MBA Recommendation Letters: How to Write the Brief for a Strong LOR

Leave this session with a clear plan for your recommenders and a ready-to-use brief template you can send them this week. Your recommendation letters are the one part of your application written by someone else, and they carry real weight with admissions committees. Most recommenders want to help but do not know what schools are looking for, which examples to use, or how their letter fits with the rest of your application. A strong brief, sometimes called a recommender packet, gives them exactly that. For Round 2, now is the time to prepare it, while your recommenders still have weeks rather than days. In this session, you will: • Learn how to choose between a senior title and someone who truly knows your work, and what to do if your manager cannot know you are applying • See what schools actually ask recommenders, including leadership competency grids and school-specific questions • Learn how to make the ask clearly and lock in a completion date • Compare weak and strong briefs side by side, and see what to include so your recommenders can write with specific examples • Prepare your recommenders for the constructive feedback question, where many otherwise strong letters fall short • Understand how to handle recommenders who ask you to write the letter yourself, and what international applicants should consider when a recommender writes in a second language Most applicants send their recommenders a resume and hope for the best. The result is often two letters that repeat the same achievements in general terms. A strong brief assigns each recommender different examples based on what they personally saw you do, so each letter adds something new to your application instead of repeating the other. I have guided 100+ applicants into every M7, across the top 20 in the U.S., and leading international programs (INSEAD, LBS, IESE, Esade, Oxford, Cambridge, NUS, and more). Give your recommenders everything they need to write specific, credible letters. Register now to claim your spot.