Letter from the president

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey everyone,
I am sending an update to the colleges that i applied to and I am wondering if I should include that I received a letter from president Bush in 2006. I wrote to him about the violence in my home country, my encounters with homeless, sick children and my aspirations to help fix all of this through my commitment to humanitarian medicine. He wrote a personalised letter congratulating me on my efforts, and he empathised with my situation. This letter obviously relates with what i intend to study. He said alot of other nice things that I will not go into detail on and he hand signed it. Should I notify colleges of my receipt of this letter?</p>

2

<p>Uhm sure. Write about how it inspired you to want to work on that field of study.</p>

3

<p>Hate to burst your bubble but it’s unlikely that Bush actually wrote and even signed that letter. Believe what you want though, I could be wrong.</p>

<p>Nonetheless, it might be worth mentioning (though a “receipt” of the letter- not sure exactly what you mean). But really, there is nothing special about it. You wrote a letter, and got a response. It’s nice that you took a few hours to type and send a letter to the President, but don’t think Admissions will be impressed by such a substance-less activity. This is the kind of thing you really should have worked into an essay, not mention in an update letter.</p>

<p>EDIT: Wait… 2006… were you not in middle school? If so, do not mention it.</p>

4

<p>I received the letter in the summer before 9th grade, after graduating from 8th grade. The language was specific enough that you could tell it wasn’t a preset letter and it was obviously signed in ink. It was a legitimate letter, the question is whether I fits into my update or not. I tried to focus on research distinctions and travel stuff that weren’t mentioned in the application, and I think that this will add substance to those. Right?</p>

5

<p>If it happened in 2006 I wouldn’t send it as an “update.”</p>

6

<p>Specific language and ink does not mean it was directly from the president. If you can imagine the volume of mail he receives, you will understand that he has staff members paid to speak for him in responses (see: White House Correspondence staff).</p>

7

<p>Sorry if I’m not allowed to link.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.wimp.com/personalizedletters/[/url]”>http://www.wimp.com/personalizedletters/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>A machine that signed “personalized” certificates and letters, in ink. Also, I would assume that the President’s secretaries have enough writing experience, or have hired someone good enough to make “personalized” letter prompts. </p>

<p>And again, you have to realize the level of literacy in politicians nowadays. Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation himself, but now we have professional “speech writers”. </p>

<p>But, if you really did get a personalized letter from the President, congratulations! I don’t know if I would send it in or not…it would be a good supplement for news clippings that talk about your accomplishments in your field, but by itself it would just seem, in my mind at least, unimpressive.</p>