For my ED school, I asked the PI of the lab I did research in this past summer for a college rec (they submitted it via the common app so I didn’t read it). This PI was my research mentor, works at a prestigious medical college, and also has won the Howard Hughes Medical Investigator award/title/grant. I’m not sure if my recommender mentioned their award in the rec. I applied to one of the top small/medium sized northeastern colleges, so maybe they will look up who my recommendator is? Assuming that the recommendation was good (as in detailed and specific, I really don’t know because my mentor has never written a college rec before, probably only for grad school and jobs), will my recommender’s credentials help me?
It won’t be your recommenders credentials that help you (they’re evaluating you, not your recommender), but what he says about you.