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What would you do?

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Bdevil25
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What would you do? [#permalink] New post   03 Oct 2007, 09:54
A "What would you do" question for everyone out there:

I'm applying to Duke and UNC. My wife just got into Duke, so we're leaving Oregon in a month or so to start her program. My manager knows my goals and offered, before I even asked, to write a glowing recommendation for my MBA applications. (Good start at least...)

The next week, I brought up that I'd like to give him some materials and have a quick meeting to go over the two recommendation forms and specifics that I would like him to convey in the forms. He responded very oddly, saying that he's seen my growth and projects and doesn't understand why I would want to try to direct the process.

He eventually agreed to look at materials if I have them, but I still sense that he just wants to run with it without any guidance.

What would you do?

A) Since he has seen a lot of my work closely, just leave him alone and let him talk about me.

B) Give him a 1-page sheet that lists out specific projects/characteristics that I want him to convey in his letter.

He's not an MBA and I don't think he necessarily understands the gravity of the situation, but the last thing I want to do is turn him off!
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kidderek
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[#permalink] New post   03 Oct 2007, 10:00
Who knows what he'll actually do, but I'd go option B. Both my recommenders were overwhelmed by my recommendation preparation material. They both told me, "I didn't realize how much work this would be."

I'm picking them up tomorrow.

We'll see.
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Bdevil25
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[#permalink] New post   03 Oct 2007, 10:11
kidderek wrote:
Who knows what he'll actually do, but I'd go option B. Both my recommenders were overwhelmed by my recommendation preparation material. They both told me, "I didn't realize how much work this would be."

I'm picking them up tomorrow.

We'll see.


That's the way I'm leaning, as well. Thanks for the input.

I don't think a lot of people understand the preparation and effort required in all aspects of the MBA application. Most people I've talked to think I'll get in just because I'm an engineer...oh how wrong they are!
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gmatclb
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[#permalink] New post   03 Oct 2007, 10:41
It's all in your approach.

If you say you want him to talk about some specfic projects, he thinks you think he doesn't know about your accomplishments... which could be taken as an insult by some people.

It's better to say that you're attacking the school at a certain angle and you want your recommendation letters to complement and back-up that angle because the recommendaiton questions are so open-ended that your recommender could end up talking about something totally unrelated to the thing your emphasizing in your essays.

No need to give him copies of your essays. Just give him 1-2 sentence summary of the responses to your essays and let him run with it.
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03 Oct 2007, 10:41

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