I’m convinced that my D19’s LORS helped her immensely with admissions. She was lucky to have a number of people volunteer to write them without her even asking, and their enthusiasm about her abilities and potential probably shone through. We didn’t get to read them, of course, but we were able to read one that a same person had written for a specific award, and it was pretty outstanding. My daughter needed the bump of these letters because she was homeschooled and her test scores were below the 25% for most schools where she applied- and she needed significant financial aid.