A recommender is doing you a huge favor by taking the time to write about your background and experience. Recommendation letters are long and schools often make recommenders answer multiple questions about a candidate. Also, there are several traits such as your strong sense of ethics or personable character that are appropriate to mention in a reference letter but are difficult to describe in your essays.
Given how important your recommendation letters are, it is important to choose the right recommenders and support them well. And you probably have a lot of questions about how to do that. Should I ask a very senior manager who doesn’t know me well or my boss who knows me very well but is not very senior? How early should I start engaging them? What sort of guidance do I provide these recommenders?
We take a lot of these factors into consideration when we help you choose the right recommenders. Through our intake form, we understand your background, industry, experiences, and who your potential recommenders might be. This gives us a solid understanding of who you should choose and what you should request them to highlight.
Next, our Graduate Coach, who is an alum of a top business school gets on a call with you to discuss our insights and brainstorm a strategy around how to select and support your recommenders. These recommendations are school-specific since your recommendation should align with a school’s values and expectations.
Depending on your need, we are also happy to focus the discussion on specific aspects of your recommender strategy such as choosing the right recommenders, helping them highlight specific traits, etc. If you want us to focus on a particular topic, just be sure to let us know when you fill out the intake form.
Absolutely! There are many different things to consider when you choose and support recommenders. We help you with every single aspect.
In the past, we have realized that focusing on two or three aspects of the recommender strategy might be the most efficient way of using our 60-minute conversation. Our intake form asks you where you’d like us to focus. You can choose things such as ‘help me select a recommender’, ‘help my recommender describe certain experiences’, ‘help me decide how to engage my recommender’, etc.
We have an in-depth conversation about each topic and provide concrete, actionable tips, and next steps that you can use to get yourself the best recommendation possible. You can always schedule additional time if you wish to go deeper on other aspects of your recommendation. Nearly half of our candidates purchase two slots to discuss their entire recommender strategy.
Yes, we are happy to work with recommenders directly. In the past, we have had one-on-one conversations with recommenders on how to narrate an applicant’s experience and which strengths to communicate.
If you want us to work directly with your recommender, please mention it in your intake form. Let us know what you would like us to support them with. Also, please inform your recommender that we will be reaching out to schedule a call.
Candidates use this service at different times depending on their needs. Some use it before they even start their applications to discuss which recommenders to select. Others work with us a few weeks before the deadline to get brainstorm specific experiences they want their references to mention. A number of applicants purchase this service multiple times to select and support recommenders.
Your waitlist strategy is created by our superstar team of Graduate Coaches and former Admissions Committee members. Once you provide information about your background and ambitions, and how we can best support you through our intake form, our Graduate Coaches create a comprehensive recommender selection and engagement strategy. This is reviewed by a second team member who has extensive experience supporting candidates get accepted at your school of interest to make sure it aligns with the values and expectations of each institution.
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