In honor of the first birthday of MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools, by Linda Abraham and Judy Gruen, we are posting a series of excerpts from the book. This post is excerpted from Chapter 10: “Tips for Special Applicants: Waitlisted, Reapplicants, Career Changers, Military, Overrepresented Groups, Underrepresented Minorities, Older Applicants, Younger Applicants.”

Landing on a waitlist can be a nerve-wracking experience. As a result, sometimes waitlisted applicants let their anxiety or disappointment get the better of them. Many adcom members have complained on their blogs of applicants who react emotionally and behave in ways that are demanding, rude, disrespectful or otherwise inappropriate, either in their emails, calls, or even unscheduled drop-in visits to their offices. There may be 200 or more waitlisted applicants at your school, and these types of responses do not demonstrate perseverance; they reveal immaturity and lack of judgment. This behavior is duly noted and will work against you.

If you are waitlisted, take heart: the school is still very interested in you. You’re still a contender. To maximize your chances of turning that waitlist into an acceptance, follow the school’s instructions precisely: Send what they ask for, and don’t send what they don’t want. Update letters should be short – no more than two pages. Keep the letter focused on what you have accomplished since applying. This and additional letters of support will show the adcoms that you are a stronger applicant now than when you first applied.

Open with a brief thank you for continuing to consider your application and reiterate your commitment to the school and your belief that its philosophy and approach fit your educational preferences and goals. The rest of the waitlist letter and additional letters of support should focus on three critical areas:

1. Updating your qualifications

Report any and all substantial achievements since applying: earning a promotion, assuming additional responsibilities at work, or taking notable initiatives in or outside of work. Have you had an article published? Earned a patent? Launched a business? Led a notable project at work? When possible, highlight new accomplishments not previously discussed in your application. Ideally, you should relate these new achievements to some of the themes or experiences you addressed in your essays.

2. Steps you have taken to ameliorate weaknesses

Reinforce the idea that you are working to strengthen a weak spot in your profile. For example, if you enrolled in Toastmasters to improve your communications skills, specify that you joined the group two months ago. Tell them what you are gaining from the experience, but do not say you have taken this step because you are concerned about your low verbal score or substandard grades. If you had a low GPA in quant subjects, did you take an accounting class and earn an A? Have you raised your GMAT score? Have you taken a leadership position in community service, which you had neglected since college?

Report other specific plans for additional classes, including when and where you plan to take them, and state your willingness to enroll in any additional courses or follow any additional instructions that the school recommends or provides.

3. Fit with the school

Continue to prove fit by explaining what else you have done to further your knowledge of their program and build your network there. You may already have mentioned in your application or in an interview how the school’s philosophy and approach match your educational preferences and goals, so in a waitlist letter, cite new examples that illustrate this match. For example, if you have visited the campus (post-submission), mention which class you sat in on, who taught it, and what your impressions were.

Similarly, mention recent email exchanges with alumni or students. What new aspect of the program that jives with your interests have you discovered through these connections? Investing in connecting with the school, its students and resources will help drive home the message that this school is the best place for someone with your post-MBA goals.

MBA admissions directors want waitlisted applicants to show passion, but not obsessive-compulsiveness. Follow these steps, and you can be sure that schools will respond to this extra personal effort, provided that your sincerity is matched by an equal measure of professionalism and courtesy.

This month marks the one-year anniversary of MBA Smarties‘ publication, and Judy Gruen and Linda Abraham the co-authors, will be sharing excerpts from the book. Whether you are still deciding whether to get an MBA, deciding where to apply, working on essays, preparing for interviews, or trying to deal with a “special situation,” MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools provides practical, down-to-earth advice for the MBA application process in a coherent framework — and for less than the cost of a first-run movie. Check it out. Download the first chapter FREE.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Accepted.com’s experienced admissions consultants can help you create the most impressive application possible with comprehensive packages, or provide targeted assistance from picking perfect programs to designing a dazzling resume, constructing engaging essays, or preparing for intense interviews…and more! Accepted.com has guided thousands of applicants to acceptances at top MBA programs since 1994 – we know what works and what doesn’t, so contact us to get started now!

