Letters of recommendation by Admission Consultants

I hope my comment above does not sound too preachy. I respect Ozmba's many contributions and abilities and I do not want to see talented people potentially compromise their candidacy in this way. I am curious to hear more views on this issue as well.

Hjort

Hjort

I respect you a lot, for the invaluable guidance you provide to B-school applicants.

I should have been more specific about my reasons to go for a extrenal LOR.

Reasons:

1. I work in Australia where MBA is more synonymous with Master Builders Association Australia .Except for the expat community and aussie students who went to US, majority of the employers value work-ex rather than a degree .

2. All my superiors/recommenders rose through the ranks and many of them doesn't even have a undergrad degree let alone an MBA. The company i work for is not a Mum and Dad shop, it is one of the reputed Investment Bank from Europe and i work for their IT division.

3. So when i first approached them for Reference ( recommendation is a alien word ) they were more than happy to do but with a comment like "what a B-school can teach about real world kinda comments !!"

4. I wanted my Application, Resume and Reco should be in sync.I would like to connect the dots.With due respect to my superiors ,i can't expect that kinda reco from my superiors who are more used to writing few comments like .." This Kid is great " he worked for a XYZ Million $ project ..I thoroughly recommend him."It would have been very generic and won't stand out in the crowd..( ALthough LOR's weightage is questionable but still i didn't wanna take a chance )

5. The mbaadvice blog has some advice about LOR which made me think ,why shouldn't i use them and tailore made as per my esays and resume.

https://mbaadvice.iqexchange.com/archives/001369.html

Essay Edge Ok, I didn't use these guys as full-fledged admission consultants, but I used them to prepare my letters of recommendation. Why? Because I couldn't have the letters of recommendation be in my tone (I expressly asked them not to use my tone) and I needed some quick turn-around. The guy I worked with was great: he offered some larger, strategic changes (just for each recommendation), implemented some strategic used 'track changes' in word (this is huge in order to save time), and wrote very well. I did find a couple of grammatical errors on an essay I


6. But with the ethical issue coming up , i am re-thinking about my strategy. When every student is polishing their Application package with loads of reviews and giving an artifical flavor why not let my LOR be novice , straight from my superior heart and i think it might stand out.

7. Hjort..Thanks for making me think..Guys..B-school Application process is draining but i am enjoying every bit of it.Makes me realise what i am and what i want. Lot of introspection, re-collection of childhood struggles and the success..

Please feel free to comment

Boquets and brickbats welcome

Cheers
Ozie

I agree with Hjort that this raises a lot of ethical questions. But at the same time it is debatable.

What happens if a superior does not speak or write english? I am not sure how often this happens but with applicants from all over the world this situation will arise.
But even in that case i would have a translator do the work instead of an admissions consultant.

You both make good points. Ozmba is coming from an organizational culture that does not really understand the concept of an MBA so it seems reasonable to at least investigate what types of services external reference writers offer. I agree with dexter that one of the major shortcomings of LORs is that the skills of the writer can have a significant impact on one's impression of the applicant and that it makes sense for applicants to investigate ways to minimize any perceived disadvantage.

I clearly do not want to impose my ethical views on other GMAT Club members. However, it is important to keep in mind that many important members of the greater MBA community (i.e. admissions officers, faculty, recruiters) do indeed view the use of external writers as an improper practice. If it helps, consider the "sunshine" criterion: Would I take this action if I had to make a conspicuous disclosure of it on every MBA application and to every employer?

Thanks Hjort for ur comments ..

Bschool app is all about introspection and after thinking a lot i decided not to go with external LOR

I would like to present what i am/have and it is upto the school to make a decision

Cheers
Ozie

If it helps, consider the "sunshine" criterion: Would I take this action if I had to make a conspicuous disclosure of it on every MBA application and to every employer?

Ozie,

If i were you I would show your superiors some sample reccomendations. I would have sent you mine but my boss only showed me one of the forms for a few minutes and never gave me a copy.

From what i recall he talked about why he chose me initially, and then my various positions within the company and what i accomplished in each and how it has impacted the company.

I also suggest giving your bosses a sample rec. letter and you can even break it down to the specific schools. There is a great book which details sample letters for a few schools and even gives comments on what the school is looking for and why they are asking a certain question, the book is:

ABC of Getting the MBA Admissions Edge (US) (officially supported by McKinsey & Co. and Goldman Sachs) (Paperback)
ISBN: 0971482209

You can find this on amazon.com. What I did several months ago was put together a detailed primer (it was about 30 pages) for my bosses using some of the information in this book. I detailed each school, the school's rep, sample rec letters (I got also got a presentation from McK that is pretty nice), my career story, resume, and most important the questions each school asks and WHY (which is in the ABC book).

Best of luck with the process, I'm all done with my letters and they came out great! If your bosses have grammer issues I would suggest essay edge, which you mentioned earlier....now it's back to gmat studying for me, i've got the dreaded test for the last time in a few days. Feel free to msg me with any questions, I can also send you the McK presentaiton if you are interested.

Cheers

P.S. GO OZ!!!!!

Thanks Dexter and Aroman!!!

Your Advice/tips are very helpful and much appreciated

Cheerz

OZ in Group of Death !! ( Brazil, Croatia(undefeated in qualifiers), Japan( world 15 rank ) )!!

Go OZie ozie!!!!