Hi everyone, I would like to get your opinion with respect to gift for recommenders (2 schools each).

I was thinking of a $100-150 gift certificate at a nice restaurant or at Amazon for each recommender. Is this ballpark what you would had give or intend to give?

Thanks,
Epi

That's generous - I'd be happy to receive that. I only gave some flowers (ordered online cause she lived in another city) to a former supervisor. She really enjoyed them (~$30). Heard many also just give a bottle of wine. Didn't give my current supervisor at the time anything cause I thought it was part of his job as my boss and it otherwise would come across as maybe a bit too brown nosy.

I gave a Montblanc pen to each of my recommenders, engraved with their initials (Montblanc does it free of charge at their boutiques). Whether or not I get into MBA school this year is irrelevant, because I work in private equity and to get 2/3 recommenders to write a 1pg (or more in Wharton and Stanford's case) is truly a magnificent achievement, considering how stressed and busy they are nowadays...

I got my recommender a bottle of pinot noir from the region where I grew up. It's always nice for them to get a bottle that means something, even if it's not rated 98 or whatever.

I provided $125 restaurant gift cards for each of them. The figure should not be the factor; you should consider what the card will get them at the restaurant you chose. The $125 theoretically covered an appetizer, two meals, a dessert and a bottle of wine - that is why I chose this figure.

I'll be applying to b-school in the Fall of 2009. All my friends who have applied to HBS in the past were consultants, finance, and a few in rotational managerial programs. I was wondering how HBS views marketing people and what they look for in these types of applicants. I know HBS can be very name conscious (undergrad, fortune 500's) as well as focus a lot on prestiege (and let's be real, in b-school, consultants and finance people come to mind first) but I was wondering how friendly they are to marketing people - especially those not looking to stay in marketing.

Contact this person: http://www.linkedin.com/in/hillaryschubach

Her background (both pre- and post-HBS) is all marketing. She recently started a business school application consultancy.

Full disclosure: I was not a client of hers.

Actually, I don't think HBS puts any particular emphasis on whether you worked for a big famous company vs. a small company, or even what you did. What they really care about is that you show leadership and motivation in your career, and that you've been moving up over the years. Also, you obviously need a good gpa, gmat, and interesting essays...

My opinion comes as a recent hbs admit who did not work in a famous company or in a glamorous industry... but I had great career progression and a regular increase in responsibilities...

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