Imediate Advice Needed Regarding Letter of Recommendation

Question

I'm in a emergency situation and would your guys feedback. Despite talking to my director several times about the importance of my recs, the need the answers the specific per school questions and sending him a detailed list of my accomplishments, he submitted a general recommendation letter to every school, that not only didn't address school specific questions but didn't provide specific examples of my work. There is cultural barrier (I'm working in development abroad) and he just didn't understand the importance of the letters. I was planning on applying to Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg and Duke R2 but now I'm very concerned about my application. I was thinking of talking to him about it and trying to get on board to update the letters in the more specific format requested by the school or at the very least a personalized version of the letter. Am I too late? Is it possible to contact the schools and have the first letter removed and say that my manager submitted the wrong draft? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

redjam · Answer

I would definitely try to contact the schools and see if you can have the recommendation removed. I don't know if they will do that for you but it's worth asking at least. Keep in mind that you're not going to be able to get in touch with most schools until Jan 3rd.

I would also have your director write your updated recommendations by then. If your director is unwilling to answer the specific questions the school is asking, I would find someone else right away. Hopefully you have someone you can count on that can write recommendations on short notice for you.

piggles · Answer

It's more likely that your recommender could call the schools and have the recommendations removed. I'd try that first if he's willing.

ke18sb · Answer

Thanks for the replies guys, Stacy Blackman that admissions consultant, recommended I leave it as is and try to get an additional letter of recommendation submitted from a third person. Does anyone know if this is possible and how to go about doing it, specifically for Wharton, Kellogg, Columbia and Duke?

bakfed · Answer

Most b-schools, if they allow a third letter, give you the option of sending the third letter (from the recommender) directly to their admissions office and they'll attach it to your file. This policy differs from school to school and you'll probably have to dig up the sources individually. Best of luck!

brainhurt · Answer

I think this is good advice. All the schools I know of expect that the recommendation will be independent of your influence (other than general guidance about the process and your MBA goals) and you won't see the recommendation itself. Asking the school to retract the recommendation would raise a red flag, IMO. (Even if we all know that many applicants strongly influence or actually write their recommendations.)

The applyyourself.com applications I've done allow you to add more than 2 recommenders, and if you can't do that then you can just ask your 3rd recommender to send the recommendation letter directly to the adcom by email.

Imediate Advice Needed Regarding Letter of Recommendation

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