LOR Problems

Question

My company does not have a policy of issuing a Letter or Recommendation with a company letterhead. What do I do for LORs in this case? I want to apply for the first round in September for the 2024 intake.

admitStreet · Answer

Harshvardhan2210 - which schools are you looking at? Most schools would send an email to your recommenders (ideally to their official ID) with an online form, which they would then need to fill in. Regards, Arvind HEC Paris MBA alum, Admissions interviewer W: https://admitstreet.com | E: consultingteam@admitstreet.com

ExpertsGlobal · Answer

Hello  Harshvardhan2210 ,

Your company does not necessarily need to issue a recommendation on a company letterhead. In fact, most schools will want the recommendation submitted on their online portal and not on a letterhead. You need to first check the recommendation process of your target school; if you feel it still requires the recommendation to be submitted on a letterhead, you will need to write to the Admissions Committee, explaining the situation.

Hope this helps.

All the best!

CrackAdmission · Answer

Hello  Harshvardhan2210 ,

For LORs, schools typically follow one of the 3 methods.

1.You can enter the Recommender's Email address (needs to be a company email address and if not you will have justify in the Optional Essay) and he/she will get a link to fill in / upload all the relevant information wrt your application.

2. They will just ask you to share the details of your recommender - email & contact, and that's about it. No per say information reqd. from the recommender.

3. They will ask the recommender to submit the LOR on the company's letterhead. Here again, there are 2 potential scenarios:
 a. Recommender is still serving in the same organization where he/she had an overlap with your tenure.
 b. Recommender has moved on to a different organization where there has been no overlap with your tenure.

While 1. and 2. are anyways not a matter of concern, for both 3A. & 3B., you should be doing the following:
i. Send an email to ad com stating your concerns and reasons behind why letterhead recommendation is not feasible.
ii. Request your recommender to state the concern explicitly in the recommendation draft again stating the reason behind not being able to use letterhead.

All in all, this is definitely not a make or break, but you definitely need to navigate it diplomatically with all concerned stakeholders.

For more tips on your application, please feel free to reach out to me. I am an ISB alum, CO15, and have been guiding applicants crack their dream business schools over the last 6 years. Happy to become a part of your journey as well.

Cheers and all the very Best !!

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

This is honestly very unimportant. And a bit of an outdated practice because lots of schools are asking recommenders to insert their responses into the little boxes. Most of them will accept an upload but I think to make sure recommenders are replying to each question individually, the trend is to go towards text boxes.

I would just concentrate more on brainstorming ideas for good anecdotes with your recommender (one story per question in STAR format), guiding them to tell a clear and concrete story that speaks/substantiates to your greatest strength(s).

GeneralEducation · Answer

Hi Harshvardhan2210 , If your company doesn't provide letters of recommendation, In your application, provide context about your company's policy regarding recommendation letters. If your recommenders are comfortable with it, you could provide alternative contact information in your application. This could include professional email addresses or phone numbers where the admissions committee can verify the authenticity of the recommendations. On the other hand, discuss your application with the admissions office. You could explain the situation and ask if they have any specific recommendations or guidance for how to handle this issue. Hope this helps, for more detailed feedback kindly write to customercare@general-ed.com.

AugustAcademy · Answer

Hi Harsh,

This shouldn't be a problem - colleges will ask for an email address. They send a link to your recommender's email address, and the rest of the process is online.

It would be best to use an official email id - the equivalent of the letterhead. If there are problems with that, you may be able to provide a Gmail address. but it is best to coordinate with the business school before and after (through the optional essay) to check their latest policies on that. They would mostly accommodate given the circumstances.

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