This is dedicated to hopefulbadger, Johnngalt, quantconerns and all the Chicago Waitlists...
I was a R1 Waitlist who got an admit yesterday.
I totally understand how it is to be in the morally depressing limbo state called waitlist. But now when i look back at the last 3 months, it has been a true test to find the answer for,"How desperately and stubbornly one wants an admit?". There is only one word which truly describes this dogmatic, arrogant stupidity - "sisu" (finnish term
. try reading about it in wikipedia. It might pep up the morale a bit, atleast for me it did)
So, the most important point to be remembered before approaching the waitlist process is to firmly believe that this is just a minor setback due to some misunderstanding because of which Booth hasn't been able to appreciate you and extend an admit.
1. With that thought in mind, first try to figure out the gaps in your application. And for this, just don't hesitate to badger all individuals who can help you (don't make it obvious though). If you think somebody in gmatclub can review your application, then send a mail to them. Do not hesitate. Try contacting first year students in Booth, club representative and recent alumnis.
Just ensure that you have atleast 3-4 individuals who review your application and provide critical comments. (and it should definitely hurt when you receive them. But its ok, this is a chance to correct it)
2. Once you collate all the comments, do an impartial review of your whole application. (implies 'be ruthless' ). Figure out the gaps based on all comments.
3. Now identify how you can address those gaps. For this the most important point to be captured as part of Step.1 is, make sure to ask the reviewers how you could address those critical comments in your update essay. For ex, there could be one comment that the essay lacks emotional touch. Get clarification from them as whether you could correlate any of your personal characteristics with Chicago Booth culture.
4. Once you identify how to address the gaps, ensure that you send the materials with a defined time interval. For ex, if the waitlist period is 3 months, try sending an update once a month. The key here is constant touch.
5. Regarding the additional materials, i believe that an update essay is an absolute must to address the various gaps. Also share all the achievements in your life after the application was submitted. This could be anything from influencing European Union to raising funds for a school kid. Just make sure it gives an additional perspective to your application.
Apart from the update essay, try sending 1 or 2 powerful recommendation notes. Powerful implies somebody whose opinion will be valued by the school and will obviously strengthen your application. The one obvious candidate is an older alumni who is still in touch with the School.
Now the risk here is, no such alumni will give a reco note just like that to an unknown applicant. But the point is, there is nothing to lose by taking this risk. If you know somebody, whose friend's friend's boss is a Booth alumni, try contacting them. Try explaining your case to them and have an interview again with them. After all, there is a 50% chance that it might click.
I hope the above points will be helpful to all of you.
Coming to my case, I did three main things.
1. A few days after receiving the waitlist info, i sent a 6 line mail before Dec 25th stating that i am happy to be waitlisted, how i will be sharing additional info in the coming days and then wished them happy holidays.
2. Sent one update waitlist essay (nearly 2 pages long) - it involved the following points, 1. why Booth is the right choice from a personal and future goals perspective, 2. interactions with various alumni and info received from them. 3. career front update - luckily, i had a few patents filed in the last 6 months after submitting the R1 App.
-> For this, i had my initial essay reviewed by quite a few individuals including two in gmatclub. And infact, one gmatclub member reviewed my waitlist essay as well. (Remember, i identified that nothing can be altered with Essay 2 and PPT. So the only thing i got it reviewed is Essay 1.)
3. Apart from this, i contacted a Class 80's Booth alumni through another alumni. Had an interview with him. He was impressed with my case.
He sent a reco note to admissions stating the reasons as why and how i would be a great addition to Class-2012 and beyond. (apparently, this is the first time he's recommending someone till date)
I believe that while the update essay might have given a lot of additional positive reasons, the amazing reco note from a powerful alumni definitely would have tilted the waitlist into an admit.
And the thing which i missed sending is, an update on my extracurricular front. So, if you want, you can actually split your waitlist essay into two parts - one for professional front and other for EC.
Those are my 2 cents.
Wish you all goodluck.
Btw, to ease the pain of waitlist period, i took up Half Marathon training (and also raised funds for underprivileged children). It is highly recommended
Updated on: 24 Mar 2010, 11:31
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