Letters of recommendation understandably tend to give applicants more anxiety than the rest of the MBA application, since it’s the only element out of one’s control. Luckily, this can be one of the more straightforward parts of the application. I encourage applicants to get their recommendations out of the way as soon as they decide where to apply—and have figured out their goals and other elements of their strategy—so that they can give their recommenders as much time as possible to compose their letters.
In this post, we at Stratus offer a high-level perspective on how to solve the recommender piece of your MBA puzzle—and we have included a helpful template to make your recommenders’ lives easier!
Recommender Selection
When pondering who will write your recommendations, consider this: do they know you well enough to answer questions addressing your leadership development and potential, what makes you unique, how you compare to your peers, and how you respond to feedback? If they are unenthusiastic or uncomfortable about writing you a strong, detailed letter, it is best to give them an out. Similarly—and I can’t stress this enough—resist the urge to ask someone who has an impressive title but doesn’t know you well or doesn’t have the time to invest in writing a strong recommendation. At best, this type of person will end up writing a non-specific and therefore useless recommendation. At worst, the admissions committee could question your poor judgment in selecting recommenders.
Most schools will ask for two recommendations, including one from a direct supervisor. If you’re unable to ask your direct supervisor, be prepared to address why in the “Additional Information” section of your school’s application or in an optional essay. This is a very normal topic to mention in an optional essay, so don’t feel like you must use a direct supervisor (or current supervisor) if doing so doesn’t make sense for your circumstances.
Preparing Your Recommenders
Recommendations take time, and your recommenders aren’t getting paid for this work. Therefore, you should be as supportive as possible in asking for this favor. A reasonable and polite amount of advance notice to give your recommenders is eight weeks—but they still may wait until the night before it’s due.
A number of schools have now adopted GMAC’s Common Letter of Recommendation (LOR), making it possible for recommenders to submit their responses to a given set of questions to multiple schools. Be sure to let your recommender know which schools are on the Common LOR list so the total number of recommendations feels less overwhelming.
Template to Share with Your Recommenders
Recommenders are often busy people, so it’s best to make the process as streamlined as possible for them. I recommend putting everything they need into a single email so it’s in one place and they won’t end up confused or wasting time searching for information. Below is a high-level perspective on what you could include in your email:
Warm intro: Thank them for being one of your recommenders, and let them know you’re available if they have any questions.
Deadlines: Include the date, time, and time zone of the deadline for each school to which you’re applying.
Technical information: Provide guidance on how they will navigate the portals for each school.
Your background: Include your short- and long-term goals, how you plan to grow through your MBA, and the traits you’d like each of them to convey in their recommendation.
Your relationship: Recap your relationship with the recommender, especially since it may have been a while since you worked together. Schools will specifically ask them for this.
Experiences: Mention roughly three examples you’d like each recommender to highlight in the Challenge, Action, Result (CAR) format. If any of the schools ask for your recommenders to share a time when they delivered feedback to you, get ahead of the ask by naming an example along with the steps you took to integrate their feedback over time.
Trust the Process
Once you have selected a recommender and given them the required information, step back and let them do the job. Check in occasionally to ensure that they are on track to complete the recommendations by the schools’ deadlines.
You should never log into the recommender’s portal yourself, as many MBA programs have tracking systems that log the IP addresses that have accessed the recommender’s portal. If you want to know the recommender questions that each school is asking, search online or ask your recommenders to share the questions once they have accessed the portal.
You should also waive your rights to review the letters of recommendation. Failure to do so could cause the admissions committee to think you don’t trust your recommenders or that you wrote your recommendations yourself.
Be sure to thank your recommenders for investing the time to write your recommendations. Also, make sure to follow up and inform them of the decisions (whether positive or negative) from each school for which they wrote you a recommendation. Finally, be sure to let them know which school you ultimately decide to attend.
If you still have questions about the recommender process—or any part of your MBA application journey—sign up for a free 30-minute consultation with a Stratus admissions expert today!