MBA Application Letters: Who to Ask

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"To me, if a person doesn't really, really know that individual and their work, it's meaningless," Martinelli says. "And frankly, it's meaningless if it's my daddy's best friend who I played golf with once."

One thing to keep in mind is that admissions officers sift through thousands of letters each year, and they're hard to impress. Neher has received "completely useless" letters from royalty. Many schools field requests from sitting or past Presidents. And several reported having gotten a recommendation from Barack Obama; it wasn't given extra weight says Martinelli, but it was well written.

Liz Riley Hargrove, associate dean for admissions at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, recalls recommendations from Jodie Foster (for a personal assistant), Spike Lee (for a production assistant), and Bill Clinton (for a campaign aide). All these applicants, coincidentally, were accepted, she says. But aside from "personal interest" for committee members, movie stars' testimonials don't mean much. Furthermore, at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions Keith Vaughn says celebrity letters can be a hindrance because they have to be taken out of the pool and referred to the school's dean for review, slowing down the process.

The most important quality in a letter writer is how familiar the person is with your record. Most schools require two letters of recommendation, at least one from a supervisor in a professional setting. On top of this, many also ask recommenders to answer specific questions, instead of sending in a form letter. The recommendations usually take more than an hour to write. Or several, for really good ones.

The more stories a recommender can tell about your accomplishments, the better. It also helps to have someone who's a fairly good writer, and who you're sure has the time to gush about your leadership skills to several different schools without getting their names mixed up, a common occurrence. To lessen the load, some applicants ask different people for different schools. Searching for extra people is labor intensive, but the payoff is worth it.

Step Two: Perfection

Once you've got your recommenders lined up, take them out to lunch or coffee. And do it early. This way, you have a chance to explain what they're getting themselves into. It's also important to ask them if they have the time, Neher says. If they're not fully prepared to sing your praises, this question gives them an "easy out."

Take along a résumé and a list of bullet points outlining your accomplishments, but steer clear of writing full sentences or handing over essays, which can lead to a temptation to lift out phrases, unedited. Recycled prose is easy for admissions officers to spot, says Julie Strong, senior associate director for MBA admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. A word-for-word regurgitation of previous talking points is "really detrimental," she says. "It's like plagiarism of your own work."

Over coffee, also provide your recommender with some information about the schools where you're applying. Neher recommends printing out the mission statement so recommenders know what qualities to highlight to make the applicant seem like a good fit.

Coloring Outside the Lines

If you can't get the perfect letter, don't despair. The majority of recommendations are glowing, but some are negative or flat-out bizarre. One writer to Darden referenced relatives who sailed aboard the Mayflower. Another, a Cambodian, referenced Angelina Jolie's citizenship there.

In many cases, for whatever reason, students simply can't scrupulously follow admission committees' suggestions. Keith Flatley, now a second-year student at Mendoza, was serving as a U.S. Army captain in Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, when he decided to apply to business school. He knew that his recommenders, all of them in Iraq, would have limited time to field additional questions from B-schools. "If you have a choice between writing your family and writing this recommendation, you're going to choose your family every time," he says. In the end, Flatley got his recommendations from his chaplain, company commander, and major.

Steve Misuraca, now a second-year MBA at Fuqua, was also in an awkward position. After working in the family business in a senior position, his only direct supervisor was his father—and schools typically don't trust family members to give an honest appraisal. Other students apply to MBA programs without telling their employer, meaning they can't seek recommendations from current supervisors, and some just don't get along with them. In these cases, most schools offer applicants the chance to write an additional essay explaining any imperfections in the letters. Misuraca ended up with recommendations from colleagues who don't share his DNA.

Chances are if your application is strong, colleges will see that regardless of what your letter writers say. A strong résumé is always more important than platitudes from a supervisor, even if it's the CEO. Still, as MBA programs get increasingly selective, it's nice to have an edge on the competition in the form of a heartfelt, well-written, personalized letter from someone who has first-hand knowledge of your accomplishments. And, admittedly, it doesn't hurt if it's from Obama.

Anne VanderMey is a B-schools writer at BusinessWeek.