<p>I'm a junior and am considering Penn as my top university choice. However, I'm Canadian, and I know I'll be considered as international student. The thing is, my grandaunt has some sort of legacy at Penn (I believe she does biochemistry related lab researches? Sorry guys, I know this sounds really vague). </p>
<p>Would this considered as my "Alumini relation"? Or it only means parents/grandparents? </p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>It means different things at different schools. See if you can get ahold of their application and determine whether it asks for any information on family who has attended the school. Some don’t ask; others ask if your parent or sibling attends/has attended; and others ask if anyone in the family has attended. Of course, you can also address this in your essay if it is somehow relevant to you. Good luck!</p>
<p>Wishful thinking, I’m afraid.</p>
<p>Hello there! Thank you for the reply! Really appreciate your answer. I actually downloaded Penn’s supplement application just now, and on the application, it only asked about parents/siblings/grandparents. I was just wondering if “grandaunt” would be considered as my source of grandparent relation? Hope I’m not confusing anyone! Thank you again for the quick response :)</p>
<p>It’s just parents and your parents’ parents for legacy but you could have your grandaunt write a letter on your behalf (not sure how much of an impact it would have but it can’t hurt)</p>
<p>Grandaunt is not acceptable to be considered as a legacy. Also, it only counts if the relative attended Penn for undergraduate or postgraduate education, not if they worked in a lab. Sorry. </p>
<p>Also, no offense to william95 but that is terrible advice. It always looks completely unprofessional to have a family member write a letter of recommendation.</p>
<p>I fail to see how an additional letter of recommendation from an alumni family member (especially one who is active in the alumni network / donates to the school) is “unprofessional”. Just my two cents though</p>
<p>^Just for future info, never ask a family member for a letter of rec or reference when filling out an application. The reasoning is that letters of recommendation are ideally supposed to be unbiased, and a family member is obviously going to be biased in your favor. I’m not trying to be condescending, so please don’t take it that way. </p>
<p>Also, this is besides the point since the grandaunt isn’t an alumni. She’s just someone who did some research work at Penn. An alumni is a former student.</p>
<p>@william95: let me repeat what kboli said:</p>
<p>It always looks completely unprofessional to have a family member write a letter of recommendation. </p>
<p>Why? Because if this subjective/biased endorsement is the best you can do, you’re scraping the barrel’s bottom.</p>
<p>Key word is “additional”, not saying it’s supposed to replace or make up for any other part of your application. You have your own views though, we’ll just have to agree to disagree</p>
<p>William, I hate to pile on, but you’re going to have to “agree to disagree” with pretty much everybody who knows something about applying to college.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC</p>
<p>^ Add me to the pile. :)</p>