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

5 Secrets to Advancing from Waitlist Limbo

You probably have mixed emotions about being waitlisted. On the one hand, you weren’t dinged and you still have a chance of gaining acceptance to your top choice school. On the other hand, you haven’t been accepted yet, which means as of now, you still don’t know what the future holds. That’s why many feel that being waitlisted is like being in limbo – you are neither here nor there, at least not yet.

The following 5 tips will help you launch from waitlist limbo to acceptance:

1. Read your waitlist letter carefully, looking for hints of deficiency. Some schools are better about stating straight out why you weren’t accepted. For others, you’ll need to read between the lines to determine where you fell short in your application. And for most, you will have to do the assessment on your own. (Or ask us; we’re happy to do it for you.)
2. Follow the instructions. If the school says that you are welcome to send additional materials to support your candidacy, then you should absolutely do so. If they say that you should not contact them at all, then you’ll need to respect their wishes and wait for them to contact you…no matter how badly you want to share new information with them.
3. Emphasize your continued interest in the MBA program. If contact is allowed, then you should draft a short letter that thanks the school for considering your application and reiterates your desire to attend the program. Your letter should also include a brief paragraph or two on the following….
4. Address shortcomings and tout recent achievements. If you’ve taken steps to ameliorate your MBA profile weakness (as determined in Step 1 above), then you should certainly include the measures you’ve taken to improve. If you’ve retaken the GMAT or enrolled in a college statistics course, for example, then you should say so. Furthermore, if you’ve bulked up your achievements – had an article published, launched a new business, earned a patent, received a promotion, increased your volunteer hours, etc. –share this important information with the adcom.
5. Make your intentions clear. If you are certain that you would accept an offer if the program extended it, say so.

Remember, your letter should be short, sweet, and to the point – two pages max, one page preferred. Don’t be pushy, don’t be defensive, and don’t beg.

Learn more must-know waitlist tips when you visit Accepted’s MBA Waitlist 101 guide.

This post is part of an ongoing series, MBA Admissions A-Z, that offers applicants insightful tips on every aspect of the business school admissions process. Join us as we explore the ABCs of the MBA!

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

Here are some tips:

1. Take the GMAT again if you think there’s some chance you can improve your grade significantly.

2. Visit the campus and request, in advance, a (second) interview with an admissions officer.

3. Get a couple more support emails from students/professors/alumni. Email them to the admissions office.

4. Write a cover letter to the head of admissions detailing recent, significant, positive developments in your career / life (GMAT improvement, new job, promotion, distinctions) and restating your strong interest in the program.

5. If the school doesn’t object to additional recommendation letters, get an additional recommendation letter. If there was a significant development in your career (new employer, promotion, distinction) – you can get an additional recommendation letter covering this new development.

6. If the school allows additional essays, select a topic that adds information beyond your original application and write a new essay.

Good luck to all those waiting!

Contact us now to get started and get accepted to business school!
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MBA Updates

Here is an excerpt from the Q&A:

Linda Abraham: Can you give, perhaps, one or two guidelines for sending in updates, letters of recommendation, attempting to visit? Is there some guideline you can give waitlisted applicants to Cornell Johnson?

Randall Sawyer: Applicants that are on the waitlist, those who call us every day, or every fifth day, or every week, that is a little much. We can get those [types of] students. That is really the quickest way to come off the waitlist with a “deny” because I have a very dedicated team here at the Johnson School, and many of the students that are on this call have interacted with them. They work very hard to bring in a great class, but taking a phone call every week or needing to call that person back is very taxing because we have 200 people on the waitlist right now. So imagine us getting 200 calls every week to just talk about the waitlist.

