<p>I interned at Princeton for 8 weeks last summer under a physics professor, doing some theoretical research. I didn't produce an abstract or anything, but my work was definitely meaningful and not just busywork for a dumb high-school student. He definitely liked me a lot and thought I was very intelligent, hard-working, responsible, etc. and wrote a recommendation letter for me, for Princeton -- how advantageous would this be for me, in terms of admissions?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>It depends on what he said. If he is tenured, and said something along the lines of wanting you at Princeton because you are so brilliant, then that significantly boosts your chances. It’s sort of like athletic recruitment, except instead of the coach telling the admissions office he wants you a professor is doing it.</p>
<p>He’s been at Pton for over 30 years, and worked at the IAS for a bit; he’s pretty distinguished in his field I think. When I asked him for the letter he talked to me for a bit about how he thought I would do extremely well at Princeton, and he mentioned that randomly at other times as well. He usually only teaches grad students – I ended up working with him because I contacted him myself, and he happened to not have any grad students when I talked to him.</p>
<p>I bet it’ll be a good letter then :)</p>