Recommendation Dilemma. Please help

Question

I plan to get one recommendation from my department head, who has been my immediate supervisor for the last 3 years. He is a very straight forward person. He discussed with me about what he considers my strenghts, weaknesses and achievements are. I am very pleased about the strenghts and achievements he was planning to highlight in the recommendation letter.

However, he thinks my spoken english is my weakness. Neither I nor that manager is a native english speaker. But I am living in the USA for the last 4 years and many of my friends say that my english is really good for a non-native speaker. Also, I have never felt my speaking skill as any sort of hinderance. I have 42 in gmat verbal and I am exempt from Toefl or any such tests.

Is his mention about spoken english / oral communication as a weakness going to really affect my application? I hear people saying that any mention about poor communiction skills will be a app-killer. Should I convince him to consider writing about my weaknesses such as aggressiveness, impatience etc?

Class2012 · Answer

The key is to show that you are trying to overcome your weakness.If he thinks that your spoken english is weak,ask him to write that you are attending Toastmasters meeting.

If you want impatience to be written as your weakness,come up with something to show that you are overcoming it or atleast show some positive side of it.

fuqua09 · Answer

thank you. 
My only concern is that people say that any mention about poor communication skills is an application killer.
How much should I be concerned about this?

I am more concerned that the adcom might look down at me because I have been living in the USA for the last 3 years. 3 years is too long to improve ones spoken english!

lakai777 · Answer

i agree. i don't believe that this is necessarily a bad thing. all adcoms are looking for areas of self improvement that a candidate shows. so for instance, i'm not a very "math" oriented person. therefore, i took accounting courses, i did remedial this, i did extra curricular that.... etc. to show that i recognized this weakness, and i took measures to improve myself.

they're looking for what initiative you've shown with the areas of weakness you have.

i don't think that your english being less than native speaking status, would be, in anyway, a application killer, especially if you are TOEFL exempt. i personally don't think there really is any "application killer" unless you were caught cheating or being academically dishonest.

nink · Answer

I met many internationals in bschool with heavy foreign accents. Hell, if you read some of the essays that US applicants write to bschools every year, you are going to wonder "Where did these kids learn to write? Were they really born here?"

That being said, I am not sure where you are applying but a small detail such as "my manager is going to write that my weakness is my english communication skills, etc" should not be a huge factor or reason for you to not apply to bschools (or switch recommender).

V42 on GMAT is better than most US applicants who take the exam every year. And if you are invited to the interview, I am sure the interviewer will assess and judge whether your english accent or communication skill is going to prevent your potential success in the program, etc.

But if it's the way you speak the language...trust me, there are internationals in bschools with similar issues.

Recommendation Dilemma. Please help

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