Recommender Weirdness

Question

So I thought I would check my status up at the Johnson school.

The status page shows that I am under review - expected. They also list who your recommenders are and when the recommendation came in. Well, I have a new surprise recommendation.

I train and supervise volunteers who do taxes for low-income area residents. One of my new volunteers this year is a law student at Cornell. Well, her name is now on my recommendation list. Weird? I know that I talked with her about my process - she and I were commiserating about how much applying sucked - but I certainly didn't ask her to do that for me.

On the one hand, I am touched that she would take the time, and feel great that she respects me enough to do that. It's really very thoughtful. On the other hand, I am little nervous about it. What did she say? Will they think I am one of those annoying applicants who can't read directions and sends in more stuff than they want?

I feel like I kind of know Michael, the admissions admin guy. Should I shoot him an email about it? No, that seems weird...I don't know. What do you all think?

batchgmat · Answer

What the? So she submitted a rec for you without you even asking? How is that possible, don't they need the applicant to do the online thing (so the recommender gets an e-mail and all)?

johnnyx9 · Answer

Wait, this person just randomly took it upon themselves to send in a recommendation? That's odd, but I imagine it's a glowing rec, and I also imagine they said something in the rec about how they didn't consult with you. Strange situation.

squali83 · Answer

I would not worry about it. The student most likely wrote a great rec about you and hopefully had the mind to include that he/she was doing this without you being aware of it. I think this most likely will reflect positively on you. I would not sweat it.

aaudetat · Answer

I also think that she probably just submitted a free-form email or letter, and didn't use the reco format at all. And they probably just put it in the status section, just as a means of dottting the i's, keeping track of what's what in the applicant file.

Glad you guys think it's probably ok.

Any nay-sayers?

willget800 · Answer

I am not sure if it's too ok... I am still a bit skeptical..

My approach would be..

call the person who send in the rec.. thank her.. and ask her how did she manage to do it? and what she did..

Try to get more info from your recommender before calling Michael..

3underscore · Answer

willget800 - I wouldn't follow that course. It is tricky - the person who sent this would never expect their name to pop up on aaudetat's webpage.

Contacting them might unsettle them and have that really awkward nature to it. Contacting the school in a "WTF?" way is OK I guess, but as you say the person probably said it was unprompted. Sadly the best course of action is to do nothing. Which is no help, is it?!

willget800 · Answer

Seriously? I don't see anything wrong to call up to say thank you to the person who send in the recommendation.. and then while thanking.. get more info out... 

Isnt that courtesey to thank them for receommendation? and leverage upon that call?

aaudeat - your call

batchgmat · Answer

I would defn contact her, and it doesn't have to be in a questioning sort of way. Something like, "hey I saw you wrote a recommendation for my app. Thanks!"

Hopefully, that will prompt her to talk about why she did it, etc, and you can ask her some follow up questions.

lepium · Answer

My analysis is that this situation can only be good, coz: 

1) The person is already at Cornell.
2) She / he took the time to write about you without you even asking.
3) This process (the "unofficial" rec) works great when you are being recommended by alumni or students who would not normally be your 1st or 2nd recommender. Most schools will add this extra recommendation / e-mail to your file and consider it together with the rest of the package when evaluating your app.

I had the chance to ask a Chicago adcom (during an info session) the following question: 

lepium: "I have 3 potential recommenders: 2 know me best as they've been past and current bosses. The 3rd person is a GSB alumnus who has worked with me in some projects and knows me quite well, but has arguably a little less knowledge of me. Should I prioritize the alumnus vs. one of the other guys?"

GSBAdcom: "Well, most GSB alumni correspond with me on applicants, so I suggest you get the recos from the 2 former bosses and then the alumnus can write a note directly to me. Such note will then be added to your file".


I'd say depending on your relationship with the person you can choose to call or not to call him or her. I'd probably write a succint thank you note and see what he/she answers.

polobrute · Answer

the rec is already in the system... you can't do anything about it... so i say you just sit tight until you get your admit... it has to be a positive letter, who would go so far out of their way to ruin an applicant?
once you're admitted, send an email to the recommender saying you happen to notice she submitted a rec for you on the online system and that you got in...

positive soul · Answer

I dont see anything wrong as long as she said good things about you. I know someone that had the same experience in HBS and got accepted. I am sure it would do more good than harm.

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