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Your
recommendations are important because they verify your claims and provide the admissions
committee an opportunity to learn more about you from people you have worked closely with.
Hence, good recommendations can serve as a powerful tool to ‘sell’
yourself to the committee. We list here the common issues:
Why are
Recommendation Letters important?
Every part of your
application, builds an image of your personality in the minds of the admissions committee.
The recommendation letters provide a third person’s perspective on the kind of person
you are. What a recommendation letter writes about you should add or supplement what you
claim to be through your essays/SOP and work experience details. It certainly would create
doubts about you as a person if the image that your recommendation letter creates
completely inverts the image that you’ve been trying to create through your
essays/SOPs and work experience details.
The one simple way
to make recommendation letters contribute to your admission process is to keep your
application straight and honest. Present the facts as they actually are - be truthful
about every claim you make in every aspect of your application.
There is one thing
that you certainly can do and that is to choose the people who can recommend you
judiciously. Choose a person who knows you well and likes you as a person and then ask
him/her to give a fair assessment of you as a person in the recommendation letter.
Your application
form will give you details about the recommendation letters you are required to submit.
The number of recommendations and from whom - whether from your work or from your school
or both.
Choosing
Your Recommenders
Business
Schools: Most schools require 2-3 recommendation letters. Choosing the
appropriate mix of recommenders largely depends on the program you are applying for.
For an MBA program, two recommendations from work and one from school is generally
a good balance. If the school asks for only two recommendations, it would be
advisable to get both work related. As far as possible, it is advisable to get one
recommendation letter from your immediate supervisor. However, if it is not
possible, then a former supervisor would be a good choice. As a last alternative,
you could use a colleague who has worked closely with you. It is not advised to
apply without a recommendation from your current job place. For more details, check out
the recommendation letter section on the MBA channel.
Graduate
Programs: For an MS or Doctoral program, you should get atleast two
recommendations from your professors. If you have performed research or worked on
thesis, it is highly recommended that you get the reference letter from your Advisor.
If you worked for a company either full time or as a summer intern, you could take
one letter from your immediate supervisor.
Undergraduate
Programs: For candidates applying for an undergraduate program, very few schools
ask for a recommendation letter. If asked, you should get it from one of your
favorite teachers in school.
Some other
points to keep in mind while choosing your recommender:
- Choose people who know you well.
Rather than choosing a famous person who has no intimate knowledge of your skills and
abilities, it is much more powerful to use a person who can illustrate your strengths and
show you at your best.
- Choose people who really like
you. It is important that a recommender invests time in writing your
recommendation. A person who likes you will take out the time as well as put a
positive spin on your qualities.
- Choose people who can address more
than one key criterion: your business and managerial skills, intellectual ability,
leadership potential, maturity, work ethics etc.
- Give your recommender an outline of
the assignments you have handled at work. Include in the outline some suggestions on how
he/she might address specific issues such as analytical ability, integrity, intellectual
curiosity etc.
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