Navigating The Realities of the Waitlist by: Mark Wong on April 20, 2011 | | 3,055 Views April 20, 2011 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit After taking theĀ GMAT, writing essays, and conducting interviews, navigating the waitlist is yet another progressively ambiguous stage of the admissions process.Ā Based on the research Iāve done so far, each school approaches the waitlist game a little differently and each has the potential to change its approach every year.Ā Some schools want you to plead your case and look favorably upon post-decision activities, such as sending additional information, conducting supplemental interviews, and retaking the GMAT.Ā Candidates who are well connected sometimes have their contacts reach out to the school on their behalf.Ā This includes āunsolicitedā letters of support, which are āspontaneouslyā sent from interested alumni. Wharton, however, has been very clear that the school does not take any additional information into consideration when finalizing the admit class.Ā This was expressed in both the decision letter and a supplemental email to all waitlisted candidates.Ā The adcom has also indicated that the size of the waitlist pool has no correlation with the number getting in.Ā Therefore one personās admission doesnāt necessarily affect another personās chances, though I would suspect that the adcom has at least a rough class size in mind. Ā Wharton has been pretty objective in the admissions process thus far, especially given the new interview format. AfterĀ gettingĀ waitlisted at Wharton,Ā I began browsing theĀ forums on GMAT Club and found that theĀ feedback among waitlisted candidates was mixed.Ā The majority of people who posted were planning to follow the rules and not submit any additional info.Ā But there was definitely a lot of curiosity about what they could do and whether or not the policy was as strict as it sounded. I donāt blame people for being interested in their options.Ā Based onĀ my own experience, I can definitely say that sitting on a waitlist without any control of your fate is a rough feeling.Ā You start to question everything that is put in front of you. Ā Maybe this ādonāt send info policyā is just a test?Ā Maybe the adcom just wants to see how badly I want to get in?Ā People have passed along stories in which waitlisted candidates knowingly ignored the instructions, had some bigshot alumni contact the school on their behalf, and consequently got off the waitlist. Anecdotes and rumors aside, I personally feel that violating the no information policy is a lose-lose situation.Ā While I really would like to get accepted to Wharton, Iām not willing to sacrifice my integrity to get there.Ā And even if I could boost my chances, I wouldnāt feel right about being rewarded for breaking the rules.Ā If thereās one thing I learned as both a victim and a survivor of the financial meltdown,Ā itās thatĀ a strong and consistent moral compass is worth more than any degree program can provide.Ā Ā Given that I now intend toĀ switch careers and work in social enterprise, IĀ wonāt deviate from my principles after gettingĀ this far. It would be nice to have choice of schools to pick from, but at this point, I already know that Iwill be going to get my MBA this fall.Ā With Whartonās no information policy, my influence in theĀ admissions process is officially over.Ā So my waitlist strategy is simply ā to wait.Ā But in the meantime, I will definitely shift my focus towardsĀ why Iām going in the first place. This post is adapted from Random Wok, a blog written by Mark Wong from Silicon Valley. You can read all of his posts atĀ Random Wok. Selected posts by Wong at PoetsandQuants: Why I Want an MBA Climbing the GMAT Mountain: 630 to 710 on a Practice Test Do Consultants Have An Unfair Edge Over Other Applicants? Falling Behind & Stressed Out My New Critical Reasoning Strategy Figuring Out My Odds of Getting Into Harvard, Stanford, Wharton With My GMAT Classes Over, Itās Now Just Me and the Test Making a GMAT Test Taker Feel Like A Complete Pansy With a Month to Go Before His GMAT Test, Itās Time to Focus Is The GMAT Really Designed To Break You? I Took the GMAT Today and Rocked It! Charting All My GMAT Scores Over Time With Lessons After Scoring My 750, Itās Now All About Applying MBA Applications Wisdom from Muhammad Ali Facing A Gauntlet of Round Two Deadlines Should Everyone Apply to Harvard Business School? The Final Click Is The Hardest Click: Sending In My Application A Punch to the Gut: Bad Reviews On His Draft Essays MBA Essay Writing: Draining the Life Out of Me Beginning to Realize You Can Never Write The Perfect MBA Essay With Wharton and UCLA Apps Done, He Feels Like a Zombie Taking Back His Life After Sacrificing Health, Time & Sanity Slammed with Business School Spam Thanks to GMAC Getting an Invite for An Interview from Berkeleyās Haas School UCLAās Anderson School Asks Our Blogger To Interview A Ding From Harvard Business School After a Harvard Ding, Good News in a Cryptic Email from Wharton Another Ding: First Harvard, Now Berkeleyās Haas School Says No Surviving the Wait Game Why Iām Going to Get an MBA Attending UCLA’s Admit Weekend Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.