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TechFinanceGuy
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bpengage
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TechFinanceGuy
Hi everyone,

First time poster here but I really need help. I asked a very senior supervisor at my company to write my letter of recommendation for Stanford that's an old alum of GSB. I worked with him a decent amount but we're not close friends or anything by any means. It was a bit of a gamble that definitely headed south.

He agreed to write me a letter of recommendation and submitted it before I had a chance to look at it. However, he did send me a copy of his letter after the fact and quite frankly it was bad. It wasn't negative but he didn't answer the question and it wasn't a strong endorsement for me by any means. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get in with that letter. I only asked him because Stanford is my top choice and it was a bit of a gamble to ask him - one that did not pan out well.

I would like to know if there's anyway I can salvage the situation. So far, I've thought of the following options:
1. Do not apply to Stanford. Better to not send in an application than a terrible one.
2. Ask my supervisor to withdraw his recommendation and write a new one/ or find someone else to do it. It would be a very delicate conversation to have (he's sensitive to criticism) and I'm not sure what the readers of the application would see or know.
3. Create a new application and have new recommendations submitted. I'm not sure if this crosses any ethical boundaries or if they cross-check internally. I don't want to cross any boundaries here so I would like to know if this is appropriate or not.

I would really appreciate everyone's perspective on those 3 options and if they have any other ideas. I know I screwed up here, so let's move past that point and would love any constructive advice.

Thanks

If you cannot withdraw a recommender (I think in some other schools you can) then I would go with option 2.

I would try to speak with him and would try to tell him the truth, Tell him that you prefer to choose another recommender because you believe that that letter won't help you too much (he will probably already know that) and that the letter doesn't answer the question asked.

Good luck
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tortoiserun
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How strong are your other recommendations? I'd say if you have two fantastic recs and then this one that's not, just let it go. It's certainly not worth not applying to Stanford over this. One neutral/weak rec does not make for a "terrible" application. If you're the kind of person they're looking for and this is the only weak spot in your entire application package, I really doubt they'll deny you admission on that alone. I suspect this is far more common than most people realize, at least among those who don't have the opportunity to see their recs,

The only other thing I might suggest is talking to the supervisor, but if he's sensitive to criticism this conversation probably won't go over well. If for whatever reason you don't end up going to business school next year (not sure where else you're applying or what your plans are), will you have burned a bridge with a guy you have to keep working with?