In a recent post to her blog, Harvard Business School (HBS) Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Dee Leopold addressed a question she hears often from prospective applicants:
“What if my recommender can’t meet the application deadline? Will my application be held over into the next decision round?”
In answer, Leopold explains her team’s protocol with regard to recommendation letters:
Applications with only one submitted recommendation letter by the deadline date are held up for the next round to provide time for the additional letters to come in, she says.
Applications with two submitted recommendations, Leopold explains, are sent out to review by the Admissions Board in the round in which the application was received. The Admissions Board will make every attempt to add the third recommendation letter to the applicant’s file when it comes in, she continues.
But there are no guarantees, she warns. “Since the file can be in any number of places and we can’t stop the reading flow, we can’t promise that the recommendation will be added before review is complete,” she writes.
Here at Clear Admit, we try to always encourage applicants to engage recommenders early and inform them about the process and your timeline.
For round one applicants, we encourage sitting down with each recommender as early as August, even if actual application forms aren’t yet posted, to present them with a rough sketch of the deadlines and the process. This leaves plenty of time to meet again once the forms are available, at which time you’ll be able to share background materials (a resume, career goals essay, etc.) to help your recommenders understand and support your message.
For round two applicants, now is a great time to begin the process. And if round three is your goal, it’s a good idea to begin thinking about who you might want to ask to write your recommendation letters. For Clear Admit’s tips on how to select recommenders, click here.
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