I have the same name as a professor emeritus

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
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<p>I have the same name as a professor at Harvard, he’s very old and has been there for a while. I don’t know much about my ancestry (though I know that my family split over a disagreement many years prior my birth) and I know nothing of his. I don’t have the money to finance a genealogy or ancestry report. His given name is common almost exclusively in my ethnicity, and I’ve never met anyone else with my surname, so I think it might be somewhat uncommon (though it is ethnicity-specific). He is a professor I admire very greatly, and I was intending to write about his works in my supplemental essay for Harvard, including how much I empathize with him and how reading what he’s written and what has been written about him has helped me order my life and form my own personality.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>How could I determine whether or not I’m related to him without extensive cost?</p></li>
<li><p>Should I write my supplemental essay about him, if I’m not related to him?</p></li>
<li><p>If I do write my supplemental essay about him, will it seem gimmicky?</p></li>
<li><p>My family split economically, and since one branch of the family has enjoyed wealth while another has enjoyed a range of status from severe poverty to moderate comfort. Would it even help if he was related by blood?</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>It’s does indeed seem gimmicky. And the fact that you’ve never talked to him, yet you want to write an entire essay with him in mind just doesn’t sound like a strong position. You have no anecdotes of his to relate to, no face to face encounters, etc. It all really does seem like you are milking a small thing and trying to make it seem way more significant to you than it actually is.</p>

<p>Sent from my SCH-I500 using CC</p>

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<p>My daughter applied to a top ten school where one of the streets through campus is our home state and another is our last name. She wove those tidbits into one of her essays, but then added that that was not the only reason she wanted to attend. I thought it was cute. She was accepted, so it must not have been too big of a turn off.</p>

<p>I think that if you admire the professor, you can probably write something that will come off the way you want it too. Have a trusted teacher read it when you are finished. Good luck.</p>

<p>And the ancestry sites online are not too expensive for a short subscription. I think it is more fun not knowing.</p>