I am applying rd 2 to a number of schools and hoping you guys can answer a question about recs. I have 2.5 yrs work experience at the same place since undergrad (a BB - middle office). Is it best to get recs from two supervisors, a supervisor and a peer, a supervisor and a professor? I'm afraid two supervisors won't be able to provide sufficiently different information and will be basically saying the same things as each other. On the other hand do they really want peer recs if they don't explicilty ask for them (the way Harvard does)?
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I don't even think you can do professor recs at this point.
Thanks Flake - are you saying professor recs this far out of undergrad are irrelevant? For the schools I'm applying to the only requirement seems to be at least one from a professional setting, so seems professors are 'allowed', but maybe not ideal.
I'm thinking profs won't add much to the equation, my GPA and GMAT should speak for academic rigor on their own. Just not sure who else to use for second rec. I have no post-baccalaureate ECs to speak of so no co-volunteers to lean on or anything.
Definitely double check. I looked at a few M7 school applications last year and I remember seeing something like...you can only submit a rec from a professor if you're under 9 months out of undergrad (but who applies that early?).
HBS 2+2 GSB undergrad senior applicants Anyone else applying to an automatic deferral program at a good school to get it out of the way
two professors
if you get into booth with two years of middle office experience i will fucking end my life (assuming youre a white or asian male)
shes female. youre not. thats the difference lol you do have very solid gpa and GMAT though so well see
Hi all, I just got my article published in Poets & Quants (on the front page, no less) on Letters of Recommendation. It's pretty long, and I hope you find it worth the read. I'm posting the first few paragraphs and then the link on through to the rest of the article. There's a lot of information and links that might be helpful. If you have any specific questions, please come over to my Q&A thread. Oh, and happy thanksgiving!
Wrangling Great Recommendations Poets & Quants, Nov 21, 2012
With round two deadlines just around the corner, thousands of aspiring MBA students are asking their bosses, former bosses, senior colleagues, and even clients for recommendations to business school. Some might argue that it’s already too late to hit up a busy executive for a recommendation, but if you plan and execute right, the amount of time remaining should be reasonable.
Don’t Overthink
You can find many opinions about how to strategize the recommendations all over the web. I offer three simple words: Don’t overthink it. Admissions officers have come right out on their websites and told students what they are looking for in a recommendation, and I encourage you to take them at their word.
A classic article on this subject can be found on the Stanford Graduate School of Business website. Kirsten Moss, the GSB’s former director of MBA admissions, offered clear advice for all applicants, not just Stanford. She purports that the recommendation is “about about bringing this person alive. How, if they left tomorrow, would the organization have been touched in a unique way.”
Note too, that admission committee members reading your letters of recommendation don’t want everything to be stellar. If all the recommenders say that the applicant is wonderful for the same reasons, or if the student looks like a demi-god, “it loses its authenticity.” says Stanford’s Moss.
.....More at http://poetsandquants.com/2012/11/21/wrangling-great-recommendations/
Thanks! Betsy
Go with two supervisors. If they know you well enough, just manage the process and let them know what they need to write. In some ways they should look the same but clearly you don't want them to cover the same ground and have them both potentially miss critical aspects.
Unless you interacted significantly with a professor, say you were their teaching assistant or conducted research with them, etc. schools don't want to see recs from professors because, as you mentioned, your transcripts generally say everything about you that a professor can.
From what I gathered in my process thus far, the schools want to hear that you are a hard worker, that you are capable and that you produce results. Really the people best in the position to convince the adcoms of that are your supervisors and clients (if you have any).
I will be using a current supervisor and another one that left about a year ago. I've interacted with both of them extensively and they will both have very similar things to say but I intend to see what they have to say about me before they are sent off. I don't plan on writing these things for them, but I will want to let them know the things they need to talk about and emphasize.
Regards
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