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For people who are applying to many schools

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warrak2000
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For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   24 Dec 2010, 06:24
I've seen people in this forum applying to 10 or even 15 BS throughout R1 R2. does that mean that they should submit 20 or 30 recommendation letters :shock: (say 2 letters for each school)? if yes then how they manage to get all these letters

My second question: as far as I know, you should provide the BS with contact details of your managers/profs or whomever wrote your recommendation letters so the school can get in touch with them and get their feedback about you. Well, my problem is that I graduated from the university 6 years ago so non of my prof (if they're still alive :wink: ) will be able to remember me :problem: Moreover, my boss is the COO and he is too busy to respond to questionnaires of many schools, however, I can convince him to respond to one school, two maybe, but not more than that! I'm sure that many of you are working in big firms and facing the same situation, so I would be grateful if someone could explain how it works coz I believe that I'm missing something here. :|

Thanks,
Yahya
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kt2011
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   24 Dec 2010, 11:42
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Applying to 10-15 schools is unreasonable and counter-productive. Thats what I have heard from current students, alumni, MBA experts, and based on my apps so far,I think doing 4-5 good, solid, high-quality applications requires tremendous effort.
Most people I know are not/have not/will not apply to more than 5-6 schools. I would recommend that you just select 4-6 target schools and gun for them. That will maximize your application quality and increase your chances of getting in.

As far as recommendations go, you need 2 non-academic recos for most b-schools(thats what schools ask for if you have been out of school for more than 2-3 years). Once your recommender has done 1-2 recos for you, the rest can pretty much be cut-paste of original letters. So the amount of work required from referees peaks for the first couple of schools and then comes down significantly. But choose your recommenders wisely....they need to be people who know you well and would be willing to spend time and effort for you. If your COO is a busy person, choose a senior colleague or partner you have had significant intercation with.
You can also make their job easier by providing them with ample data/examples/stories etc before they start filling out the forms.

Hope this helps...
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   25 Dec 2010, 08:52
warrak2000 wrote:
I've seen people in this forum applying to 10 or even 15 BS throughout R1 R2. does that mean that they should submit 20 or 30 recommendation letters :shock: (say 2 letters for each school)? if yes then how they manage to get all these letters

My second question: as far as I know, you should provide the BS with contact details of your managers/profs or whomever wrote your recommendation letters so the school can get in touch with them and get their feedback about you. Well, my problem is that I graduated from the university 6 years ago so non of my prof (if they're still alive :wink: ) will be able to remember me :problem: Moreover, my boss is the COO and he is too busy to respond to questionnaires of many schools, however, I can convince him to respond to one school, two maybe, but not more than that! I'm sure that many of you are working in big firms and facing the same situation, so I would be grateful if someone could explain how it works coz I believe that I'm missing something here. :|

Thanks,
Yahya


It is a good question. I am not sure how this strategy would work: Prepare a master list of all the questions across all the schools being applied to. Then work on one MASTER REC and let the recommender copy paste or basically select from this list. One can always just replace the name of the school across all. Now I don't know if the school might detect this as being impersonal. The recs are easily the limiting factor in the # of schools one can apply to. Everything else is under your control, really.
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warrak2000
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   26 Dec 2010, 01:09
kt2011 wrote:
Applying to 10-15 schools is unreasonable and counter-productive. Thats what I have heard from current students, alumni, MBA experts, and based on my apps so far,I think doing 4-5 good, solid, high-quality applications requires tremendous effort.
Most people I know are not/have not/will not apply to more than 5-6 schools. I would recommend that you just select 4-6 target schools and gun for them. That will maximize your application quality and increase your chances of getting in.

As far as recommendations go, you need 2 non-academic recos for most b-schools(thats what schools ask for if you have been out of school for more than 2-3 years). Once your recommender has done 1-2 recos for you, the rest can pretty much be cut-paste of original letters. So the amount of work required from referees peaks for the first couple of schools and then comes down significantly. But choose your recommenders wisely....they need to be people who know you well and would be willing to spend time and effort for you. If your COO is a busy person, choose a senior colleague or partner you have had significant intercation with.
You can also make their job easier by providing them with ample data/examples/stories etc before they start filling out the forms.

Hope this helps...


Thanks KT that’s a good idea, but is there any chance the school knows that the same letter has been sent to many other schools? That would be embarrassing :wink:
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warrak2000
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   26 Dec 2010, 01:21
mainhoon wrote:
warrak2000 wrote:
I've seen people in this forum applying to 10 or even 15 BS throughout R1 R2. does that mean that they should submit 20 or 30 recommendation letters :shock: (say 2 letters for each school)? if yes then how they manage to get all these letters

My second question: as far as I know, you should provide the BS with contact details of your managers/profs or whomever wrote your recommendation letters so the school can get in touch with them and get their feedback about you. Well, my problem is that I graduated from the university 6 years ago so non of my prof (if they're still alive :wink: ) will be able to remember me :problem: Moreover, my boss is the COO and he is too busy to respond to questionnaires of many schools, however, I can convince him to respond to one school, two maybe, but not more than that! I'm sure that many of you are working in big firms and facing the same situation, so I would be grateful if someone could explain how it works coz I believe that I'm missing something here. :|

Thanks,
Yahya


It is a good question. I am not sure how this strategy would work: Prepare a master list of all the questions across all the schools being applied to. Then work on one MASTER REC and let the recommender copy paste or basically select from this list. One can always just replace the name of the school across all. Now I don't know if the school might detect this as being impersonal. The recs are easily the limiting factor in the # of schools one can apply to. Everything else is under your control, really.


