Stanford GSB: Sample MBA Recommendation By Former Supervisor

Per Stanford GSB’s current recommender guidelines¹, this sample illustrates responses to Stanford’s core recommendation questions on relationship context, comparative impact among peers, standout qualities and constructive feedback given — plus any additional inputs beyond these².

Please describe your relationship to the candidate and  the circumstances under which you have known him.

I have known ABC since the year . ABC had been reporting to me During my tenure with DEF Inc. as the business head for Information and Risk solutions. At a very early stage of his career ABC showed great maturity in developing the Fund Services Business. He is an entrepreneur at heart with a demonstrated ability in building business units from ground-up

How is the candidate’s impact on your organization different from that of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles?

ABC has great combination of strategic and operational execution abilities.³ Start-up business units under his management have delivered beyond expectations, considering the time span involved, revenue growth rates and revenue quality. He is one of the few employees who awarded a “Far Exceeds” rating in the year 2002. Typically far exceeds rating is awarded to only top 5% percentile of the employees at DEF. Amongst peer group I would place him in the top 5% percentile of the employees with similar work experience, education and level of responsibility.

What is the single thing you like most about the candidate?

ABC excelled as a leader, mentor and Team player. He has been a role model for subordinates and peers alike. His ability to form more or less “self-managed” cohesive teams was remarkable.⁴ He sings very well and has a fan club in DEF INC. as yet!

Please describe the most constructive piece of feedback you have given the candidate.

ABC was given significant job responsibilities at a relatively early age. At times, in a rapidly changing startup business environment he would find it difficult to prioritize amongst the various tasks at hand. There was a particular incident of an aggressive schedule for a product launch. With a small team and limited resources, ABC was responsible for managing several deliverables. While he handled the situation effectively, I brought in some finer points on documenting and prioritizing activities. Over the next few projects, I was impressed with his methodical approach and efficient management

Is there anything else about the candidate that you would like to share?

I strongly recommend him for admission to the Stanford MBA program. While learning, he will surely add value to the Stanford community through his knowledge, experience and ability to connect with people. There is a distinct possibility that over the long run he will setup his own enterprise

Sources

1. Stanford Graduate School of Business — Applying to the MBA Program: Recommenders are asked to describe how the applicant’s impact and performance compare to other well-qualified individuals in similar roles.
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business — Stanford MBA Program: The program evaluates candidates against its mission to develop leaders who change organizations and the world, not against a fixed profile.
3. McKinsey & Company — All About Teams: A New Approach to Organizational Transformation (December 2024): Team-centric execution, rather than top-down direction alone, is linked to significant, lasting performance gains.
4. Harvard Business Review — How Self-Managed Teams Can Resolve Conflict (April 2017): Self-managed teams must develop their own ways of resolving day-to-day conflict without a manager to escalate to.

1. Core recommendation questions (relationship context, comparative impact, standout qualities, constructive feedback) have remained structurally consistent across admissions cycles; specific evaluation formats are set by each school per cycle and are not represented in this sample. The word limits for responses may vary for a given year and other new questions may also be included.
2. Names, employers, and identifying details have been changed to protect client confidentiality.