<p>My parents know Dr. Mehmet Oz personally( guy on the oprah show) He went to Columbia and I was wondering if it would help if I got a rec from him.</p>
<p>for those of you that are unfamiliar with him, he is a world famous heart surgeon</p>
<p>Your family might know him personally, but does he know you well? Just sending in a recommendation from a distinguished alumni might not swing it in your favor if he knows nothing about you. It would be very generic and not of much value to the adcom.</p>
<p>i know of someone who was applying to notre dame and got a recommendation from regis philbin and still got rejected…i don’t think he knew regis very well and he just got a generic recommendation from him which apparently didn’t help</p>
<p>^^This is very true (Shadow’s post). However, an additional recommendation may not even be read by admissions, leaving you with nothing to lose if you do send it in.</p>
<p>columbia isn’t a school that appreciates additional recs so I wouldn’t even think about it, no matter how distinguished your recommender might be.</p>
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<p>It hurts to the extent that having a generic letter of rec from some quasi-celeb who doesn’t know you shows poor judgment and dilutes attention away from good facets of your application.</p>
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<p>Not true. I, and probably boatloads of other kids who have been admitted, have submitted a 3rd LOR. Why do people here post so much dumb sh-- about subjects they know nothing about?</p>
<p>Columbia2002, they probably post this because of the following statement on Columbia’s website:</p>
<p>May I submit supplementary recommendations?
The Committee discourages the submission of additional recommendations, as admissions decisions will be based primarily on the required recommendations from your high school teachers and secondary school/guidance counselor. In general, we recommend the submission of a supplementary recommendation only if the writer has worked with you in a research or college course capacity.</p>
<p>Perhaps this is new, due to the increased number of applicants the school may have anticipated would apply RD this year.</p>
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<p>Definitely not new. There are lots of rules/guidelines on the CU website that are reportedly not complied with by many an admitted student. This is a biggie. Another is the SEAS requirement to have a LOR from a math teacher; plenty of people send in LORs from science teachers instead.</p>