<p>I have an aunt who went to Howard. I don't know her very well, and if you asked her about me, she would probably say she doesn't know me at all. I do know, however, that she is a blood relative and graduated from there some years back. Does she count as alumni? I really need it to increase my chances of acceptance. </p>
<p>Also, how do colleges confirm alumni? Do they contact the person and ask, or just take your word for it? Do they check their records? How do they know for sure?</p>
<p>PLEASE reply. I'll chance you if you post the link to your thread!</p>
<p>Well, in most colleges having an alumni counts, but not tremendously. I know for example that Columbia has a question in the application that asks you whether your parents or siblings have been to Columbia but not if any other member of the wider family circle has gone. Likely this will be the case with most unis but if you want to report the fact with your aunt you could write in your essay for example “I want to go to X because my aunt who is an alumni of X…etcetc”. Now, most likely they won’t check their archieves for everyone that says that a family member of his is an alumni, but what could be done is check whether it is true for a random sample. So in the case you fall to this random sample I guess you are in trouble…</p>