The Application Process

GSB requires 3 recos: workplace, professional & peer recommendation.

Is it ok to provide the following:
1. One from workplace, from current supervisor.
2. One from current peer.
3. One from university scientific advisor (graduated in 2008)
?

I have doubts about the last one. But if this one will come from current work as well, the application will be kind of unbalanced, I think.

Thank you all!

Have you worked at only one place so far? If not, you may take reco from your previous employer.In case you have worked with only one company so far, a reco from your scientific advisor is also fine.

I hope it helped.

Yes, I've been with present employer for a year.

So, I guess this is the question. Would it be optimal strategy to with a 3rd reco from previous employer (to provide recent recos but somewhat one-sided ones) or with the one from university (to highlight academic aptitude as well, but with a bigger time gap).
Also, I'm afraid that "Professional" might strictly mean "from job", although all the other schools seem to be ok with one recommendation coming from university...

Yes, professional means 'job only' . However, you do not your recos to be less than stellar.So one-sided recos would not leave the desired impact.

>> Yes, professional means 'job only' .

But, then it means that Stanford wants ALL THREE recommendations to come from your employer.
Because they explicitly state than the remaining two should come from "Employer - direct supervisor" and "Peer at work".
Are you 100% this is the case?

nmlss wrote:>> Yes, professional means 'job only' .

But, then it means that Stanford wants ALL THREE recommendations to come from your employer.
Because they explicitly state than the remaining two should come from "Employer - direct supervisor" and "Peer at work".
Are you 100% this is the case?

Professional does not mean "employer". You might get a rec from a partner of your org, a company you consulted for, a vendor, etc. Professional means related to your work.

Did they say they do not accept academic recos?
Does the third one adds something important to your profile which is not presented in your application?

ronaldo7 wrote:Did they say they do not accept academic recos?
Does the third one adds something important to your profile which is not presented in your application?

They said: one from peer at work + one from supervisor + one "professional".
So, they didn't say it explicitly, but implicitly.

I do believe, that I will draw a better picture with one reco coming from university as 3 recos from work seems o be excessive, especially taking into consideration that I'm only there for a year.
So, I'm going with university as a third reco.

Stanford appears to discourage academic recs. Go here: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admissi ... rence.html

It says: "Strictly academic Letters of Reference generally are less helpful in our evaluation." If you're going to use one, make sure they can speak to other aspects of your candidacy and personality.

True. Them seem to prefer it less. But on the other hand they say "generally" (which means there are exceptions) and "strictly" (which probably implies very boring standard academic recommendations that mention no extra curricular, don't talk about personality, etc).

machichi wrote:Stanford appears to discourage academic recs. Go here: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admissi ... rence.html

It says: "Strictly academic Letters of Reference generally are less helpful in our evaluation." If you're going to use one, make sure they can speak to other aspects of your candidacy and personality.

You also need to consider that, in my understanding, your last formal interaction with your scientific adviser was in 2008. I'd assume you've had a lot of personal and professional growth since then - so, unless this adviser can speak to that growth (ie, you have maintained contact with him/her over the last four years), you might be better served by a recommendation letter writer who knows you in a more recent context.