All applications require two recommendations by third parties. If you have been working full-time for at least six months, you should submit at least one recommendation from your employer. The second recommendation should be from either a former direct supervisor or from another professional associate, senior to you, who can add personal insight into your candidacy. If you are a college senior or have worked full-time for less than six months, at least one, but preferably both, of your recommendations should be from a person who can comment on your managerial abilities. You may ask a summer employer or another person who you feel can objectively assess your professional promise. The second recommendation may be from a college professor. If either you or your recommender would like to view the online recommendation questions, they are listed below. (Please note the below questions are those in the September 2009 ED and RD applications. These are only slightly revised from the January 2009 application recommendation questions.) 1. What is your relationship to, and how long have you known the applicant? Is this person still employed by your organization? If not, when did he/she depart? 2. Please provide a short list of adjectives describing the applicant’s strengths, and please compare the applicant’s performance to that of his or her peers.
3. Please comment on the applicant’s growth during his/her employment with you and on his or her ability to work with others, including superiors, peers, and subordinates.
4. In what ways could the applicant improve professionally? How does he/she accept constructive criticism? 5. Comment on your observations of the applicant’s ethical behavior. 6. What do you think motivates the candidate’s application to the MBA program at Columbia Business School? 7. If you could change one thing about the applicant, what would it be? 8. Are there any other matters which you feel we should know about the applicant? | 
