Help Your Recommendation Writers Help You

Most of what goes into your business school applications will depend solely on you – your admissions essays, resume, undergrad transcript, and GMAT score are all the result of your own efforts. But one huge piece of the puzzle relies mostly on other people: your MBA letters of recommendation.

Managing one’s recommendation writers is a challenge that many applicants underestimate. If you’re applying to five schools, and each school asks for at least two recommendations, you’ll need to get at least ten total letters, coming from maybe half a dozen different people. When you start to think about how much you’re asking of each person, and how much coordinating and following up you’ll need to do, you quickly realize that this is not a simple “Hey can you write something for me by Monday?” kind of task.

Most would-be recommenders are simply too busy to turn around a letter in just a week or two, much less several letters. And, most folks (even relatively recent MBAs) aren't going to know how to write a perfect reco for you off the bat. So, you need to plan ahead and start prepping them now.

Here are a few things you can do now to ensure that you have great letters of recommendation in hand in time for your MBA application deadlines:

Choose the Right People
Every year far too many applicants choose their recommenders based on those people’s job titles rather than on how well they know the applicant. Sure, all things being equal, an MBA letter of recommendation from your CEO is a lot more impressive than one from a middle manager. But all things are rarely equal -- if that CEO doesn’t really know you or your accomplishments, odds are that his or her letter will lack meaningful details and won’t add anything new to our overall application. MBA admissions officers always prefer substance over flashy titles in a letter of recommendation.

Give Them Plenty of Time
As mentioned above, writing a good recommendation letter takes time. And imagine if you're a recommendation writer and have been asked to write five of them! The more time you give your recommenders, the less they'll be tempted to do a "copy and paste" job, and the better each recommendation will be.

Arm Them with Information
While we strongly discourage applicants from writing their own letters of recommendation for their bosses, we do recommend that you arm your recommenders with as much information about your application as possible. What do you see as your strengths and weaknesses? What are recent, specific examples of your strengths in action? What have you done to address and overcome your weaknesses? No one knows your abilities and desires better than you... Make sure your recommenders know these things!

Be Honest
The hardest thing for a lot of applicants is breaking the news that they're looking to leave their job and pursue an MBA. But if you've come this far and are certain that this is what you want to do, be as upfront as you possibly can with your potential recommenders, even your current boss. The more they know about why you want an MBA -- and what you plan to do with it after your graduate -- the more they can help you by providing important details in their letters of recommendation.

Be Grateful
Remember that writing even just one good business school letter of recommendation is no easy task. The more care that a recommender puts into his or her letter, the more that this will come through to MBA admissions officers, and the better that it will reflect on you. So, make sure that your recommendation writers know how much their efforts are appreciated!


Written by Scott Shrum, co-author of Your MBA Game Plan. Visit Scott on the web and get more MBA admissions advice at www.mbagameplan.com.