Dear workonnet1,
Thanks for your post!
You raise a great question about b-school recs. This is an area of great confusion for many applicants/recommenders, due to the Q&A type format employed by the leading schools.
Here are some basic thoughts on the topic, which I've excerpted from the Clear Admit Recommendation Guide:
A Brief Comment on Length
Some schools set relatively restrictive word limits on recommenders’ responses to each of their questions (Harvard, for example, allows just 250 words for each of its three questions), but most leave this to the author’s discretion. The benefit of this is that recommenders are able to answer the school’s questions as completely as possible, providing details from the candidate’s work experience to illustrate and back up their claims. A potential drawback, meanwhile, is that some recommenders can get carried away and write far more than an admissions reader has the time or patience to review. While the lengths of the responses to various questions will naturally vary, the total length of all of the answers combined should not be much more than 1,000-1,500 words; beyond this, it becomes difficult to hold a reader’s attention.
For more guidance on the nature of content used in appropriate responses as well as tips for coaching your recommenders through the process, you may want to read the Clear Admit Recommendation Guide (downloadable on our site) as you navigate this aspect of the process. The guide includes extensive advice on recommender commentary, sample letters and more.
https://www.clearadmit.com/ss_reco.html
Best of luck,
Graham
