Mission Admission: Not a Standard Recommendation
November 10th, 2009
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.
If you are having trouble negotiating with your supervisor to ensure that he/she is putting the proper thought and effort into your application, you are not alone. Because of this asymmetry in power, there is only so much a junior employee can do to compel his/her supervisor to sit down and write thoughtfully. So, it is important that before you designate your supervisor as a recommender, you understand his/her level of commitment. In particular, it is important that your recommender understand that he/she cannot create a single template and that he/she needs to personalize each letter and answer each MBA program’s questions with specific examples.
If your recommender is attempting to simply write a single letter and then force it to “fit” the school’s answers, or if he/she intends to attach a standard letter at the end of the school’s recommendation form (for example, including it in the question “Is there anything else that you think the committee should know about the candidate”), then your recommender is not helping you – he/she is hurting you! By neglecting to put the necessary time and effort into the letter, your recommender is sending a very clear message to the Admissions Committee: “I don’t really care about this candidate.”
If you cannot convince your recommender to write a personalized letter, it is time to look elsewhere. A well-written personalized letter from an interested party is obviously far better than a poorly written letter from your supervisor.
Posted in Blogroll, Mission Admission