<p>How powerful would a Harvard and MIT alumni recommendation be for other schools, especially Cornell? I don’t plan on applying to Harvard or MIT because my stats aren’t high enough, but for schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Michigan, and UT-Austin will the letter carry some weight?</p>
<p>A letter from an Ivy League professor would DEFINITELY carry some weight, but I’d definitely advise you to also apply to Harvard and or MIT. There, your connection with the alumni could definitely score you some points with the admissions. Plus, although Harvard and MIT have a significantly lower acceptance rate than UT-Austin (for example) if you’re going to apply to Cornell, whose statistics compared with Harvard or “somewhat” the same (plus the fact that it’s an Ivy), then applying to Harvard wouldn’t seem like such a longshot.</p>
<p>He is not an Ivy League professor. He is a graduate from Harvard and MIT. I’ve met him through scouting. I’m still a reach for Cornell with a 33 ACT and 3.85 UW GPA. Sorry for the confusion.</p>
<p>No weight at all, unless this alum can say something meaningful about you, or your mind, or your work ethic. The fact that this person is a graduate of Harvard and MIT is of no consequence. All that matters is whether this person can get a positive assessment of you, and does so.</p>
<p>You are asking if a graduate of MIT/Harvard’s recommendation should carry more weight than other people. What do you think? If you don’t know the answer then I am not sure if you should be going to college.</p>
<p>Sikorsky’s answer is right on.</p>
<p>It sounds like you only just met this person. It seems like he has no in-depth knowledge of you as a person other than what he was scouting you for. I’m surprised he would even agree to write a letter! But if he did, I don’t think it would be very powerful since he has very little with which to assess your character. Also, even if it mattered (I don’t think the Harvard/MIT name would carry any weight here), how would the admissions office even know he was a Harvard/MIT alum? Unless he made the letter about himself, which you wouldn’t want him to do anyway.</p>
<p>Honestly, if you don’t know him that well, the letter could do more harm than good. If he can’t write a personal and powerful letter on your behalf (if you don’t know him well, he can’t), then the admissions committee is going to assume he either doesn’t know you that well, or that he knows you and doesn’t think you’re anything special. Either way, it won’t impress them.</p>
<p>If he does write an awesome letter on your behalf, though, it still won’t matter that he went to Harvard and MIT. The admissions committee at Cornell (or any of those other schools that he didn’t graduate from) couldn’t care less. Honestly, the admissions committees at Harvard and MIT probably wouldn’t care either.</p>