What kind of Letter of Recommendations are the best?

[bansalmohit]

Now that everyone knows that the Letter of Recommendations are an important part of the application process, the next question is what is the "thing" that the schools are looking for while going through the letter of recommendations? What kind of quality, what kind of parameters?

 

[MRoss]

I think the best question is neither. It's: "Who should write them?"

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Good to see: how is your quantitative ability, personality, communication skills. How you performed compared to all the students the professor has taken that course over the years. How strongly he would recommend you. How he rates you among his students who have applied to similar MFE programs over the years.
Not good: what grade you had in his course.

Getting someone to write a good recommendation is very hard. You can't expect him to write something he does not truly believe in.

 

[bansalmohit]

I think the best question is neither. It's: "Who should write them?"

Quant being a very small and specialized area we can always tell the professors what qualities these program require and if they have seen these qualities in you and if they can write about them.

 

[SYau]

The best recommendations should be ones that focus on your strengths. In quant world, your strengths should be quantitative and financial knowledge/skills (math, programming, financial instruments, etc) and soft skills (work well with others, team leader, good communication, etc) is always important in any degree.