bschoolint

12-10-2005, 03:43 AM

Dear Bschoolint,

Thanks for your note. I have responded to your questions below:

1) How much importance that LORs have in an admission package? Could a bad LOR make you receive a "ding" despite good essays and strong gmat?

Recommendations are an important element in the MBA admissions process. The adcom uses them to corroborate the candidate's stories about work and to get an outside opinion with regards to your leadership and teamwork skills, career plans, etc. While it is hard to give a numerical weighting to any one aspect of the MBA application, a set of poor letters could certainly hurt your chances. Of course, this all depends on how bad the letters are - and how well the other components of your candidacy balance this weakness. Keep in mind that the schools also view the letters as a chance to evaluate the candidate's ability when it comes to selecting appropriate recommenders and managing them through the process. So in a sense, poor letters not only hurt you for what they say - but also suggest that you may have excercised poor judgment when choosing your recommenders...

2) Approximately, How many pages should a LOR have? I have seen LORs that have between 5 and 10 pages. But, I do not think that my bosses could have time to write many pages on my behalf even though they do appreciate me.

This varies from school to school, but we've found that a strong letter of recommendation will answer each of the questions posed by a given school. This usually results in about 2-3 pages of text in total (single-spaced).

Best of luck,

Graham Richmond
Clear Admit