antelB
Love your post tlbkcal!
I'm going to up my GMAT from a 690 and definitely reapply. I applied to the top 6 schools got interviews from 3, waitlisted in 2 and missed HBS, but may get into a local part-time in the fall. Meanwhile, I will apply to the top 4 schools next year fulltime.
One thing that I'm wondering from the WL'ers who are still in is if they made any calls to the office, or had anyone else make calls. Aside from answering my interest e-mail, I did not make any calls to HBS myself, nor could I find anyone influential enough to make them.
I say if you've made it in the Waiting List this year, they will definitely take a close look at you next year, and I suspect that the admission rate of re-applicants in general is higher, and waitlisted re-applicants even higher than that. Sandy do you have any figures on this?
NO figures that would withstand peer review at the
New England Journal of Medicine and Admissions, but I got some very educated hunches. Going down to the wire and getting dinged is not per se a sign that you reapp chances are solid. I know lots of WL kids and late WL kids (and just plain interviewed kids) WHO DO NOT GET INTERVIEWED IN THE NEXT YEAR. You need to do a personal profile and ask, 1. AGE, real key issue, if you are in 27-28 range now, reapp chances not good, if you are 22-23, they are much better; profession: if you are schmuck IB or PE guy, who jumped the gun, e.g. applied after 1 yr IB or during 1st year of PE and as reapp, you are normal, well, that is good, obviously. 3. what is different: do you have room to spike up a low gmat, that can help, if you are marginal, esp. if you check out on 1 and 2 above. 4. If you are now drifting into 3yr IB or 3yr PE or 4th yr consulting, that is not good, altho not fatal. As a rule --new job or new gig of old job is not the game changer you hope it to be, and they may wonder why you took new job if you knew you were reapp'ing. Altho sure, you might change jobs, firm up how job story melds w. career story and who knows, gotten in anyway, or have that make a diff. Dirty little secret: many late WL dings, or many, are result of some bobble in interview. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENUF. The HBS interview is s-c-a-r-r-y, even if you think it went 'ok' -- I've now been in touch w. 8-12 people who have received feedback, either as part of normal Dee feedback, or thru back channels, and that feedback cited ONE SCHMUCK Q&A as crystalizing a ding--now I use the word "crystalize" to give the adcom the benefit of the doubt, that answer was just a proxy for a real theme about your app, e.g. not having good enuf game face (or real face) PLUS tentativeness in other ways.
But in some cases, it seemed like Seinfeld soup Nazi stuff, an innocuous answer and NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ3AOmZ2fps (you want bread?...................NO HBS FOR YOU. )
"Well, you are thinking, I can see how that happened to me, so next year I just have to not ask for more bread." NOT SO FAST, you may not get interviewed if you are now too old, or too rooted in your current gig, etc. etc.
All that said, reapps do get in, usually younger ones. As to late WL, well, if you got that far, your app. was prob. solid, but not necessarily, I read lots of admitted apps which are pretty crappy, altho I see how the kid got in based on stats, jobs, accomplishments, etc. etc. Sooooooooooo, make sure as reapp. that app. is real good. If you are lucky, app was bad and lots of room for improvement.
As to other question: many WLers did apply bigfoot pressure, and some times that person got in, and sometimes not. Obv. many kids just waited, w. same outcomes. ALtho lemme say, I'm not one to sugar coat things, as a rule, depending on bigfoot and what she said, pressure can help.
ADVICE to those still on WL, MOVE TO CAMBRIDGE RIGHT NOW AND LET THEM KNOW YOU ALREADY BOUGHT THE BOOKS AND CAN START INSTANTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IN FACT GET A SANDWICH BOARD AND WALK UP AND DOWN IN FRONT OF DILLON HOUSE W. MSG. 'READY TO GO, RIGHT NOW' AND CARRY A CERTIFIED CHECK FOR TUITION.
(only mildly kidding).