During the summer of 2016, I interned for a Senator running for re election, he ended up losing, but I still interned there for the majority of the summer. Recently, I reached out to the campaign manager of his campaign, and he said that he would be happy to help, and could get a recommendation letter from himself and the Senator. He also said that I should write the letters myself, and they could okay and submit them. Is this a good opportunity?
My gut feel is that colleges are likely to figure out you wrote it yourself and got it sent by them. Unless it’s a genuine letter written by them I personally wouldn’t do it.
Do you think the admissions officers would know based on the way it was written? I feel like this would be a great opportunity. Would it be better to get a letter from my supervisor whom I worked with? Or would it better if I asked them to write the letter themselves?
The person who is signing the letter should be the one writing it.
In a perfect world, ^^this would be true. However, for this type of recommendation I’m not surprised they asked the student to write it.
OP, before pursuing this make sure that the schools you are interested in permit additional letters like this. I think most of the time they aren’t all that helpful.
So what do you recommend I do? Ask for one from my boss? Ask the senator to write one himself? Or not submit one at all?
Yes, an adult who’s read apps and letters for thousands of kids can tell. Or suspect. As a teen, you don’t know yet how adults write a good LoR.
In general, these letters don’t swing anything. Many colleges emphasize letters from classroom teachers. If you’re a poli sci wannabe, this vol work is good, on own. For Stern?
And you still need to match in other ways. Get past the shiny parts like a senator letter.