|
| Letters of Recommendation |  A greater part of MBA program applications require two to three letters of recommendation from third parties capable of commenting on your qualifications for business school. Letters of recommendation serve an essential purpose in the application process by adding the perspective of others. They are intended to supplement everything you set forth in your own essays and personal interview.
The best suggestions support and strengthen the rest of your application by providing specific details about your work experience and professional success. They push average candidates into the admit pile. The worst provide negative information that cast doubt on the picture you've worked so hard to create. Even second-rate recommendations are potentially harmful by failing to add that extra oomph to an otherwise strong application.
Check a few tips for you to ensure you get great letters of recommendation.
1. Present Yourself Truthfully throughout Your Application
Recommendations mustn’t say the opposite to or call into question anything you have written about yourself elsewhere in your application. Ensure you characterize your accomplishments accurately. Consider that exaggerating your achievements can get you into trouble.
2. Choose Your Recommenders Wisely
The most helpful recommendations can be written by people who know you well in a professional capacity, sincerely like you, and can discuss those same points you have already iterated in your own essays and statement of purpose. Once you draw attention to your career advancement to date, maturity, professional and interpersonal skills, and leadership qualities or potential, so should your recommenders. If there are no lots of people around you who fit the bill, start cultivating relationships with those who do.
MBA admissions committees, unlike other graduate programs, prefer professional recommendations to academic recommendations. If your school requires two letters of recommendations, try to get both from professional sources. If they require three letters, it is usually permissible for one to be from an academic source. In any case one should be from your current immediate supervisor. If it’s unworkable, for example, your current supervisor is in the dark about your business school plans - a former supervisor is an appropriate substitute. Other options, in diminishing order of desirability are: an indirect supervisor or manager, current colleague, or former colleague. No matter what people are, make sure they have worked closely with you and are able to comment in detail about your qualifications.
|
|
