MBA Recommendation Letters Standardized by Top Business Schools: MBA News

By Tim Dhoul Updated Sep 08, 2014

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Introduction
‘Source of anxiety’ for prospective MBA students

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On realizing that as many as half of all MBA recommendation letters are written by prospective MBA students themselves, a group of top business schools in the US have declared their intention to standardize the questions on which they are based.

By doing this, they hope to ease the pressure on recommenders faced with different questions from different top business schools and curb the temptation for prospective MBA students to answer the questions themselves – thus receiving more a honest indication of an applicant’s ability.

The group of top business schools, which includes Columbia Business School, Wharton and Chicago Booth, announced the decision at an annual AIGAC conference (Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants), hosted by Columbia Business School.

It was an AIGAC survey which revealed that 38% of prospective MBA students had been asked to write their own MBA recommendation letters – only for admissions consultants to voice their belief that the real proportion may in fact amount to more than 50%.

‘Source of anxiety’ for prospective MBA students

The move to standardize the questions on which MBA recommendation letters are based makes life easier for those answering on an applicant’s behalf.

“Having different recommendation questions for each school placed a substantial burden on recommenders and was a source of anxiety for applicants,” Dan Bauer, of MBA admissions consulting firm, The MBA Exchange, told Poets & Quants.

The standardized questions to be adopted will be modeled on those used by Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business. Although seemingly unaware of this initiative, neither school has opposed the plan.

So far so good, but concerns have been raised that standardizing the format of MBA recommendation letters, alongside a tendency among many top business schools to reduce essay requirements, might only serve to place more importance in prospective MBA students GMAT/GPA scores and their attendance at elite universities.

Written by

Tim Dhoul

Tim is a writer with a background in consumer journalism and charity communications. He trained as a journalist in the UK and holds degrees in history (BA) and Latin American studies (MA).