<p>My grandpa is a penn grad and wants to write a letter for me. I was just wondering if that was necessary or not, and what other people did to take advantage of their “legacy” status.</p>
<p>My dad went to Penn and I asked him if it would be helpful at all for him to write a rec for me. He said it’s absolutely worthless to get parents/grandparents who are alumni to write recs. Think about it, what is every parent/grandparent going to say about their son/grandson (or daughter/grand daughter). Every single rec would sound like, “my son/daughter is awesome and is the best thing to ever happen, accept him/her”. You don’t need to do anything extra to take advantage of the legacy status. The advantage is being a legacy, there is nothing more you can take from it.</p>
<p>You already have a huge advantage just by checking off legacy on your app. The acceptance rate is almost 10% higher than those who don’t have legacy status (so I’ve heard). No need for letters!</p>