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Z12
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Am I missing something? 09 Mar 2010, 17:05
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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.
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LB20
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Am I missing something? 09 Mar 2010, 17:36
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Z12
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.
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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!!
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Am I missing something? 09 Mar 2010, 20:25
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just to echo what LB20 said, you'll find that the admissions process for business school is quite different than med school or law school. Each school's application is different in some way shape or form - this includes essays and recommendations.

LB20 gives good advice - try not to apply to too many schools, because otherwise you'll find that the quality of the application (especially the essays) starts to deteriorate. 4-6 seems like a good number to shoot for. Another good tip is to spread them out over different rounds. Most schools have at least 3 application rounds; many people will apply to their "safety" schools in the earlier round, and then their targeted schools in the next round. Avoid applying in Round 3 or 4 when at all possible. good luck
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Am I missing something? 09 Mar 2010, 22:27
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I'd also like to know the answer to this question. I know my boss will write a good recommendation, but he's kind of self-centered and lazy and may get angry if ask him to write more than one. I only have 2 people that can write recommendations for me and it just seems crazy if I have to ask both of them to write so much, even if I'm only applying to 4-6 schools. Can my recommenders write one letter each and send that to all the schools? It won't be hard to convince them to do those short answer, checkbox type recommendation questions, but more than one or two letters each may be difficult.
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Am I missing something? 09 Mar 2010, 23:01
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. Can my recommenders write one letter each and send that to all the schools?
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no, they can't. the only way i know you can do something similar is by applying through the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management (one common app and common LORs for multiple schools). However, 1) only a specific subset of people are good candidates to apply through this program, and 2) only a small number of schools participate in this program. For every other school, you'll just have to go at it the long way.
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Am I missing something? 09 Mar 2010, 23:11
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IMO the recommendations are by far the hardest part of the application. It's a lot easier to spend your own time working on apps, but when you talk about spending your boss' time, it's very difficult.

Depending on which schools you apply to, you may find some similar recommendation forms, but be prepared to tailor every aspect of your application to each specific school.