe and explain how such issues as learning disabilities, medical issues or a family illness or tragedy have impacted your high school experience.

The college counselor needs to help admissions officers understand what is different, special, and appealing about you and how those qualities will contribute to their college.

Counselors are also the people admissions offices call if they have any questions about you, want feedback about how you would fit in at a particular college and/or about inconsistencies in your application.