<p>i was talking to my grandparents recently and apparently they have contact with an alumnus of my first choice school and he offered to put in a good word for me. i assume that this won't do to much to help my app since i'm guessing a lot of people do this, but i was wondering would it negatively affect me in any way, or is it worth a shot?
thanks for your input! :)</p>
<p>It probably won’t hurt you, but it depends on who he schmoozes up to. It could be seen for the blatent ***-kissing it is, but it most cases they are used to it and it probably wouldn’t do all that much damage, if any, at most schools. However, unless this person is realllllly well-connected, it won’t likely do you any good, either.</p>
<p>Ok thanks, that’s kind of what I was thinking- anyone else have any thoughts on this? I realize it won’t help me much but I just want to make sure there are no serious downsides the trying.</p>
<p>It’s extremely unlikely to produce any reaction in the admissions office at all, positive or negative, other than an eye roll.</p>
<p>Really, if your grandparents know somebody who attended your first choice college, and this person doesn’t really know you, how could he or she say anything concrete that would help your case?</p>
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<p>I do not recommend trying. Even if it’s nothing more than a pointless waste of everybody’s time, that is a downside.</p>
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Look, we don’t know the specifics of how that school handles admissions but imagine this scenario: alumnus you have never met writes a letter recommending a kid he’s never met. Letter goes into the file. Your file comes to the top of the stack, the adcom looks at your transcript, test scores, etc. And as he’s about to get to your essays and recs he reads the letter from the old fuddy. Now he might have to write a thank-you letter to the alum because the college wants to stay on his good side; after all alum donations are important and maybe the old fella even has them in the will. If this all leaves a bit of a sour taste in his mouth, some kid thinking he can pull family strings to get in and making extra work for him, might it influence his state of mind when he reads your recs and essays which have a lot of subjective interpretation? Just a thought…</p>
<p>You can always try. Don’t expect a negative response but also don’t expect too much positive either. It’s pretty ‘eh’ but worth a shot.</p>