My dream school is Boston College. My best friend’s grandma use to be a professor and an alumni at the school. She has also donated $2-3 million to BC. I was wondering if a letter of recommendation from her would help my chances at admission. I’ve met her a couple times at our soccer games, so it wouldn’t be insincere. I have the lower end of the middle 50% for grades and scores so I’m looking for something a little extra to help my chances.
Do you think this letter of recommendation will help me or hurt me?
Thanks
If all she can do is send a “regular LOR” then she probably won’t have any impact. If she has people at the university she can call (e.g. development office, her department’s current chair, etc) then maybe, mayyybe she can have an impact. That’s if, and only if, she has the capital and desire to cash in on said capital.
The lower end of the middle 50%??? I believe that means you fall in about the 25th percentile. Is the donor willing to write a strong and personalized LOR? If so, I guess it won’t hurt but it probably won’t get you in. My S’s friend had a big donor write a letter to BC and he was ultimately rejected.
It is fine to apply to BC but I’d move off of calling it your “dream school” and look for options where your stats put you more in the range – there are tons of great colleges and universities out there so don’t get caught up thinking you can only be happy at one school, especially one that is a bit of a long-shot.
@snarlatron At one of our tournaments I talked to her and she was asking where I want to go for school and I told her I am absolutely set on BC. She began to tell me how great BC is and how she worked there.
@iwannabe_Brown She has donated 2-3 million in the past. When I submit my apps she said she’ll call up the school and tell them to take a look at me. She really wants to help me get into BC.
@JustOneDad Absolutely, but in my freshman and sophomore year my parents told me to just try my best and whatever happens happens. So my GPA from freshman and sophomore year kind of tanks my cumulative GPA which makes me really nervous if I’ll get in or not.
@happy1 I have 3.98 GPA (should get above 4.0 if this semester finishes well) and I got a 30 composite on the ACT. So I will be on the lower end of the average. BC act average is 31 and GPA is 4.3.