My background:
- Ethnicity: Asian male
- GMAT: 700 (Q49, V35)
- School: Non-target undergraduate business school in the US
- Major: Management Information Systems with a minor in Finance
- GPA: 4.0/4.0
- Time: End of senior year in college. I applied in August 2019.
- Post-graduation job: A client-serving role with a focus on IT at a Big 4 office in the US.
For recommendations, I chose 2 different people who could speak to my separate strengths: hard skills and soft skills. For each of them, I had a conversation with them to discuss the overall message of my application, why MBA, what Darden looked for, and specific areas that I'd like them to highlight:
- My supervisor from an on-campus job who worked with me for 3 years in a people-focused job. She knew a lot about my soft skills, resilience, desire to help people, proactiveness, organized working style, relationship development, active listening, and professionalism.
- A business professor who coached my team during a national consulting case competition that I won 2nd place. She observed and evaluated my leadership, teamwork abilities, analytical thinking, business problem solving, intellectual curiosity, and public speaking.
I suggest that you find recommenders who could speak to separate types of strengths that you want to highlight in your application. Also, remember to provide your recommenders with the context of your overall message in the application. In that way, they can help you craft more cohesive points to make your application stronger.