Recommendation disaster, should I start a new application?

Question

Hi all,

I'm applying to a few top US MBAs, and for one specific school that I care deeply about, 2 of 3 my recommendations have been sent and are disastrous:
Recommender 1 sent a letter written for another school
Recommender 2 sent the right letter, but had e-mailed it to me before to discuss it. I made some comments in the file, then he sent it. Now he realized that the word document has my name as author in its properties.

So 2 questions:

1 - is this a big deal?
2 - If I just cancel my application now, and start a new one with a different e-mail address, and get the same recommendations without the fiasco, will they be able to trace the other one back to me? Will it be held against me?

Thanks a lot !

piggles · Answer

For recommender #1, have him call the school next Monday (after break) and explain the situation. Everyone knows you're applying to more than one school. Make some reasonably significant changes to the letter in the interim. If you send a new letter, the school will still feel like you put in the effort and really care about going there.

For recommender #2, I doubt it makes any difference because I seriously doubt they'll be able to see that. This is especially true if the email is being sent from a solid work email address and not a gmail account that you could have set up on your own.

I seriously doubt you can cancel your application now. You have to input your social security number in the form, and I'll bet it will flag. I can't promise I'm right, but they have thousands of documents to review. You didn't make the mistake, your recommmender did (in case 1). The admissions people will likely delete the first letter and allow a new one to be submitted and that will be that. In case 2, would you ever think to check that? Besides, they can easily get in touch with the recommender and ask if he wrote it. If he says yes, then case closed.

bb · Answer

I think #2 is not very important/critical. Even if they notice that your name is in the author field, all that means is that you could have copied the topic question into a Doc file and sent it over to your recommender.... there are a few legit reasons why it could be that way.

Av · Answer

Not ideal, but probably not a disaster. I'd follow piggles' advice on rec #1. Your recommender made the mistake, so I wouldn't expect you to be penalized.

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks for the replies.

I have actually started a new one. I didn't put in a social security number since I'm non US, and changed my name and application round on the existing application. I will just keep this one open and never submit it.

Then I created a new application with a different e-mail address.

I would be surprised if they traced it back to me, they'll probably ignore unsubmitted applications. Even if they do trace it, not a huge deal. There is no fraud or anything.

Recommendation disaster, should I start a new application?

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