Choosing a safe school and the second recommender

[rajshree.misra]

Hi Stacey,

I am a Chartered Accountant (CPA in the USA although the difficulty level is higher in India) and have worked with the advisory division of Ernst & Young, India for over 5 years. I have also worked with the EY New York office for 6 months. At present, I work with the Retail and Consumer Products practice of EY, India.

I am taking the GMAT at the end of this month after which I start the application process for fall 2010. I am considering majoring in either Finance or Strategy or a mix of both (Wharton provides an opportunity of double major). Although I have not finalized all schools to which I would like to apply, I have selected two, Wharton and Chicago. I am having a tough time deciding the other schools to which I would apply. Few schools among which I need to choose my options are Michigan, Columbia, INSEAD, Stern and LBS. I plan to apply to 5 Tier 1 schools and one tier 2 school, which would primarily be a back up. I have not even considered any tier 2 schools yet.

I was considering applying to Chicago, Wharton and Michigan in the first round. I would have to decide the other two tier 1 schools and decide the round in which I would like to apply. I am very attracted to the INSEAD program but it's shorter duration is perplexing. I would like your inputs on how I can go about choosing the other schools and also on whether a 1 year program would be worth considering.

With respect to the LOR, I plan to get one from my reporting partner and one from my immediate supervisor, a Senior Manager. However, since both are a part of the same team, they would have similar examples to share. As a result, I considered getting a LOR from my reporting partner/Sr. Manager and one from another partner I worked with for a reasonable duration 2 years back. The objective of doing this would be to have diverse examples being shared. However, I assumed majority of the leadership roles during the past two years, therefore, only my present team would be able to throw more light on them.

Please guide me as to whether it would be better idea to have both LOR from my reporting partner and Senior Manager, as they would be able to share more recent examples, or to have one from my reporting partner/Senior Manager and one from my previous partner, to add more diversity to the LORs.

Thanks in advance.
R

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear R,

I encourage you to visit our sticky on school selection for some tips and insights. I think you will find it helpful in determining how to evaluate schools that might be a good match for you.

As for your recommenders, you need to pick the two people you believe will give you the best recommendation. Most schools will want to see one from your current supervisor, but the second one is at your discretion. You want to pick people that you have worked closely with for at least a year and who can speak to your professional abilities. It sounds like you have several options that will work for you--which is great. That will give you some flexibility if one person only has time to do two schools or if you want to spread the workload around.

Good luck,
Lisa