application part 2: recommendations

OK. So, you've got your GMAT (or GRE) squared away (if not, see below post). I'd recommend the next thing you do is start thinking about recommendations.

As always... these are the personal views of Miss Becca.... I don't deal with admissions myself, so these tips are entirely speculative.....

LFM requires three recommendors; one of the three should be from an academic source or someone who can speak definitively of your technical skills. Your recommenders should be people that can truly highlight your skills by answering the following questions:

• How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant?
• How does the applicant stand out from others in a similar capacity?
• Please give an example of the applicant's impact on a person, group, or organization.
• Please give a representative example of how the applicant interacts with other people.
• Which of the applicant's personal or professional characteristics would you change?
• Please tell us anything else you think we should know about this applicant.

You probably work with a lot of folks that could fill out a decent recommendation; the trick is finding someone who will write an AMAZING recommendation. You want people who know you well, who have a vested interest in your success, and people who can write well (in Indiana, this was an important criterion!)

First, think about the technical recommendation. I think the intent of the “technical” reviewer is for the engineering piece of the LFM dual degree - ie, are you a good fit for an advanced engineering degree at MIT? I used my Fluids Dymanics teacher from undergrad. Besides being in his class, I also was a TA for his Heat/Mass Transfer class, and have maintained contact with him post-graduation by coming back to Purdue on a yearly basis to teach Professional Seminars in ChE. I was lucky to have been able to keep up a relationship with a professor who knew me well post-graduation, and he was happy to write my recommendation. However, if you no longer have ties with your professors, you might think about people that you worked with that could speak to your technical skills - ideally, someone who is well respected as an advanced engineer within your company, or another respected technical resource.

Now, for the two other recommenders.... Ideally, it would be nice to have one from someone outside of work who can speak to your leadership in a community activity, and you ideally want to have your current direct supervisor write the final one. This way, you ensure that all three of your recommenders talk about different fabulous things about you, so that admissions can see that you're awesome at work, in the community, and at school.

However, not everyone is active in the community, or maybe you feel like you've got a mentor at work who knows you very well and could write a better rec than the folks you interact with outside of work. I think that's fine - in the end, the content of the recommendation (I think) is the important part… solicit recommendations not from folks with nice titles, but from folks who really know you and your strengths well, and will take the time to sit down and really describe these strengths in the recommendation. If this happens to be three people from work, so be it. However, I’d be cognizant that they may all share similar themes, so I'd work to find three folks that know you in different capacities at work. You don't want to waste a rec on someone who will discuss redundant themes.

Although I was active in my community, I actually wound up using two people from Lilly. I discussed a recommendation with the VP of a community group I volunteered with, and simply got the impression that they wouldn't have the time to devote to the rec that some of my collegues from work would have, and might not have the greatest writing skills - I basically went on gut feel and decided to use two recommenders from Lilly.

Also, I think its critical that you have one rec be a from a current or former boss. Sloan and LFM dont specifically ask for this, but a lot of other B-schools do, and I think its really important - your boss (should) know you best, and I think it looks suspicious if you do not use a supervisor.

In the end, I picked a mentor and a former boss (my current boss was on maternity leave when I was doing my app). I picked two people that have very different views of me; my former boss knows how I work as a project manager and informal leader; my mentor understands my interpersonal communication skills and involvement with diversity groups within Lilly. I thought they could both showcase different facets of my skillset.

OK... so, you've picked your people - now you have to work it!! I would NOT just sign them up online with no followup. Before doing anything, I discussed doing a rec with each of my recommenders, and made sure they were willing and able to do the recommendation. Next, I created a one-page "cheat sheet" for them; it started off with a thank you for their support, then the logistics of when recommendations were due to which schools (I applied to several, and needed several recs from each recommender - I didn't want them to get confused). Then, I had a bulleted list of things about me that I wanted them to talk about: I framed this by saying something like "Here is a brief list of some of the projects we've worked on together. Feel free to use these ideas or others when discussing my skills". These lists were different for each person - a bunch of tech projects for my tech rec, a bunch of events which showcased my commitment to diversity, external focus and communication skills for my mentor, and leadership experiences for my former supervisor. I was trying to guide them to make sure they talked about different aspects of my background, without actually telling them what to write (which would be rude, and unethical)... I simply tried to nudge them in the right direction, so to speak. Also, it insured that folks didn't forget about things that I considered my greatest successes from earlier in my career. Also, in the case of my undergrad prof, he remarked that it was nice to have a refresher in what I'd worked on with him, since it had been more than 5 years. I have no idea if they actually used the "suggestions", but I did get feedback that they liked have the cheatsheet with logistics and due dates, etc.

Then I signed them up online, and followed up that they had recieved the emails and were able to log on. I followed up with them a lot - the recs are lengthy, and some of my recommenders put off the recs until a little last minute. As a word of advice, I'd give your recommeders at least 30 days to complete - and remember, apps are due near Christmas, so they busy holiday season will be in full swing - get your recs as early as you can to prevent last-minute hassle. I sent mine out to my recommenders in October, and still struggled to get one of them done on-time.

For me, I considered the recs very important - I know some of the other LFMs did not put nearly this much effort into the process, and they are obvioulsy right here with me - its possible that I overkilled it ;) However, I had not had a formal leadership position at work, and my GPA was lower than the average LFM student. I felt like I really needed to utilize the recommendations as a place to showcase myself in order to get accepted, and thats why I put so much effort into the process. Besides, applying is a once-a-year shot, and its not cheap - you might as well put your heart and soul into it, right?

As always, feel free to leave a comment if you've got questions about LFM, recommendations, applications, etc!

Up next in the series, everyone's favorite..... essays!!!!!