your referees for business school applications

I found 3 and played around a bit with them.

The strongest one (which ironically, I thought would be the weakest) I used for my top 3 choices except 1 (because I thought he wouldn't get it done). The second strongest one I used for my top 3, and because I know he's willing to do it, another 2 beyond that. The third and weakeast link, I used for 1 of my top choices and for the others.

That's interesting. Which one? That says a lot about a school.

Referee refers to someone who acts as a judge or arbitrates..like a soccer referee - an independent "judge" of the applicant in the b-school context

Hmm. I have never see that meaning of the word "referee" used in that sense. In fact, I'm pretty sure that that is not an appropriate application of referee as a judge.

Here's definition #1 "# One to whom something is referred, especially for settlement, decision, or an opinion as to the thing's quality."

In the context of "reference writing", it doesn't make sense to apply a different definition of the word, especially when it's not a common (heck it's totally unknown as far as I know) use of the word.

Anyhow, the "referrer" in this case is not being asked to be a judge, they are being asked to be an advocate for the "referee". A "referee" in the sense that you are tying to apply it would, I guess, be the reader of the application, but even that would be a silly use of the term.

I'm still interested to find out which application this wording appeared in.

Maybe it actually means the he is the one to whom the school will refer. so he is called the "referee".

In this sense, I ask the school to refer to this person, so this person is the referee.

It is from the application forms of one of the finance degrees I'm looking at.


This is from Cambridge Dictionary:

referee (SUPPORTER) UK Show phonetics
noun [C] (ALSO reference)
a person who knows you and who is willing to describe and, usually, praise you, to support you when you are trying to get a job, etc:
She gave her college tutor as her referee to the interviewer.


It is correct if explained this way, isn't it?
Or is it because of its British English usage?

Hmm, weird. Clearly a difference between American and British English. That refers the the exact opposite person in this situation. I wonder how that came about (from an etymology standpoint.

It's common slang usage in American English to alter the ending of a word to "ee" to make it mean the target of something. For example, that little boy was the "hitter" and that other little boy with the black eye was the "hitee". That girl was the "kisser" and that boy was the "kissee". As the American definition states, the "referee" is the person being referred to.

Those British are tricky devils.

I have 3. 2 former managers and 1 former professor. I might bring in a CEO/mentor friend of mine. The professor and one of the former managers however have extremely quick turn around... like one day, so I like to use them but I don't want to tax them too much with all of them.