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18 Apr 2013, 16:21
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Hey everyone,
I am starting to prepare for the fall admissions cycle and the only part of the process that I'm still a little unsure about is the letters of recommendation. I am planning to apply to 5-6 schools (all within the top 50) and each school asks for approximately 2 letters of recommendation. This is fine as I have four previous supervisors who could potentially write a letter of recommendation for me, as well as one other person who works in the business department at my former university who could vouch for my newly launched startup company (I am pursuing an MBA in entrepreneurship and our website works with colleges throughout the US, so even though she was not a direct supervisor I believe her insight into my startup would be unique).
That's a total of 10-12 letters of recommendation total, or 2-3 per person. This is not bad at all, but I would prefer to only use my two best supervisors and as a third option the person from my former university. That is now more like 4-6 letters of recommendation per person, which is a lot. My question is in two parts:
1) Should I go with my two best recommenders only? What about the person at my university who can vouch for our startup?
2) How does this recommendation process typically work at the top 50 schools?
Regarding question #2, I admit that I need to do more research, but do the schools require the recommender to upload the letters of recommendation on a page that I (the applicant) can't access or does the recommender email me his recommendation and then I upload the document(s) myself? I know most schools seem to have their own template for filling out the recommendation, but I have no idea how the actual letters are uploaded into the system. I ask this question because if I am the one doing the uploading, then perhaps I could create one big Word document with questions from all of the schools grouped by subject, etc. Then, each recommender could fill out that document and I could distribute the information accordingly.
If this is not possible, then I guess the only thing I can do is let my recommenders know my intentions months in advance and have them start working on the letters as soon as possible (can they start in May or do they have to wait until the essays and everything else comes out in June/July?).
Thanks!
I am starting to prepare for the fall admissions cycle and the only part of the process that I'm still a little unsure about is the letters of recommendation. I am planning to apply to 5-6 schools (all within the top 50) and each school asks for approximately 2 letters of recommendation. This is fine as I have four previous supervisors who could potentially write a letter of recommendation for me, as well as one other person who works in the business department at my former university who could vouch for my newly launched startup company (I am pursuing an MBA in entrepreneurship and our website works with colleges throughout the US, so even though she was not a direct supervisor I believe her insight into my startup would be unique).
That's a total of 10-12 letters of recommendation total, or 2-3 per person. This is not bad at all, but I would prefer to only use my two best supervisors and as a third option the person from my former university. That is now more like 4-6 letters of recommendation per person, which is a lot. My question is in two parts:
1) Should I go with my two best recommenders only? What about the person at my university who can vouch for our startup?
2) How does this recommendation process typically work at the top 50 schools?
Regarding question #2, I admit that I need to do more research, but do the schools require the recommender to upload the letters of recommendation on a page that I (the applicant) can't access or does the recommender email me his recommendation and then I upload the document(s) myself? I know most schools seem to have their own template for filling out the recommendation, but I have no idea how the actual letters are uploaded into the system. I ask this question because if I am the one doing the uploading, then perhaps I could create one big Word document with questions from all of the schools grouped by subject, etc. Then, each recommender could fill out that document and I could distribute the information accordingly.
If this is not possible, then I guess the only thing I can do is let my recommenders know my intentions months in advance and have them start working on the letters as soon as possible (can they start in May or do they have to wait until the essays and everything else comes out in June/July?).
Thanks!
18 Apr 2013, 18:52
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brentl23
I do understand the dilemma as I too had the same. Although my reccommenders were extremely helpful but knowing their hectic schedule, I myself felt bad to burden them so much.
I do not know how much importance the school gives to recommendation. My personal view is ZERO. My personal opinion is, recommendation letters are just used as a validation of the claims in application. Unless the recommendations are contrasting, I don't think they really affect your chance. My two best recommendations were rejected. If the school really serious about recommendation then they should speak to the recommender and understand the TRUTH. Not many schools has the bandwidth or even skill to find the fact and truth.
So what you can do are
1. Distribute the load
2. Feed them with story line, pointers, key words, facts, examples
3. Give them enough time, minimally 2 weeks and preferably 4 weeks
4. Remind them subtly/gently few times
5. You may write a first draft for them ... but this may be a double edged sword. There must be originality.
Finally, when the episode is over, buy them a memorable gift as a token of appreciation.
19 Apr 2013, 06:44
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I have two things - regarding recommender choice, and regarding importance of recommendations.
First, recommendation questions asked between schools are VERY similar. To the point that once a recommender has wrote one recommendation for you, the time investment for each additional school is almost negligible. They might need to add a couple sentences to tailor it to the specific school, and they might need to reformat their responses to fit into the prompts, but far and away the most work is for the first recommendation they write.
Second, I believe the recommendations are just one more filter that the adcoms put applicant through. I attended several MBA fairs / info sessions and adcom members consistently said that it was quite common that they received recommendations that were actually negative. I don't mean that the recommender did a poor job writing their recommendation, i mean that the recommender actually had negative comments about the applicant. Several of the adcom members quoted a percentage of recommendations that were negative, and it was astonishingly high - I can't remember the figure offhand.
Summary - I would pick the two people who you're sure have your back, and who you worked very closely with so that their comments will hold more weight.
For example, I would not use the person working in the business department of your prior university. He may be able to speak to the merits of your business, but he's going to be asked 'how long have you worked with the applicant and in what capacity', and if the answer isn't 6+ months as his manager, his recommendation won't be worth much.
First, recommendation questions asked between schools are VERY similar. To the point that once a recommender has wrote one recommendation for you, the time investment for each additional school is almost negligible. They might need to add a couple sentences to tailor it to the specific school, and they might need to reformat their responses to fit into the prompts, but far and away the most work is for the first recommendation they write.
Second, I believe the recommendations are just one more filter that the adcoms put applicant through. I attended several MBA fairs / info sessions and adcom members consistently said that it was quite common that they received recommendations that were actually negative. I don't mean that the recommender did a poor job writing their recommendation, i mean that the recommender actually had negative comments about the applicant. Several of the adcom members quoted a percentage of recommendations that were negative, and it was astonishingly high - I can't remember the figure offhand.
Summary - I would pick the two people who you're sure have your back, and who you worked very closely with so that their comments will hold more weight.
For example, I would not use the person working in the business department of your prior university. He may be able to speak to the merits of your business, but he's going to be asked 'how long have you worked with the applicant and in what capacity', and if the answer isn't 6+ months as his manager, his recommendation won't be worth much.
