The best business schools of the world seek to admit the best professionals from around the world. In addition to reviewing the CV and application essays, the business schools also require 1-2 letters of recommendation (LOR) from your professional associates as part of your MBA applications. These letters are from your supervisors or seniors who have worked closely with you and who can talk about your strengths and weaknesses.
Every business school has a standard set of questions that your recommender would need to answer.
There are two main objectives of the LORs in any MBA application.
The first is to provide the MBA admission committee with an alternate and objective view of your work, your achievements, and the impact you have made in your organizations. It also helps them get close glimpses into how you are as a professional, as a teammate, as a leader, and how - based on your past actions - you would act and behave when you join their MBA program.
The second is to champion your candidature for MBA. The schools also want to see how your seniors think and feel about you. Are they impressed with your work and give you glowing recommendations? Or they are just obliging you with lukewarm answers?
So you see, the LORs provide important supportive evidence to help the MBA admissions directors understand your strengths and envision you as a potential member of their community.
We have collected LOR questions from top business schools.
As clearly suggested by the best business schools, the MBA letters of recommendation should be written by someone who has closely worked with you, observed you over a significant period of time (at least six months), and can speak in detail about your achievements and organizational impact.
This person also needs to be someone senior to you, ideally your immediate supervisors, so that they can clearly assess and comment accurately on your performance and qualities.
LORs from seniors are demanded by the business schools as it is assumed that these seniors can provide an objective evaluation that will not be affected or influenced by you or written in obligation or as a personal favor to you. Therefore, LORs from peers, colleagues, and college professors are not generally not welcomed by most MBA programs.
In fact, many schools are so particular that one of the LORs must come from an immediate direct supervisor if you can’t provide such a LOR, you must explain the reason in your MBA application.
Our best tip to select your recommenders is that you choose someone who would become your strong advocate for MBA admission. Someone who would unequivocally and even unabashedly recommend your candidature and talk great things about you.
One of the biggest mistakes students make is in selecting someone as their recommender who might agree to write the LOR but would simply not have enough motivation or time to write detailed and strong LORs. Lukewarm LOR are worse than useless and could actually harm your application as they reflect poor judgment on your part in selecting the recommenders. Therefore, thinking about your recommender selection is an important part of the MBA application strategy.
Q1. How long have you known the candidate? Define your relationship with the candidate and the circumstances whereby you met.
Q2. How does the performance of the applicant compare to that of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? (500 words)”
Q3. How do the candidate’s performance, potential, background, or personal qualities compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please provide specific examples. This question is asked by Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, and Kellogg Northwestern.
Q4. Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the candidate. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response.
Q5. What would you say are the applicant's key weaknesses or areas for improvement?
Most MBA applications also give your recommender an optional space that can be used to talk about something positive about your work that couldn’t be captured in the rest of the answers or perhaps explain special circumstances in your career or even upcoming promotions or assignments your seniors have planned for you.
As you review the letter of recommendation questions from global business schools, you will find many overlaps. Let’s talk about the most common LOR questions and how your recommender can approach them:
Q1. How long have you known the candidate? Define your relationship with the candidate and the circumstances whereby you met.
This question is asked by most business schools. While it might seem like an ordinary administrative question about the duration and context of your relationship, it is important in setting the tone of how well your recommender knows you - have they worked closely with you over the years, or do they barely know you at a formal level over a few months?
If your recommender was instrumental in hiring you to the organization it is a good idea for them to talk about why they hired you and the good impression you made on them from the first meeting itself.
Q2. How does the performance of the applicant compare to that of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? (500 words)
This question is asked by Berkeley Haas, Cornell, Darden, Duke ISB, Michigan Ross, MIT Sloan, NYU Stern, Stanford, Tepper, UCLA, and many more business schools.
How do the candidate’s performance, potential, background, or personal qualities compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please provide specific examples. This question is asked by Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, and Kellogg Northwestern.
This most commonly asked question is THE most important part of every MBA LOR. This is the space your recommender has to highlight your top achievements, your strengths, and the amazing qualities you possess.
Peer Group Comparison: The MBA admissions team specifically asks for comparing your strengths versus other individuals in your peer group because they want to admit the best person, the top performer from every team. So, in addition to giving details about your achievements, your recommender must also elaborate on how you are the best or at least one of the best in your peer group or organization.
Echo Resume: The achievements mentioned in your MBA resume must echo in your MBA LORs and be reflected in this section. In fact, this LOR question becomes an excellent and important place where your achievements from the MBA resume can be elaborated on and show the admissions team your qualities and strengths that made those achievements possible.
Showcase Strengths: As your recommender comments on your best points, it is critical to note that whatever strengths are highlighted should be valuable to the business school and enhance your appeal for MBA Admissions. Some of the strengths that could be relevant for business schools will be - leadership, teamwork, diligence, enterprise, problem-solving, cultural sensitivity, adaptability, communication skills, and risk-taking.
Ample Examples: To build credibility and convince the reader about your best qualities and achievements, your recommender must include specific details of the projects, budgets, scale, challenges, and outcomes by giving details of the context, your actions, the challenges you faced, and the final impact.
Q3. Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the candidate. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response.
This question is asked by Berkeley Haas, Cornell, Darden, Duke ISB, Michigan Ross, MIT Sloan, NYU Stern, Stanford, Tepper, UCLA, and many more business schools.
A similar question could be: What would you say are the applicant's key weaknesses or areas for improvement? This question is asked by many schools such as HEC Paris, LBS London, and Schulich York.
The objective of this question is not so much to focus on what was the critical or constructive feedback but on your response to the criticism.
One of the top qualities the best business schools look for in a prospective MBA applicant is their ability to work in teams and take critical feedback with an open mind and maintain a collaborative team spirit. Also, constantly improving one’s skills and abilities reflects maturity and strong leadership potential.
Suitable Example: It is critical that the example/s selected as a weakness should be true and significant but also not be so negative that it/they become a big red flag and adversely affect your chances of admission.
Applicant Response: Enough details should be mentioned about your response to the feedback and how since then your behavior has changed for the better.
Most MBA applications also give your recommender an optional space that can be used to talk about something positive about your work that couldn’t be captured in the rest of the answers or perhaps explain special circumstances in your career or even upcoming promotions or assignments your seniors have planned for you.
A few business schools ask for additional questions, so make sure you inform your recommender about the same.
Some examples:
HBS requires the recommender to provide ratings for nearly 20 leadership and skills attributes.
- Leadership Attributes: Comment on the ratings you have assigned, elaborating on relative strengths and opportunities for further development.
- Skills Assessment: Please use this space to comment on the skills ratings you have assigned, elaborating on relative strengths and opportunities for further development.
Kellogg:
- What has been the candidate’s most significant contribution to your organization? Provide measurable impact if applicable.
- Kellogg has a diverse student body and values students who are inclusive and encouraging of others with differing perspectives and backgrounds. Please tell us about a time when you witnessed the candidate living these values.
INSEAD:
- Comment on the candidate’s career progress to date and his/her career focus.
- Comment on the candidate’s potential for senior management. Do you see him/her as the future leader?
- Describe the candidate as a person. Comment on his/her ability to establish and maintain relationships, sensitivity to others, self-confidence, attitude etc. Specifically, comment on the candidate’s behavior or skills in a group setting/team environment.
NYU Stern:
- IQ+EQ is a core value of NYU Stern, and we seek exceptional individuals who possess both intellectual and interpersonal strengths. Emotional intelligence (EQ) skills such as self-awareness, empathy, communication and self-management are at the core of our community of leaders. Please provide one specific and compelling example to demonstrate the applicant's emotional intelligence.