one year later--it doesn't matter

Ray192
Sat, 19 Aug 2006 01:46:28 +0000

In either case an an extraordinary and detailed recommendation from the unreknowned professor trumps a mediocre one from the nobel laureate (or, very likely, the latter’s secretary). I know someone who asked Michael Dukakis for a recommendation after taking a seminar with him at Northeastern. Dukakis loved the kid and promised an excellent rec. On this basis he applied to Harvard Law…months later after his Harvard rejection he received Dukakis’ letter back…it had been written in a bland, mediocre fashion by an administrative assistant.

Assuming everything else is relative, a rec from a nobel laureate trumps an unknown guy’s, and that is the context here, considering the topic creator sought to convince people that the only matters is you, and college really doesn’t matter. And that was the point I was trying to make, get two copies of a great rec and have an unkown professor sign one and the other by a renowned professor. The latter one has more power regardless of who you are.