<p>I recently finished an internship at a local branch of a large corporation. The director of my branch offered to contact the head of the corporation to ask him to write a recommendation for me. He is an alumn of Yale. Do you think this would reflect well on my application? Could it hurt?</p>
<p>This would hurt you. Yale finds blatant attempts to use “influence” distasteful (people who have real influence, like development cases, know the discreet way to send the message through right channels). If the person writing the letter does not truly know you, the rec is meaningless.</p>
<p>Disregard alumni status of any potential reccomender, only judge them on how well they know you. If the person doesn’t know you well than you shouldn’t ask them to write a rec.</p>
<p>I second danjinc.</p>