Like most people in business, the people who I'm going to ask for letters of recommendation from are busy people. I'm applying to a half-dozen schools, and feel anxious about asking each of my people for six different letters. Is there any way around this? Can I ask them for generic letters? How are other people doing this?

Sometimes you can write most of it for them, and then they can add and subtract from it, sign it, and send it off. I know it sounds weird, but I've had professors/referees who prefer to do it like this. If you're referee is a professor who writes a lot of letters, he or she will probably have a template to start from. But some schools want specific questions answered.

Good idea. Going through all the recommendation forms, the questions are usually pretty similar, both Haas and Stanford GSB for example have comparable questions, although Haas is definitely more in depth. I think my plan is to prepare generic letters for each school, from the perspective of each of my recommenders, so if they ask I will have them. It seems like a lot of work, but it's important, and perhaps will focus my application as well.