6 To-Do’s if Waitlisted and Upcoming MBA Waitlist Chats

Maverick of the "En Route to MBA" blog gives excellent advice to waitlisted MBA applicants in his recent post "Waitlist -> Admit - How?" based on his experience getting accepted from the Carey waitlist.  (Congrats Maverick!)

Maverick refers to a "waitlist appointment" in his post.  If you are lucky enough to be waitlisted at a school that provides feedback to waitlisted applicants, then by all means follow the advice he gives. Review your application for weaknesses, discuss how you can address them during your appointment, and follow the meeting with appropriate action.

However, many if not most, top schools do not provide such feedback.  They rely on you to do your own self-assessment and act on it.  In that case:

1. Follow the instructions provided by the school.
2. Review adcom blogs and chat transcripts for additional tips for waitlisted applicants. Accepted has 25 chat transcripts devoted to MBA waitlist topics going back to 2000, including several so far this year. In addition, you may find tips for waitlisted applicants in recent general MBA admissions transcripts.
3. If you believe there is a weakness in your application, let the school know what you have done to improve in that area. . Have you raised your GMAT score? Have you taken a class in math or writing to prepare for b-school and address a weakness? Have you taken a leadership position in community service, which you had neglected since college?
4. Inform the school of recent positive developments like a promotion, new project, published article, community service initiative or success, etc. The schools want to admit dynamic, growing individuals.
5. Show fit and interest -- provided the school is interested in hearing from you.
6. Be considerate of the adcom's time. Send in relevant, meaningful, and succinct information. You are not paid by the word to write, and they aren't paid by the word to read. If you send in reams of garbage -- a cross between spam and junk mail -- you will earn yourself a ding.

We are hosting several chats devoted to the MBA waitlist in the next several weeks:

• Accepted's MBA waitlist chat is this Thursday March 19 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT. Natalie Grinblatt Epstein will join me in responding to questions. Natalie served previously as Director of Admissions at Michigan's Ross School of Business, Cornell's Johnson School of Business, and Arizona State's W. P. Carey School of Business.
• Cornell MBA Waitlist Chat with Randall Sawyer on March 25, 2009 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT.
• Michigan Ross MBA Waitlist Chat with Soojin Kwon Koh on March 30, 2009 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT .
• MIT Sloan MBA Waitlist Chat with Jennifer Burke Barba on April 7 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT.

Please feel free to join us on Thursday if you are on an MBA waitlist and for the school-specific chats if you are waitlisted at any of these programs.

You can obtain more detailed advice in The Nine Mistakes You Don't Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist, our bestselling ebook ever. And of course, Accepted's experienced staff is available to help you one-on-one with your MBA waitlist strategy and correspondence.