Dear advisors,

I have secured one very good recommender, a former boss, but having problems deciding who's going to be the second one. People i brainstormed are either poor English writers and/or disinterested to produce something worthy for a top B-school,which i'm aiming at.

I remembered my youth pastor with whom I have cooperated closely in leading a youth church group until recently. I volunteered to be in charge of lots of community projects with youngsters and we even became friends. We socialise outside of the church activities quite a lot.

My question is do you think it is a good idea to ask this person to write my recommendation? She writes well and creatively. But i'm worried about admission officers thinking that she might be more of a friend, rather than a neutral observer of my candidacy.

Could you please share your views/experience on this?

Many thanks.

This individual will suffice if she can clearly discuss your leadership skills and accomplishments. It will help if she knows your post-MBA goals and can talk about how an MBA will help you achieve them and also what you will contribute to an MBA program. In other words, she needs to be able to write about more than the fact that you are a nice person and get along well with youth. Best of luck!