The best advice that I can give is to return the waitlist sheet that you have; sign it and return it so that you will stay on the waitlist. And then when something new happens in your life associated with applying to business school, send us an update by email. You can send that to your file manager. Say, “Hey, I just got promoted at work,” or “I was employer of the month,” or “I’ve just completed my finance class”; something like that – something new and noteworthy. Send that, and the file manager will add it to the file, and then when we review the waitlist, we will take a look at that.

Linda Abraham: I’m going to add something here. Every interaction that an applicant has with a school demonstrates their judgment and their character. And applicants, if you are showing a lack of judgment in terms of your interaction by wasting the school’s time, as Randall said, it is going to lead to a “deny”. What you are submitting has to be adding value and perspective and insight into your qualifications and your fit with the Cornell Johnson School.

Randall Sawyer: If I could just add to that to reaffirm your statement, in every phone call, every email, every conversation with students, we are judging you and evaluating you. So if you come across unprofessional or professional, or if you come in or call in, and are rude to my staff, we will take note of that. So understand that there are a lot of eyes on you every time that you contact the office. I don’t want that to make people afraid; I want them to use that to empower themselves to be professional, and to understand that Marcie, the receptionist out front, she and I talk every day about students that come in. And the same goes for the file managers. If someone calls up and has a fit with them, I hear that as well, so be careful.

View the full Cornell Johnson Waitlist Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now or subscribe to the Apple iTunes MBA Admissions Podcast. If you like the podcast, please leave a 5-star review.



Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

He asks several questions in “3 down…1 to go!” and I am going to respond to those that aren’t visa-related. (I know nothing about immigration law.)

1. Assuming you resolve the visa issue, quit early enough so that you can have at least a short vacation and time to establish yourself in your new town — be it New Haven, Ithaca, or Ann Arbor. In chat after chat, current MBA students advise applicants to allow time for setting up an apartment, opening up a bank account, and  figuring out where the dry cleaner, gym, barber, etc are. In addition, make sure you have at least a short but real break between quitting your job and starting the hectic life of an MBA student. Some may accomplish all the above in two weeks, others take two months or more.
2. Start with the schools that have accepted you. They will have resources on applying for loans and maybe even obtaining grants. For more information, please see “Follow the $$$: Financial Aid in Business School.”
3. In terms of choosing between Yale and Johnson, you have two wonderful choices. I suggest you look first at the fields, industries, and companies that graduates of each school go into. Which one has more of what you are interested in? Then look at the curriculum and educational program. As you note, they are ranked closely and their general management orientation is similar. But, they are not identical. Do you have a preference in terms of the education? Finally, layer in personal preference. How did you feel about the rural environment in Ithaca or about being in New Haven, which is a fairly easy train ride from NYC? Are you concerned about Yale’s current change of leadership. For more info on choosing schools, please see:
   • Great Options: Multiple Acceptances
   • MBA Admissions: Choosing Among Multiple Acceptances
   • Multiple Acceptances

MissionMBA has had a very different experience. He was rejected at one school and waitlisted at Tuck. He appropriately takes Tuck’s waitlist decision as good news. Wisely, MBAMission realizes that “recent changes at my workplace” may give him something significant and appealing to write about.

That point is key for waitlisted applicants. The schools that accept updates are keenly interested in information that will help them assess the quality of your candidacy and your fit with their program. The last sentence implies substantive updates — not generated junk. Quality over quantity. At the same time, staying in touch (without being a pest or showing poor judgment) demonstrates interest and shows character. Conversely if you do nothing, schools that welcome updates will assume either a lack of interest or a stagnant applicant. And finally, those waitlisted applicants who incessantly call and/or email about nothing will be revealing a lack of consideration and the poor judgment that could actually cause a ding.

A few resources for MBAMission and other waitlisted applicants:

• The Nine Mistakes You Don`t Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist, an ebook.
• MBA Waitlist Tips
• Waitlist Letters
• Waitlist Chat Transcripts
• 5 Keys to Unlock the Waitlist Lock

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