<p>Harvard is my first choice, and I'd do anything to go there...I came into contact with a Rick Kaplan..For those of you who don't know, he's the current President of MSNBC, former President of CNN and senior vp of ABC news..he has accumulated 34 emmies, the point being he is quite noteworthy. He also teaches seminars at Harvard.</p>
<p>He is writing me a supplementary letter of recommendation and I was just curious to how much it will help? I know usually supp letters may not help that much, but I was wondering if his status in the world and at Harvard will boost my app?</p>
<p>They don't help that much. I know a pretty qualified girl from a good boarding school was flat out rejected ED from Tufts with recommendation from Bill Drayton. I wouldn't count on it getting you into Harvard. And it's not that bad of question, there's no need to s.h.i.t. on kmhuether</p>
<p>Letters of recommendation from famous people are actually often less useful to admissions officers than letters of rec from everyday, ordinary people. First, if it's from someone famous enough to be notable, it's likely being written by a secretary with a copy of your resume. Second, letters of recommendation are not about connections. They want to see how well you interact with people on an everyday basis. So unless you've interacted with this famous person on a very regular basis, it likely won't help. That being said, it's just a supplemental rec anyways, so it likely won't hurt. That being said, don't submit any more supplemental letters of rec... most colleges don't like them as they have the effect of cluttering the applicant's file.</p>
<p>Ya my Barack Obama letter of recommendation was glowing and I still got straight up rejected. They actually wrote back and said "Get real, he'll never be President!"</p>
<p>When I went to the Harvard information session, the officer actually EXPLICITLY said that recommendations from famous people will more likely than not hurt an application. If Rick Kaplan has watched you mature as a person or a student or can truly speak to some aspects of you that are not represented in your application, then by all means have him send it.</p>
<p>I don't mean to be rude, but I want to almost say that the question is not, "How much will the recommendation help my application?" but rather, "How much will the recommendation hurt my application?" I would say with fair certainty that an impersonal recommendation from this fellow will hurt your application more than would an uninformed recommendation from a coach, employer, family friend, etc. The words "came into contact with" just don't inspire the feelings of, "Yes, have him send that rec!!" that I think they need to.</p>
<p>I don't think that will help too much. Like everyone else said ^^^^, they want people who can personally relate to you. I am sure Harvard gets so many letters from famous people/notable Harvard alumni/Harvard alumni from many applicants who believe such recommendations will drastically increase their chances for admission. So I would imagine such recommendations are looked down upon since you are technically using someone else's prestige to get you into Harvard instead of getting a good recommendation from a family member, coach, boss, etc. who would do a good job depicting you as a person. I hope this helps. I personally had the chance to get a recommendation from someone in charge of recruiting students to Harvard from the Middle East, but I decided not to. Anyways, hopefully you get into Harvard whether the recommendation helps or not.</p>
<p>I don't think it will hurt, but I do think unless you made a significant impact on a person it definitely won't help you. Impersonal recs are just thrown aside. They don't care about who necessarily, whats more important to them is how the letter paints you as a person. That is the goal of these letters, to let the school know who you are, based on how others perceive you.</p>