Z12 wrote:
Hi all!
I am planning on taking the GMAT's this summer to have applications ready for next year. I would like to send appplications to 10 or 20 schools (depending on GMAT score) but each school seems to have different requirements for recommendation letters. Many want the recommender to submit online or fill out school-specific forms. Please tell me this is not the case????
I certainly cannot ask my employer to take a week and fill out dozens of different recommendation letters. For those of you that applied to a lot of schools - what did you do? Did you present your boss with a stack of forms to fill out on your behalf? Seems crazy to me. My wife is in med school and they allow you to use a "recommendation service." Anybody used these services for b-school? Thanks in advance.
I don't want to totally rain on your plan, but from my experience, I don't know *anyone* who has applied to that many business schools. Having just gone through it myself (I applied to 4 schools), I cannot possibly imagine doing more than 6 in a given year while working full time. There are definitely people who do more, but it takes a really really long time to do a good job and you don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity. Don't underestimate the amount of time it will take you to apply to each school--the essay questions are often quite different, the "short answer" questions are often quite different, and the lengths of both types of questions vary widely. In addition, each application costs $200-$250 generally speaking, not to mention traveling to interview (where/if necessary) and visit the schools can really add up. As for recommendation services, someone else correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think this is a possibility for b-schools (although I would LOVE it if there had been a standard way to request recs from my recommenders rather than making them do each school separately and pay attention to the indiv differences for each school). Additionally, since the apps are all online, the recommenders have to submit them online, so it's not a matter of giving your recommenders a stack of forms--you have to put their name into the online application system, which then sends them a link to the recommendation/application to fill out and submit.
I hope this helpful (I don't mean it to come off like a lecture)--I hope it's information that will help you make a good decision. Definitely take some time to narrow down your list of schools, maybe based on what your GMAT score is, and prioritize prioritize prioritize. There are TONS of helpful tips throughout this forum, take advantage of them, I know I did and it was so so useful.
GOOD LUCK!!