Exactly! This is what I’m afraid of... thanks Mainhoon

Would love to hear more ideas from the experts
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tmino
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   26 Dec 2010, 11:13
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warrak2000 wrote:
mainhoon wrote:
warrak2000 wrote:
I've seen people in this forum applying to 10 or even 15 BS throughout R1 R2. does that mean that they should submit 20 or 30 recommendation letters :shock: (say 2 letters for each school)? if yes then how they manage to get all these letters

My second question: as far as I know, you should provide the BS with contact details of your managers/profs or whomever wrote your recommendation letters so the school can get in touch with them and get their feedback about you. Well, my problem is that I graduated from the university 6 years ago so non of my prof (if they're still alive :wink: ) will be able to remember me :problem: Moreover, my boss is the COO and he is too busy to respond to questionnaires of many schools, however, I can convince him to respond to one school, two maybe, but not more than that! I'm sure that many of you are working in big firms and facing the same situation, so I would be grateful if someone could explain how it works coz I believe that I'm missing something here. :|

Thanks,
Yahya


It is a good question. I am not sure how this strategy would work: Prepare a master list of all the questions across all the schools being applied to. Then work on one MASTER REC and let the recommender copy paste or basically select from this list. One can always just replace the name of the school across all. Now I don't know if the school might detect this as being impersonal. The recs are easily the limiting factor in the # of schools one can apply to. Everything else is under your control, really.


Exactly! This is what I’m afraid of... thanks Mainhoon

Would love to hear more ideas from the experts


Don't think it would come across as impersonal, if the copy/pasted answers properly address the question(s) asked. The biggest risk is that the recommender answers questions only partially or too generally without specific examples. Then AdComs will sense that the recommender did not put a lot of effort into the reco and this may even reflect negatively on your application. As someone already mentioned, pick recommenders wisely. Better to have someone less senior who will do a proper job and knows you well in order to provide specific examples of why you are good at XYZ. Check out some additional advice on recommendation letters.
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   26 Dec 2010, 13:54
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In fact, on GC somewhere, there is a Universal list of questions - I've made a list of this years questions ( recommender-questions-106197.html) that might be able to help you build that universal list.

Infact, I am thinking that perhaps, the best way to address it perhaps is to have the common recommendation form and say - look he/she thinks im good for any top tier school?


I've gone the path #2 - which is having 2 recommenders from each job but one being the primary one for my major schools (I'm currently setting up to apply for a lot of schools - just cannot help but avoid it for risk). Also, I did inform them early that #1/2 is way more work than #5 or so on.
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   27 Dec 2010, 11:40
tmino & shr30 you both deserve Kudos, thanks...
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kt2011
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   27 Dec 2010, 13:56
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warrak2000 wrote:
kt2011 wrote:
Applying to 10-15 schools is unreasonable and counter-productive. Thats what I have heard from current students, alumni, MBA experts, and based on my apps so far,I think doing 4-5 good, solid, high-quality applications requires tremendous effort.
Most people I know are not/have not/will not apply to more than 5-6 schools. I would recommend that you just select 4-6 target schools and gun for them. That will maximize your application quality and increase your chances of getting in.

As far as recommendations go, you need 2 non-academic recos for most b-schools(thats what schools ask for if you have been out of school for more than 2-3 years). Once your recommender has done 1-2 recos for you, the rest can pretty much be cut-paste of original letters. So the amount of work required from referees peaks for the first couple of schools and then comes down significantly. But choose your recommenders wisely....they need to be people who know you well and would be willing to spend time and effort for you. If your COO is a busy person, choose a senior colleague or partner you have had significant intercation with.
You can also make their job easier by providing them with ample data/examples/stories etc before they start filling out the forms.

Hope this helps...


Thanks KT that’s a good idea, but is there any chance the school knows that the same letter has been sent to many other schools? That would be embarrassing :wink:


Hey warrack,

Others have already given great answers,, but I'll just add my 2 cents:

I dont think that would matter...unless your recommender were to mention one school's name on another's form. :-D

Other than that, for questions like, "what are the applicants strengths", "what would you like to change in the applicant", "give a leadership example", "comment on the applicant's interpersonal skills", the answers dont have to change between different schools, as long as they are replete with good realistic examples and data. Most schools have a good percentage of common questions.

One of my recommenders told me that he made a "master" letter based on all examples I had provided him with, and also based on questions asked by schools, ,,, and then used data from that letter to fill out the recommendations. Some schools had some peculiar questions, for which he had to chalk out new answers, but those were not significant in number.
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   27 Dec 2010, 13:58
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In hindsight if I could do it over all again, I would have the recommender prepare answers to a master list of common questions and that way it would be easier on them.. So yes that approach makes prefect sense
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shr30
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   27 Dec 2010, 16:20
Shukriya=)
warrak2000 wrote:
tmino & shr30 you both deserve Kudos, thanks...


I do agree with you mainhoon - in hindsight, creating a master document asking them to fill it out AND then (THIS IS A BIT TOUGH) requesting them to use the online forms and do some little last min correction/customization!

It's good to see the recos start dropping in as they have started now - just goto do my part and nail some tremendous essays :?: :|

mainhoon wrote:
In hindsight if I could do it over all again, I would have the recommender prepare answers to a master list of common questions and that way it would be easier on them.. So yes that approach makes prefect sense
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warrak2000
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink] New post   28 Dec 2010, 07:36
KT & Mainhoon,
I like your idea of master list, it's gonna make my Boss's life easy... really appreciated

shr30,
Well, it's "Shukran" in Arabic, I think "Shukriya" gives the same meaning in different language :) , Anyway, you're most welcome and good luck with your application.

Thanks again,
Yahya
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Re: For people who are applying to many schools [#permalink]
28 Dec 2010, 07:36

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