MIT’s Sloan School of Management instruct MBA applicants how to write their own professional letters of recommendation.
School noted that applicants should answer the questions in 750 words or less, as if they were recommending themselves for admission to the MIT Sloan MBA Program and assess how they interact with other people, how they stand out from others, and what they would change about themselves.
The questions are as follows:
• How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant?
• How does the applicant stand out from others in a similar capacity?
• Which of the applicant’s personal or professional characteristics would you change?
MIT Sloan is always looking for innovative ways to assess our candidates. “We believe the questions we are asking will provide us with valuable behavioral information and help us to get to know our applicants better, which is our ultimate goal,” says Dawna Levenson, director of admissions in a statement
The decision to make the change follows reports that a high percentage of MBA candidates are often asked by recommenders to craft their own endorsement letters. MIT Sloan still requires applicants two letters of recommendations from outside sources, but many of these will be written by students too.
Thirty-six percent of aspiring MBAs were asked by at least one recommender to draft their own letters of recommendation, according to a survey (PDF) released last month by the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants.
It’s an interesting solution for the application process to tell about yourself in the name of someone else. Seems difficult, but nothing is impossible. Click to find out more about it!
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