Hi, I am an highschool junior from East Africa in Maryland. My AP Lang teacher is a Cornell Alumni, he is willing to give me a reccomendation. Should I accept it?
Get LORs from teachers who will speak about you in the most positive light. It doesn’t matter what college the recommender attended.
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Are you from East Africa, or Maryland? Confused
An alumni rec on its own isn’t going to change anything. If the teacher has many positive things to say about you and you have enjoyed the class and participated, you will get a good recommendation.
If you are simply asking the teacher because she attended Cornel, that’s not a good enough reason.
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No one will ask or care where the recommender went to college.
It’s a recommendation about you, not them.
And they aren’t writing a letter for you to Cornell - unless you are doing a one off. They are writing a letter that you will use to a lot of colleges so you wouldn’t want it to be written about a fit for one specific place.
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But he told me he will specifically for that college
First of all, he is an alumnus of Cornell (singular, not plural).
Second- if he’s willing to write you a recommendation for ANY college which highlights your distinctive accomplishments, what a kind, ethical person you are, the contributions you make to class discussions, what a joy you are to teach- then terrific!!! But a letter from an alumnus doesn’t mean much if it’s just “I went to Cornell. He wants to go to Cornell. You should take him, he’s a good student”.
Third-Make sure you have enthusiastic recommenders, no matter where they want to college.
Good luck!
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I realize how pedantic this is, but it’s a weird pet peeve of mine…Alumni is plural. If your teacher is male (and just one person), the word you want is alumnus.
And agree with the above - his alma mater is not as significant as what he is able and willing to say about YOU. If he knows you well and will say great things about how you’re the best student he’s had in the last ten years (or whatever stellar compliments may be appropriate), then great. If it’s more just, “Yeah, I had this student, he was fine, by the way I went to Cornell,” then no, that won’t help you at all.