Creating Outstanding Letters of Rec. - 工管

Not all Letters of Recommendation (LORs) are created equal.


Admissions officers have read enough of them by this point to understand when

a recommender is and is not being genuine in their LOR. Many professors and

managers just write an LOR because they didn't want to say "no" when an

applicant asked them to, and that is certainly not the feeling you want to

come across in your own LOR.


If you are approaching your professors or managers to write LORs to include

in your MBA or MS application, there are a few points you need to keep in

mind about what makes for a truly outstanding LOR. If you can help your

recommender include the four points outlined below in your LOR, you can send

it in feeling safe.


1. Your LOR Should be Personal (For You)


Your recommender needs to include your name, and as many relevant details

about your life, motivations, and passions as possible in your LOR. Managers

and professors often have templates for LORs which they plug a student's name

into in order to save themselves time. This is fine, but they need to be sure

to include details on your most outstanding qualities and achievements that

prove that you are a capable graduate student and professional. The more

personal an LOR is, the more an admissions officer can see that your

recommender cares to take the time to write a good LOR, and the application

will be more persuasive as a whole.


2. Your LOR Should be Personal (For the MBA or MS Program)


Whoever is writing your LOR needs to insert the name of the school, and the

MBA program into their LOR. (Of course).


But it needs to get even more personalized for the school. When a recommender

states that you are a good fit for an MBA program, and can give at least two

good reasons why that program is also a good fit for you, it shows that the

recommender has gone above and beyond their normal template, increasing the

value of their recommendation. Ask your professor to mention specific clubs,

organizations, or well known societies at the school in order to persuade the

admissions officers that your professor genuinely knows what they're talking

about. Or ask your manager to mention specific projects you have worked on or

other ways that you have made an impact on the organization you work for.



3. Your LOR Should Give Context by Ranking You


Admissions officers love it when your recommender can be extremely specific

about how you compare to the other students they have encountered. Although

your class rank, GPA, and test scores give admissions officers a great

measure of your academic abilities, your recommender's evaluation adds

another layer of depth to your application.


A statement as simple as "Terry is easily within the top 3% of students I

have ever encountered at National Cheng Chi University, and I believe he will

rise to the top echelons of the student body at ________ University" goes a

long way towards increasing your credibility, and giving admissions officers

an additional dimension of comparison to consider while making their decision.


4. Your LOR Should Communicate Your Values


I write all the time about how important it is to convey your values and

passions in your MBA application. Admissions officers get bored of reading

bland essays and LORs over and over again, and want a story to understand

about you as a person. Your professor's LOR should help you to tell your

story by touching on how you spend your time volunteering or doing creative

things relevant to an MBA program outside of school. And your manager's LOR

should mention how you affected the team environment and make an impact

during and after working hours. When your application tells the story of who

you are through the eyes of multiple people, it makes you stand out from the

crowd. It makes your story memorable, and "sticky" in the mind of admissions

officers.


So the four points once again are that your LOR should

1) be personal for both you and
2) the MBA/MS program to which you are applying.
3) Your LOR should give admissions staff context by ranking you from your
recommender's perspective, and
4) your LOR should tell the story of your values.


If you would like help understanding additional ways in which you can

optimize your LORs, and your MBA/MS application as a whole, please do not

hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected].




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Transcend Admissions Consultants





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