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07 Feb 2016, 19:11
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi,
Does anyone have any insight/thoughts on how schools view recommendations that don't follow the prompt exactly or are not tailored to a particular school?
I recently applied to a number of schools in round 2. While I met with my recommenders ahead of time and provided them with a detailed guide to walk them through the process and provide examples of things they might talk about, they both wrote and submitted their letters without me seeing them beforehand. After my applications were submitted, however, I had an opportunity to view one of the recommendations "ex-post facto."
Overall the recommendation seemed extremely strong (it spoke about how important my contributions to the company have been, my leadership potential and came across as honest/from my recommenders unique perspective) but I noticed that my recommender basically wrote the letter that he wanted. He didn't answer the prompted questions exactly (he talked about areas I could grow but didn't discuss how I have responded to constructive criticism for example), went over the word limit, and addressed the letter generically "to whom it may concern" without customizing it for each school.
While in the real world I know this would be a fantastic letter i'm worried that schools will penalize me for my recommender not following the "guidelines" even though it was out of my control. Even though you are not supposed to, would I have been better off writing/reviewing my recommendation ahead of time?
Has anyone had an experience like this?
Does anyone have any insight/thoughts on how schools view recommendations that don't follow the prompt exactly or are not tailored to a particular school?
I recently applied to a number of schools in round 2. While I met with my recommenders ahead of time and provided them with a detailed guide to walk them through the process and provide examples of things they might talk about, they both wrote and submitted their letters without me seeing them beforehand. After my applications were submitted, however, I had an opportunity to view one of the recommendations "ex-post facto."
Overall the recommendation seemed extremely strong (it spoke about how important my contributions to the company have been, my leadership potential and came across as honest/from my recommenders unique perspective) but I noticed that my recommender basically wrote the letter that he wanted. He didn't answer the prompted questions exactly (he talked about areas I could grow but didn't discuss how I have responded to constructive criticism for example), went over the word limit, and addressed the letter generically "to whom it may concern" without customizing it for each school.
While in the real world I know this would be a fantastic letter i'm worried that schools will penalize me for my recommender not following the "guidelines" even though it was out of my control. Even though you are not supposed to, would I have been better off writing/reviewing my recommendation ahead of time?
Has anyone had an experience like this?
08 Feb 2016, 06:09
Kudos
Bookmarks
hcmonkey
Basically, don't worry about it.
Your recommender has no "obligation" to follow the schools script. The only thing that really matters is that the recommendation be very positive, and since this seems to be the case with your recommender, you truly have nothing to worry about.
18 Feb 2016, 17:22
Kudos
Bookmarks
I would not lose too much sleep over this. This is a common occurrence as many recommenders will do the same as yours and freelance a bit on the recommendation especially those who have never applied to b-school. The most important thing is that it is good, and it seems that it was. Good Luck!
