we ended up deciding to ask her to make the advocacy call. i was wondering if i could get y’all’s advice on potentially trying to get an extra LOR to send in? he’s taking a lot of semesterly classes, so most of his senior year teachers either don’t know him well or would probably not be able to write him an especially strong letter (the one exception has already written for him).
the options are :
- (academic) the advisor of tai ji club, which he did quit this semester, who taught him calc bc in his sophomore year and did really like him. i get the impression he writes strong rec letters, but i’m not sure if what he would highlight is what would go the furthest distance for him. i’m not sure if it will be as strongly advocating for him as the other options’, but he’s also more objective/“qualified”
- (personal perspective) a joint LOR from his friend’s parents who are harvard grads + MDs and really like him and have talked bio with him on occasion. can write about him as a friend to their son and community member (i.e. member of a soccer team) and also about their conversations with him about bio
- i wrote him a peer letter of rec for dartmouth, but it seems like letters from a family member, even if they are current affiliates, are frowned upon. i think i could make a strong case for him, but i don’t know if they would be willing to consider my opinion?
he has gotten advice once or twice from a paid consultant who was formerly a senior AO at harvard (although 20+ years ago). he said a letter from the alumni parents would be too “harvard-forward” and would hurt his case, but i wanted to get a second opinion because to be frank, he has significantly underestimated my brother’s chances at several other schools (wasn’t sure he’d get into baylor → he got a 120k scholarship, told him to ED2 rochester → he got in RD with a small merit scholarship) and told us outright he thinks the WL was essentially throwing me/his recommender who works at the school a bone rather than anything to do with his actual application. we didn’t ask about me writing him a letter, but honestly i don’t think he likes my involvement in working with my brother and would be more critical of that suggestion because he expects it came from me (it didn’t). on the one hand, he was an AO so i feel like i should trust him, but on the other he has sometimes been way off-target and so i am wondering if it’s worth a shot.