Rec Letter Questions

Question

I noticed that among the top 10 schools, not many reveal the questions/guidelines for rec letters. Does anyone know if there is any way to get them now?

Looking at Wharton and MIT's, it generally looks like they want recommenders to talk about the applicant's strengths/accomplishments, weaknesses and what has been done to work on them, comparison with peers at the same level, and teamwork/character. I'd like for my recommenders to just write one general letter and make only minor tweaks to it on a school by school basis so knowing questions ahead of time would be very helpful.

cheetarah1980 · Answer

Rec letter questions are typically included in the Downloadable Forms on the school's application platform. You could also get the questions by signing up a dummy recommender and having the info sent to one of your email accounts. Simply delete the entry in the application system once you have the info you want. Hope this helps.

stompy · Answer

This does, thanks. Never thought about d/l-ing the forms. I thought about adding dummy recommenders, but my orig fear was that schools would see this. I guess it's not that big a deal.

cheetarah1980 · Answer

Schools don't see anything until you hit submit and cough up the app fee. Don't worry about it.

patriot · Answer

I think in most cases you can find the instructions on the school website (on the admissions/applying tab).
Anyway, you can always find detailed instructions inside the online application.

stupandaus · Answer

Most of the schools post them publicly if you dig deeper. One of the schools you mentioned (Wharton) has recommendation questions posted in their S2S forum.

lamanxa · Answer

People, WATCH OUT!!!! Terrible piece of advice over here. Some schools (like Haas) won't allow you to delete a recommender, while other schools (like Booth and Columbia) will keep the deleted recommender on the application sheet. Now I'm wondering how I will approach Haas AdCom and ask them to delete my dummy recommender.

EBM · Answer

The part in bold is probably not realistic....my recommenders showed me their letters after the fact, and each of my 5 schools asked for slightly different information. For instance:

"Tell us about a time you offered the applicant a piece of constructive criticism and how he/she reacted."
"Tell us about a time you witnessed the applicant take an innovative/creative approach to a problem."
"Describe the applicant's interpersonal skills with their peers and subordinates."

And so forth.

If you're applying to multiple schools, your recommenders will have to respond to multiple prompts. There's just no way around that fact. Canned, one size fits all letters will hurt your chances for admission relative to someone who is able to find recommenders who are willing and able to put the time into writing specific anecdotes in response to the questions.

Rec Letter Questions

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