I was told that it’s not a great deal, and some applicants had famous alumni’s recommendation letter but were still rejected. However, I think it’s always good to have alumni’s recommendation. Just how much role do alumni recommendations play in university’s admission?
“I think it’s always good to have alumni’s recommendation”
You’re 100% mistaken. You’ve been listening to too many myths. No alumni rec letter is worth the binary code it’s written on – if the alumnus/a doesn’t know you. Plus, do you expect to only apply to that one college? What are you going to do? Shop around for alumni of the other colleges you’re targeting? That’d be absurd.
The rec letter is about you. Not who writes it. Get all the rest out of your head.
If you are already connected with an alumni, and you know them on more than just a name basis, a letter probably wouldn’t hurt. But it also might not help either. Think carefully about whether this person knows you well enough to write a convincing case for your admission.
I still disagree. Unless it clearly can advance the applicant to admissions with concrete anecdotes obtainable only by supervising or teaching the student, this fluffy rec letter simply waters down the application.
You get to send in two, maybe three rec letters. You want NONE of them to say fluff.