Re: Preparing for Fall 2010 Applications Thread
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30 Mar 2009, 10:36
Bostonsparky, as a triple waitlister, I totally agree with your point. It's totally thrown off my timetable.
The other thing that really surprised me was the (in my opinion, ridiculous) levels b-schools go to in order to get "diversity." As a minority, I certainly appreciate diversity, but b-schools are a little too crazy about it, down to the seat level.
As someone who applied for different graduate programs in the past (PhDs), I assumed that b-schools also just took the "best" applicants as well, based on grades, test scores, recommendations, etc. But in b-schools, you are competing for one of the defined number of slots, based on any number of personal factors, whether that's job industry, geography, gender, race, nationality.
It is especially annoying for people on waitlists. Why the heck do these schools need waitlists of hundreds of ppl for what will probably amount to twenty (in the case of GSB) to maybe a few dozen (HBS, W) slots? It's because you're just needed to plug a hole in the case of a vacancy. So if an African-American in finance turns them down, they'll pull another one from the WL. In the end, you realize that unlike other grad programs, a lot of the b-school admissions process is really out of your control.