How much do Notre Dame & UPenn value alumni connections?

Tinfoyl
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:36:11 +0000

I always call a spade a spade, and this is no different. I am pretty sure a recommendation from two random doctors is inconsequential to your application. The admissions staff probably wouldn’t give a look at those recommendations. Penn and Notre Dame are probably not in your future in all honesty. I think even doing those applications is a waste of time and money when you could apply to more reasonable matches/reaches. In my opinion, you’re overshooting. Back to the recommendations, if you took classes at a college in the summer and one of your professors was an alumni, that’s one of the only exceptions for an additional recommendation aside from your high school teachers. If you applied ED and showed a great deal of interest in the school I doubt it would change your fortunes. You have to be more realistic when schools like those reject people with unbelievable stats to which you kind of pale in comparison.

I’m sorry I had to write that because I respect optimism, but optimism can often be used in excess. Yet, if you really could raise your SAT to over 2100+ (which is easier said than done) than you might apply to one of those schools early if you really want, but be mindful of your expectations.