<p>will a letter from an alum increase my chance of being accepted?</p>
<p>If it did, how many alum letters do you think the AdCom would receive?
It has always been my belief that the “ordinary” alum letter is a waste of time. The only time it would really matter, if at all, is if the alum in question has a lot of juice at the school (usually because s/he is a big contributor) and REALLY pushes for the applicant (i.e., doesn’t just write a letter saying the applicant is a good kid).</p>
<p>Something like that wouldn’t weigh as heavily as being a legacy or something, and even legacy students probably don’t get a huge push.</p>
<p>Unless the alum is someone who knows you really well <em>and</em> who has the credentials to carry some weight with the AdCom, I probably wouldn’t send the letter. If you’re not sure, then hey, it probably couldn’t hurt you to send it — but just be aware that having someone who graduated from WashU 3 months ago write in saying a couple subjectively good things about you isn’t really going to help, unfortunately. Best of luck though!</p>
<p>The alum is the headmistress of our school and I believe she knows me well. would that help? or should i not bother coz i heard that colleges dont like additional recs…and thank you for replying to my posts :D</p>
<p>oh, well in that case yes i’d definitely include the letter. If you can fit it in without going over the “max” number of recommendations that’d be best, but tbh i’d probably send it regardless… grats on having a rec like that! :)</p>