he was deferred EA, and I wrote a letter for him. he doesn’t know. can I just email it to admissions?
Are you his peer? If so, I can’t imagine it would have any positive effect whatsoever. If anything, it might annoy the admissions officer.
Dartmouth is the ONLY college I’m aware of that specifically asks for a peer recommendation from a classmate or friend.
If you submit the LoR on behalf of your friend, Harvard Admissions might assume you are also doing so for Dartmouth. And that might backfire – as in making Admissions say “Oh look, this guy would be a much better fit for Dartmouth, so let’s take a pass on him.”
I understand you mean well, but if you really want to help your friend, you should NOT, stress N-O-T send the LoR to Harvard!
@gibby “‘Oh look, this guy would be a much better fit for Dartmouth, so let’s take a pass on him.’”
Admissions would never say this. Colleges will read an applicantion and see whether or not the applicant will fit in at their college; they wouldn’t “pass” on an applicant on the belief that his friend sent in a peer rec so the applicant must be applying to Dartmouth also.
They could “pass” on his application if he doesn’t fit in at Harvard, but not because he would be a better fit for Dartmouth (on the assumption that he applied).
^^ We can agree to disagree. IMHO, all colleges are concerned about yield – even Harvard. If colleges are rejecting students based upon the ORDER of schools they list on the FAFSA, Admissions could certainly deny a student because they believed he would be a better fit at another college: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/28/colleges-use-fafsa-information-reject-students-and-potentially-lower-financial-aid
@gibby for many schools admissions and financial aid are totally separate. This is the case with Harvard. If the school says it is need blind, then it should not be looking at the list of schools on the FAFSA since admissions has no reason to look at financial aid. If schools that are need blind/ have separate offices actually do this, I would have no trust in the American college system. But I do agree with you that it is a possibility.
@gibby I actually just found this online:
“Schools will not be able to see which other schools you listed on your FAFSA.”
Source:
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/school-list
So contrary to popular belief, it appears that schools will not know where else someone applies.
I went through your threads and saw that you were applying along with your friend. Why would you submit a letter to help him if you’re applying to the same school? That makes no sense…
Thus, submitting a letter without his knowledge to send to Harvard sounds a bit like competitive sabotage. Please don’t even consider this.
It would be easy enough for anyone to write a letter for themselves, signed by a “friend.” So I think you would need to have a letter signed by a notary!
It has actually occurred to me in the past that there are some extraordinary kids whose applications no doubt do not show how wonderful they are. Sometimes it is just a matter of personal qualities that are not quantifiable.
Depending on the reason for this and the content, despite this being an unusual idea, it might be helpful But it depends on a lot of things and in only rare cases would it be helpful.
You could call admissions and ask, and tell them the reason you feel this is needed.
Of course, it is kind of late in the game, not at the date of your post but the date of my response, so I suppose you either have or haven’t. Still, very nice of you to want to help your friend.
But if your own app can’t show it, another letter isn’t a fix. Certainly not one from a bud. Think.
And what can one teen say about another that’s going to move the admissions mountain? It’s hard enough for kids to understand how to make their own apps great.
The D letter serves its own, intended purposes.