How many of you got to write your own recommendation?

Question

I know some applicants write their own rec letters, so were you modest in your own recommendation or did you go all out and say you were Superman?

The other thing is that I'm working closesly with my recommender and he might be saying some stuff that I mentioned in my essays. So it would seem that I wrote my own recommendation.

When schools see the rec letter is written with extreme detail, almost shadowing and supplementing the essays, do they get suspicious?

Nsentra · Answer

yes, adcoms know what to look for. however recommender echoing your essay is a good thing IMO.. it would be worse if recom. was diverging from your positioning, just don't use same exact phrases. it's advisable to give your recom. a rough outline of how you will be positioning yourself to each school. check out "How to get into the top mba programs" by richard montauk, I really like this book as far as advice goes, he touches upon all these topics (he doesn't talk about run-on sentences

)

CodyEbberson · Answer

<snip>

rhyme · Answer

If the recs echo what you say in your essays, great - just dont make them identical. And yes, if you can have someone else edit them or otherwise rewrite them, thats a good thing imho.

lepium · Answer

An alternative I read about (but luckily did not have to use) was the following: 

Interview the guys, i.e., meet for like 10 or 15 minutes, write down notes answering to each question (it would help if you could merge rec questions for all schools into the same interview to make it more efficient) and then write them yourself, have someone else edit /rewrite them (to make the writing style different) and have them check the final version before submitting.

That way the content is theirs but they do not have to sit and type while thinking you are a runaway.

Hope it helps. L.

lhmcjen · Answer

Maybe I am just naive. But this type of thing drives me crazy. Your rec's should be hononred that you have the confidence in them to write a letter on your behalf. Afterall, by selecting them you are showing a great deal of confidence and trust in both of them. I know this doesn't help your situation, just venting a bit. Good luck.

Hjort · Answer

This is a good reminder of why LORs are often not taken at face value. When the candidate writes his/her own LOR, much of the incremental value of the LOR is lost because we do not benefit from the insight of another individual (instead we are the beneficiary of a strange form of creative writing exercise).

How many of you got to write your own recommendation?

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