<p>If it will be a “meaningful” (in your words) and personalized letter, it could only be a plus. But I wouldn’t count on it as any sort of guarantee of admission.</p>
<p>I would think given that OP’s profile is on par with the accepted students, it can act as a significant boost.</p>
<p>Given that, as the OP says, “we have only met on a few casual occasions,” the letter won’t be meaningful. I have, from time to time, reviewed job applications: if such a letter were in an applicant’s file, it wouldn’t help him. It could only hurt him (though I don’t think it would particularly affect me one way or the other). Harvard’s admissions officers, who have read applications by the thousand, are more jaded than I am, less likely to be impressed, and more likely to be irritated, by attempts to work meaningless “connections.”</p>
<p>I was originally going to say yes to the letter based on my understanding that this was a close family friend. But later, OP said that you had only met him several times and that a staffer would probably write the letter. In this case, do NOT send the letter. Reps will see through it and it could actually hurt you.</p>
<p>Way to not be subtle about your application, from giving away the name of your recommender to the fact that your handle is (likely) your name. However unlikely, Harvard admissions officers can read these posts as well…</p>
<p>If anything, I’d just politely ask him to maybe put in a good word for you at some Crimson fundraiser, or something like that. You kind of messed up by making this thread–I remember there was a 6th or 7th generation legacy at Cornell who wrote a blog post humblebragging about her similarly influential connections, and guess what? She was rejected. The administration didn’t want to take the risk of sending a message that they were taking her in because of who she knew instead of what she did.</p>
<p>Good luck! </p>
<p>(I don’t think we can project OP will be rejected for asking here. Adcoms know this age group well, what they can achieve, as well as foibles. And even if they recognize some name or details from elsewhere, they focus on the application they do get. No one knows if that gal was rejected from Harvard for one reason or another. OP didn’t post pure idiocy or some serious character flaw. He asked for opinions. He’ll have to make the best decision he can, based on our responses.)</p>
<p>Alright! It seems like I will not be sending the letter in. Thank you for the responses!</p>
<p>I have heard admissions officers say that they would rather have a good recommendation from a nobody that really says something about the qualities of a student than getting one from someone big name that doesn’t know the student well. Additionally, I have heard that they don’t like hearing about life experiences that only tell admissions that the kid was able to afford the experience. </p>
<p>If the President of Chile is at Harvard, will he asked them about you? Will he be vested enough in your quest to get in to Harvard that he would even think about you while he were there? Most teachers offering recs would but I am not sure the President, based on what you say, would.</p>
<p>It is much better to have a genuine rec. Admissions may even question why you have a form letter and were not able to find someone that knew you better that would offer up real examples in testimony.</p>
<p>As for the Gates and Obama kids, does anyone really think those kids are poor students and not qualified to attend top Universities? </p>
<p>Sounds like OP made a decision but y 2 cents: I am not sure what experience the other posters have to express opinions about what Harvard admissions officers are looking for. Many of the replies sound like “if I were an admissions officer…” My limited experience is doing some alumni interviews for Cornell. The admissions reps told us that they were looking for information that wasn’t reflected in the application. If Mr Pinera can add something than I think the letter would be useful. </p>
<p>Now I will say it: if I were reading applications, I would find a letter saying “(insert name) showed a great understanding of world affairs” to be much more persuasive coming from someone who has shaped world affairs than from someone who discusses world affairs with tenth graders. </p>
<p>Pituto</p>
<p>True, but I think the issue that other posts were suggesting was that the President might not really know anything about the applicant other than his or her name. It’s not that the President has less authority to speak on these subjects than a high school teacher, but it’s more likely that a high school teacher knows more about <em>the applicant</em> than a distant family friend or acquaintance does. </p>
<p>(It’s kind of like if you are applying for a job and you are asked to give a reference from your old employer you decide to get one from the Dalai Lama instead. His Holiness may be very well qualified to talk about morality even more than your old supervisor at your job but if the Dalai Lama has never met you before then the recommendation has less value because it will be mostly conceptual than practical.)</p>
<p>That being said, I think that the OP should wait until they letter arrives before making a decision. If the letter is already being written, it’s worth taking a look to see if it does have some good insights about him as a person/student/whatever. If it does, then the prestige is a nice bonus while still meeting the goals of a good recommendation letter. Since the President is an alum it’s likely he knows which qualities of the OP to highlight that Harvard would look for and if the letter does seem genuinely good on its own then it might be worth sending it in!!</p>
<p>Unless the letter says, “Joe Niceguy worked for my office” or something like that, it doesn’t much matter what it says. People produce letters from politicians and the like from time to time when applying for jobs. If it includes the guy’s whole biography and describes every job he ever had, all that tells you is that he - or some relative - wrote a draft for the politician’s staff.</p>
<p>If us ordinary, only semi-jaded people can see through such a letter and ignore it, I’m pretty sure a Harvard applications officer has figured out how to do the same thing.</p>