Waitlisted? Don’t Wait.
MBA and college applicants alike are blinking--perhaps reeling--from the flood of recent admissions decisions. MBA applicants are recovering from Round One decisions and college applicants survived Ivy Day.
You may be celebrating a yes or lamenting a no, but perhaps the hardest news to take in is a maybe. You've been waitlisted. What now?
Are You Still Interested? No?
If you have decided to attend another school, do the right thing and let all the others who have accepted or waitlisted you know right away that you will not be coming. Don't just let them hang: decline their offers.
This will allow the schools to make an offer to someone who will be very, very glad to hear that they are off the waitlist! Of course, schools probably allowed for a little "melt" when making their offers, but still: let them know.
Are You Still Interested? Yes?
Follow the instructions.
The instructions can be different for each school. Do exactly what each school tells you to do. You might think this would be obvious, but here are some mistakes people make:
Write to the school, but neglect to register their response in their applicant portal, which is where the school's data is drawn from.
Bombard the admissions committee with extra letters of recommendation, when applicants were specifically asked not to do so.
Sit back and wait.
Waitlisted? Don't Wait.
The first thing to do is to follow whatever instruction is given to check the box that let each school know that yes, you want to accept a place on the waitlist.
If the schools in question don't expressly forbid it, take this chance to write a brief, dense, thoughtful letter of continued interest (LOCI). These days, it's usually a matter of filling out a box online.
But don't make these two mistakes:
Assume that "it's just a box."
Waste time and space pleading to be admitted.
So What Makes a Difference?
If you have accomplished something significant between the time you hit "submit" and now, state clearly and connect it to your application. For example, if you retook the GMAT or finished a big project at school or work with substantial results, state the facts and tie it in to your proposed course of study or goals.
If the school in question is your first choice and you would accept an offer immediately, state that calmly and convincingly. Remember that you can only make this promise to one school.
If the school asks for or permits an additional recommendation, think carefully about who could add something new and relevant to your application. Choose someone who could attest to a different aspect of your work or might have supervised that project you just completed.
What Are My Chances?
That is very hard to say. Most admissions committees will be working with an "unranked list." That is, you cannot know that you would be the next person they would admit.
It's likely that at this point, the committee would be looking for someone to balance the class. That is, if an MBA program was turned down by someone with a strong commitment to Latin America or project management or the non-profit sector, a committee might look favorably on a waitlisted candidate with plans for that region, specialization or sector.
But they might just move on to someone who seemed to them to add something hard to define to the incoming class.
College applicants, the same general points hold for you as an individual. But there may be a way for you to find collective data on what has happened in the recent past at a particular school. I'll address that in my email newsletter. You can sign up at www.athenamentor.com. See you there!