i have an uncle who went UG
oops pressed enter by accident. uncle was undergrad and grad and professor. applied to plme but didnt get into that but instead to some summer program which, if he liked, then could choose to do plme (ANY INFO ON THAT?). so if he gave me a reference or something (he is also a current prof at another school) do you think it would help? i also have a researcher at another school (nothing ivy league, its like #10 in the north or something) who i will be working with a lot for the next few years. do u think both of these or one of these would help? one over the other? thanks
A professor uncle who writes a rec letter is wasting your time and indeed, watering down your application. Colleges want to know about you. Unless you did research under him, it’ll be clearly seen for what it is: a biased and unreliable endorsement of you. Go with the other researcher.
Recommendations should be from people who know you personally and have worked with you. They’re useless otherwise.
As for that summer program, I’ve never heard of it. Definitely no longer exists.
Having your uncle write that recommendation is useless unless he plans to give Brown many millions.
And I’ve never heard of that PLME summer program either.