Student has a teacher that is an alumni of a college to which student is applying, and teacher offered to write an alumni letter. However, this teacher is already one of the student’s two recommenders. How would this work for this particular college (which is on the Common App)?
Thanks!
Is a alumni letter required/desired by the school? Unless it’s a specific request by the school, or unless the alum is also enclosing a check to cover the new science building, there is absolutely no purpose to it.
Why can’t the teacher mention it in his/her LOR? No need to write wtice.
I wrote a letter as an alum for a student. Don’t know if it helped or not, but the student did get in and has subsequently graduated.
Yeah - the teacher can sign his letter “John Smith, xx class of xxxx” to let the school know he’s also an alum.
If the teacher’s letter is part of the common app, then personalizing it to one school may not work.
I guess it won’t hurt if the teacher writes a letter specifically linking your kid’s positives attributes as being pluses to the particular college but unless he/she is very active at the school or a large donator it may not make much of a difference.
The teacher’s letter would be part of the common app since he is one of the two recommenders. Thus my wondering if he should write an additional letter and send it directly to the school rather than through Naviance.
I have no clue if he’s a donor or how involved he is as an alum. I think the connection would be that this student really wants to attend this school and he’s one reason why, having given her a lot of info about the school.
So should he go ahead and send a separate letter directly to admissions or the local admissions rep and personalize it? He will apparently write a great LOR for this student anyways.
Some schools welcome additional recommendations and materials, some do not. A bit of poking around on the school’s website should tell you. If they do welcome them, I say go for it – if the teacher makes it highly personal and stresses that he just felt compelled to write directly to that school because…and it sounds as if it would be a great rec, so why not?
I have seen a few schools that say “no more than” for recommendations, though, so check before you do this.
I’ve seen these from teachers who are UG or G alums and sometimes they make a very nice case, citing how the student’s curiosity (or whatever) fits with the writer’s academic and interpersonal experiences at that college. There was a way to send an individual custom LoR. They don’t have to be big movers and shakers in the alum group. But I do mean an LoR writer, an adult educator. Not a neighbor or family friend.
I don’t really see on the website any information for or against extra materials. The college is Boston College.
This would be written by one of the student’s actual high school teachers who happens to be an alum. I’m just trying to understand logistics-who would he send the letter to? The local rep (and he has asked the student to get him the name of the local rep) or directly to admissions?
Thanks so much.
Yes, it could go to the area rep and should then automatically get attached to the file, for all readers. If it’s in addition to the official LoR, it can be short and personal. This is different than the boss or some random person writing. It reflects the writer’s own relationship with the college and is a teacher who has watched this kid in class and out, knows him academically as well as personally. And BC? You bet there’s strong alum connection.
But, as ever, what he says is more important as just saying he’s an alum and likes the kid.
And I am really not being snarky, but if there is a place when you submit it, where you are giving a name to what this letter is, please don’t call it “a letter from an alumni”. It is not grammatically correct. It is either a letter from an alumnus (male) or alumna (female). I just keep seeing this thread title and cringing slightly. (off of soapbox; I know the mistake is common) http://grammarist.com/usage/alumna-alumnae-alumni-alumnus/
Very helpful, @lookingforward. Thank you so much!
Yes, I realized that after I posted, @donnaleighg! I don’t mind being corrected. You are absolutely correct, of course!
Just my opinion but I think it would be annoying if it went a conventional route to the admissions office. The teacher could contact the local rep and say he asked the student for the contact info and then have a conversation. If it went further, I almost think a short handwritten note to the rep would be better.
Plenty of kids go to the colleges their parents attended and don’t have them write letters. Our kids didn’t check legacy boxes either. The teacher is already writing a recommendation. I don’t think there is that much validity to the idea that the teacher’s attendance there should give weight to the recommendation.
The ideal would be a personal connection to the rep that already exists and an informal exchange that could somehow be formalized in teh file a way that is not redundant or annoying.
DS had a teacher who wrote a school specific letter and uploaded it as her common app rec for him. Fortunately, going on a hunch we asked her and found out she had done this before it was sent out. DS then sent her a new letter request using a different email and she uploaded a generic letter that got sent out. So you can have 2 versions from same teacher in the common app, just have to keep track of which is which.
May I respectfully disagree? One of my daughter’s recommenders attended the school where my D is applying ED, and as I understand it a chunk of the recommendation letter was relating specific things about my daughter to specific things about the school, and specifically how my D would both thrive and contribute to the school. I believe this sort of thing can lend credibility… at least I hope so, as we wait to hear 
@Pheebers, feel free to follow up with me and let me know the results. I am very curious now!
@sbjdorlo Will do! She applied ED and will hear something by Jan 1. If she gets in, I’ll probably feel like shouting it from the rooftops. If not, well, their loss, right?