<p>My uncle is an NYU Law grad and now a part-time professor. He also recently hired the dean’s son as one of his law clerks. He offered to write a letter for me to aid my admissions process, but I’m worried it could backfire and label me as the “well-connected rich girl”. Any thoughts on this? Would it help or hurt my application?</p>
<p>If I use the letter, where would I include it in my application? </p>
<p>FYI, I’m applying ED. In the past five years, NYU has accepted 75% of ED applicants from my school. If you look through my past posts, you’ll find my stats.</p>
<p>Ask yourself this: if the person wasn’t connected to NYU in any way, would you still use the letter? Did you intern there over the summer? Did you work there? Can they honestly provide insight into your academic and professional potential as an NYU student?</p>
<p>If not, it’s probably pointless to include it. The truth is, admissions committees don’t have that much time to go over each individual application, so you have to make an impact right away. Reading a letter that someone wrote about you, that they wrote only because they are connected to NYU in some way, does not seem like the best use of resources. </p>
<p>If you DID intern/work/shadow there, there is more relevancy to include a letter. I don’t think it would HURT, but I don’t think it would honestly help that much, either.</p>
<p>eh, I am going to be the bad guy and tell you to WORK THAT CONNECTION!!! I mean, if you have an asset like that, it is best to utilize it. It probably won’t be the deciding factor, but I am sure it will help. Maybe he could give it to someone he knows that is affiliated with NYU, cause I doubt they search for contribution records from each recommender.</p>