Who should Recommend in BSchools?

MBA
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I just attended a World Tour MBA Seminar in Delhi yesterday and had a discussion on wat Big B’schools looks for. There was a representative from Wharton B’School and answering all queries blablabla. --Thomas Caleel Director, MBA Admissions a…

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I just attended a World Tour MBA Seminar in Delhi yesterday and had a discussion on wat Big B'schools looks for. There was a representative from Wharton B'School and answering all queries blablabla.
--Thomas Caleel
Director, MBA Admissions and Financial Aid, The Wharton School

What striked me most is he said "Dont get a recommedation from a Professor ever, profs are horrible recommenders"

Also He said we look for you as the person in whole, not just ur GMAT , essays are critical, and we verify everything. So be honest, tell us about urself and the thruth. It doesnt matter if u get a recommendation from a King of something or from a President of the country. What we look for recommendation is opinion about you from a person who is with u, who worked with.. be it ur Supervisior, ur Client with whom u spend ur most of time. The title of the person who is recommending doesnt matter to us at all. What wil i do if i get a reco letter from a President of some country? Perhaps show my peers around my office that hey look this guy got a reco from president... but in application it wil have negative impact and we might not take you.. ya if u have worked as a agent A for him and worked for atleast a year then u get a reco, its wil be considerable but dont get a reco just like that.
Try to get a reco from ur supervisior ...And if you are not getting ur recommendation from ur supervisor, then we give n option essay to write, in that specify the reason why u not getting recommendation from him. If you explain in one line that i m not getting reco from supervisor becuase my company doesnt know that i m applying to MBA and the supervisior wil fire me, or wil kick me out of my job, then its perfectly fine, We will look into it, its just u shouldnt hide from us. Tell us everything n every reason.

I am a fresher and 0 work experience, Wharton guy said that its perfectly fine, as a person with 7 years of work ex wil not have any extra advantage of 0 yr work ex guy cuz we look into u, ur attitude n ur challengin skills...

Now I want to ask why not to get a recommendation from a proffesor while applying to MBA schools? I couldnt dare to ask him as i thought he is saying means its get to be true, he is from Wharton n deal with so many applications .... but t query remains inside me.. Can anybody telll me why? and from whom to get a recommendation from? Esp if i dont work in a company.... where should i get t reco?

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I am a fresher and 0 work experience, Wharton guy said that its perfectly fine, as a person with 7 years of work ex wil not have any extra advantage of 0 yr work ex guy cuz we look into u, ur attitude n ur challengin skills...


LMAO... that's the most absurd thing i've heard in a long time!!!...

and frankly i couldn't figure out the purpose of ur thread... if its bout who to ask for ur recos... the standard answer would be a credible person who knows who u are really well and can vouch for u... if ur prof can do it for u while being truthful bout it, i dont see how it can hamper ur chances...

AaFarAs A and A+ Bschools are concerned... if u make it being a fresher... just consider urself being plain lucky...

Njoy,

SAM
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Right, But those are the words from the Thomas - Director of Admision from Wharton...

So My purpose if to discuss on these above words.... that are we having wrong idea of such top BSchools wat they look for, where they look for just above things? n essays + Does anybody want to give a thought on why he said No to profs? and laughed?

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If you have no recommender other than professors, think about it again...

If you are an engineer, you must have done project outside college - Get the reco from someone in that company/Institution who supervised your project.
If you are MCOM + CA, you must have had similar exposure.

If you have had absolutely NO exposure to any industry whatsoever, I suggest you get some experience and then apply.

Anybody across the world who has zero experience can get into any US/Europe/Canada/Aus B-school, if he/she has following characteristics:
  1. Excellent college grades
  2. Excellent GMAT/TOEFL
  3. Excellent extra-curriculars
  4. Exposure to any industry in the form of internship or any similar industrial experience
You shouldn't get more than 1 professor's reco for any B-school. 1 Reco must be from professional setting.
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i do second The Gr8 One with a addition. thats its not impossible but extremely tough. yes there are students with 0 work ex (there is no one in my batch at emory) but the probability of getting in without 36 months work ex, is very low.

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A good blog on recomendations for schools - http://bschool-admit.blogspot.com/

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If you have no recommender other than professors, think about it again...
If you are an engineer, you must have done project outside college - Get the reco from someone in that company/Institution who supervised your project.
If you are MCOM + CA, you must have had similar exposure.
If you have had absolutely NO exposure to any industry whatsoever, I suggest you get some experience and then apply.
Anybody across the world who has zero experience can get into any US/Europe/Canada/Aus B-school, if he/she has following characteristics:
  1. Excellent college grades
  2. Excellent GMAT/TOEFL
  3. Excellent extra-curriculars
  4. Exposure to any industry in the form of internship or any similar industrial experience
You shouldn't get more than 1 professor's reco for any B-school. 1 Reco must be from professional setting.


hey dude,
If you look @ the wharton blogs U wil never come to know what they are looking for.May b all your above points seems possible but sometimes seems absurd.
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Heres something on recos again unearthed from the Wharton discussion boards. Its not a "Who should" but a "How to" write a reccomendation ppt. If you're close buddies with your recommender, you can even share it with them.

-Nitin