Admit With Scholarship Last year-WL This Year? Help???
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01 Feb 2008, 19:19
Here is the situation. I was admitted with a scholarship last year to a local school, Katz.
My stats are 690 GMAT and a 3.81 GPA. Just your average white guy..
I could not attend last year due to some personal issues. Last spring/summer I had a health condition which caused me to not be able to swallow correctly or at all..I could not eat solids without feeling as if food was getting stuck.-it was called allergic esophagitis. I started having it in April and it didn't get resolved until early August, only a couple of weeks before orientation started. I didn't think I was going to be able to attend a program since obviously I could not eat in public (would choke and spit) and had to puree and eat soft foods..I could not socialize or network. I developed a fear of choking. The doctors kept on telling me it was acid reflux..finally I got some new German doctor that was familiar with this condition-it is not widely known or understood in the adult population..He fixed me..it took the doctors over 3 months to figure out what the hell was going on. He had to put a balloon in my esophagus and dilate it and then I had to swallow steroids.. Needless to say it wore on me mentally and physically.
Then right after that was resolved in early August..t I had to help my mother out financially to the tune of $4800 since she had to get her roof fixed. That was just too much for me to take in one summer. I contacted the admissions office and advised them I DEFINITELY could not attend after that happened. I was hoping to get myself physically better so I could then that family issue hit. I was actually in touch with them numerous times in the summer to let them know about my medical condition. I scanned and e-mailed all of my medical records to them to let them know I was not bullshitting them and making up excuses. I was literally a mess last summer before the financial situation with my family hit. I never thought I would be able to eat again with friends/family..may sound irrational, but when you struggle at every meal for a couple of months, its understandable you would begin to have those thoughts.
I reapplied this year. Nothing has changed in my application. I went from admission with scholarship to a waitlist. They said the application pool was more competitive...but give me a break..I was in the top tenth percentile in terms of GMAT and GPA last year. I don't think the GMAT Score/GPA could have gone up that much in one year to make me go from an admit with scholarship to waitlist.. The average GMAT for last year's class was 615. They don't grant deferrals..technically it's a reapplication, but the Adcoms review it with the knowledge that I was an admit last year.
I am pretty upset about this. It's not like I blew the program off because I felt like it or because I wanted to go bartend on a tropical island. I had issues that anyone else would have deferred with. They knew early in the summer I was having some issues. I didn't drop this on them last minute. I told them I was trying to get myself better. I provided them adequate documentation. I am hoping they would have some humanity and review my application in light of the fact I wanted to go, but just got sidetracked with all of the situations that were going on and were out of my control.
I am not sure what to do. I pretty angry. They sort of misled me by indicating that it was ok for me to defer. They told me upfront I may not receive the same scholarship award, but they seemed to imply being admitted to the program would not be an issue.
Now I am behind in terms of other applications. I didn't think I needed to apply to any other schools. I didn't even ask anyone to right recommendations for me yet since I didn't see the need to. I am also at a disadvantage in terms of getting any funding from other schools because of this-usually the scholarship deadline is February 1st or around there. I feel they were misleading, whether intentionally or unintentionally, in their presentation of the reapplication process. I am not sure what to do.