<p>I have some non-parent relatives that went to Penn, would it help my chances to have alumni write to the school on my behalf? I know its kind of cheap, but the competition for next year looks ultra tough. Anyone else do this?</p>
<p>Depends how close they are. I mean if its your mother's second cousin twice removed whom you met for the first time last year, its probably not a good idea because they don't know you. However, if its a close uncle/aunt/whatever that you have a good relationship with, it probably can't hurt.</p>
<p>Of course, this advice falls apart completely if your relative is a huge donor to Penn.</p>
<p>Good luck btw. :)</p>
<p>Well, even if he is a huge donor it might not help.</p>
<p>I know the evdience is anecdotal, but a trustee friend of mine has tried to help some people by writing recommendation letters, but the only ones that worked were for his own children.</p>
<p>One thing is for certain, it can't hurt to send in the letter. But don't expect too much from it.</p>
<p>I know a kid whose 2 parents were alumni, as well as his 4 grandparents. There was an article in the paper about how his dad donates hundreds of thousands to Penn every year. And he got rejected. And he was very very qualified, too.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, at my school 16 kids applied to Penn ED this year. A lot of them had alumni and stuff. They rejected 13 kids and deferred 3 - none of the deferred kids have alumni, unless you count me whose Dad worked at Penn for a few years. Those kids with alumni were really good too - one of them actually had both parents also went to Penn, was tied with me in rank, beat me by a good 100 points on SATs, ecs just as good as mine if not better. And he got in and I got deferred/accepted. </p>
<p>So my point is, alumni isn't the most solid thing you can put on your app.</p>
<p>Like any other supplemental letter of recommendation, this would probably only help if the letter writer had something unique to write that hadn't already been covered in your app or could make a compelling case as an alum for why you are such a great fit for the school. The letter won't hurt, but won't necessarily help, either.</p>