My family and I are actually good friends with a rather high up politician(I prefer not to name drop). The politician so gratefully offered to write me a letter of recommendation for colleges without even asking me.
We know him personally so it wouldn’t be a distanced writing 
But from some research I did, it seems like having someone like him write a recommendation means nothing and can even be negative? Is this true? Someone please let me know!
It’s true.
Why though? Why is it negative?
Have you seen politicians popularity rankings?
The schools want references from people who can speak to your ability to do well and contribute to an educational setting. The politician friend would not be in the best position to do that. Instead it would look like a blatant attempt to impress.
They are looking to be impressed by YOU not by who you know.
It would help if he is well known. You don’t want to appear crass about it though. Just have him send the recommendations, but don’t mention him in your applications.
Well he does personally know me and knows my work ethic. But he is very well know.
Tbh that wouldn’t be my main letter, I have some AP teachers who are defintely writing letters for me.
If this would really hurt my chances do you think I should just skip it?
It depends on the school. It worked at UT:
Now I’m rather scared it might hurt my chances…
I’m aiming for Boston college, Fordham, NYU Ect…
Bump
The politician wouldn’t be offering to right the recommendation if it wouldn’t help. He knows how things work. It isn’t overtly using influence. I went to a top 30 school, and they were real interested in my political connections at the interview. I didn’t think they were that good, and I didn’t try to flaunt them. Don’t think that was the main reason I got in. A lot of the people in the Young Democrats and College Republicans had obvious political connections.
They call it a hook. Lots of people buy there way in, or get in on various types of connections. Don’t be naive and don’t worry about it.
It’s fine if you don’t want to use recommendations like that. You don’t have to pull out all the stops.
However, the politician obviously knows how to use influence in a way that won’t create problems. Politicians and lawyers are good at that sort of thing. If you wrote your essay on how you knew the politician or something like that, then it might hurt you.
The whole thing is even institutionalized in that service academies actually formally require a recommendation from a Congressman. That has been true for 200 years.
The ‘recommendation’ from a member of Congress to get into a service academy is actually a nomination: each MOC can put forward 10 candidates for the service academy, and (if the candidates otherwise meet the entrance requirements) one will be offered a spot. It is not about personal favors (though of course it allows for the possibility that the member puts forward somebody they know- that’s part of why they get 10 spots per academy, not 1).
This is a point that poster makes a lot, and is much more wrong than right (as are a number of similar points in the two posts above). It is true that donating truly significant amounts of money can help your chances of admissions, but it is definitively not true that ‘lots of people’ get in that way, or through connections- and even less true that lots of otherwise unqualified people get in that way. @GMTplus7’s post about UT shows that very neatly- and also shows that it’s not seen as ok, even if it is not illegal.
However, OP, I am interested that you say the famous politician
to write a letter for you. What, I wonder, was this politician so grateful for? Did you rescue their child from drowning perhaps? work with their handicapped child over a period of time in a way that made a meaningful difference to the child?
You say
but how well does he know you- in ways that relate to what you would bring to the college(s) you are applying to? Unless there is something specific that the politician can speak to, it is unlikely that it will help your application, and at some colleges will irritate them (the bulk of the competitive college presentations that I have been to have specifically said not to include recommendations from famous people who have not worked with you directly).
And I have to call you out on this:
: actually, that is exactly what you want to do- you just want to do it for the adcomms, not on CC.
It’s definitely a little shady. It is obvious what you are doing, but he really does know you. I would recommend not getting involved in something like that. However, if your question in will it help your application, the answer is yes.
That’s the equivalent of using a family friend to write a letter of rec and the social standing of the person doesn’t make it a better letter. For starters, you run the risk of an adcom not liking your political affiliation, and two, he can’t speak to how you are as a student or how you will contribute to the campus. It’s just a character rec and for me personally, that would be a waste of a supplemental rec because your teachers would already be talking about your character. This would just be flaunting.
Quite understandable! Thank you for giving me some insight on the situation.
When I said gratefully offered, I meant in the sense that he offered to write it and I was grateful for his offer.
These all helped very much!
I didn’t really think his recommendation would have a significant impact at all, but since most people are saying it may have a rather negative impact I will most likely decline his offer
Just curious from what colleges have admission directors told you not to have famous people write letters of rec.? Just wondering to see if any of the colleges I would like to apply to are on that list.
Maybe you meant graciously instead of gratefully?
I think you should accept his offer, but it’s up to you. If you intend to major in political science it could be more beneficial than if you were to major in, say, art or engineering.
Wrong word choice my bad haha
Well I want to major in biochemistry so don’t know how much it would help.
I’m very torn about this issue now 
Some were direct- Harvard, Princeton. Others were at group presentations, so I don’t remember which college said it, but they all agreed- included Brown, Duke, Stanford, Penn, Swarthmore, Tufts.
My guess is that a lot of the top-tier colleges get a lot of famous people recs, b/c applicants are looking for anything that might help them stand out that little bit more- but most of the time the famous person won’t actually know as much about the applicant as their teachers or their supervisor at work.
It is always nice to have somebody wish you well enough that they would like to be helpful! Knowing when to say a genuine ‘thank you, but I’ve got this’ is a good thing to learn.
Ah so I’d assume Boston College and NYU may be in the same bracket as those schools. So you’d defintely recommend not having him write a letter?