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Still on MBA Waitlist? 3 Reasons Not to Give Up

June 19 2013 By The MBA Exchange
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Are you living in waitlist limbo? The good news: your dream school did not reject you. The bad news: you’re stuck somewhere on their waitlist – and are not sure how to get off.

Not knowing where you rank and what your chances are for admission are two of the most frustrating aspects of being waitlisted. While most top MBA programs do not publicly announce waitlist admission statistics, a handful of schools recently shared these stats with Bloomberg Businessweek for the class of 2014.

  • Harvard Business School admitted 84, although declined to share the total number waitlisted.
  • Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management admitted 40 of 470 waitlisted.
  • Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Management admitted 16 percent of those waitlisted.

While your chances vary by school, admission off the waitlist is not an impossible feat. Below, our MBA admissions gurus share their top three tips for making the jump from waitlist to admit list.

#1: Follow instructions.
Every school has different instructions for managing your waitlisted MBA candidacy. If you do not follow these instruction, you not only show poor judgment, but also risk alienating the MBA admissions team. Unannounced drop-in visits to the admissions office or insisting upon a one-on-one meeting can be a one-way ticket to rejection.

#2: Make your case for admission.
Show how new work responsibilities, academic coursework, or extracurricular activities prepare you for the rigors of B-School. While it’s not easy to strike the right balance between sharing your accomplishments and becoming a nag, staying silent is just as dangerous as over-sharing. Schools follow strict policies for what can and cannot be added to your application; consult your program’s policy before sending any additional material.

#3: Don’t give up.
Being waitlisted is an opportunity to make your application more compelling. “Just follow the guidelines we put forth,” recommends Alex Lawrence, the Assistant Dean of MBA admissions UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. “If you do what we tell you, then you’ll be in better shape.”

Are you eager to get off the waitlist and into your dream MBA program? Stand out from the competition with our waitlist strategy coaching; contact us to get started today!