Red alert from one of the MBA program advisors–
I’m an experienced editor, so it’s easy for me to spot writing habits. I can usually tell when a set of essays and an accompanying letter of recommendation have been written by the same person. The voice, the diction, and especially the errors of grammar and style are all unique identifiers. I have seen people use the exact same phrasing in recommendations that they used in their essays. That’s why it’s a bad idea to write your own rec’s.
While the admissions people may not be professional editors, I know from first-hand experience that they too catch applicants by noting their unique phraseologies. Most of you will have to work with your recommenders in crafting your letters, but don’t write them wholesale. At the very least craft your recommendations as a joint project. Even if your recommender would prefer that you write them alone, encourage him to do some of the work so the language will assure the reader that someone other than the applicant wrote the recommendation.
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