MBA Waitlist Strategies #2

I wanted to follow-up on my previous post with a few brief, but key points, illustrated by the actual waitlist instructions from Wharton and Anderson. There is nothing special about either of these sets of instructions. They just happen to be the ones that some of my clients forwarded to me, and I thought they illustrated important principles to keep in mind for all schools.

First up: Wharton

Key Point: Many applicants reflexively send unused essays from other schools to supplement their original applications. This is not always wrong, especially if the essay can address a potential weakness in your application. However, as a general rule, schools want value-added updates since you submitted your application. If they didn’t ask you for a particular essay topic in the original application, it means that topic wasn’t a priority for them.

Next up: Anderson

Key Point: I had a recent conversation with a client that scared me. He was planning to send weekly “love letters” to the adcom to demonstrate his “passion”. I told him that doing so would be interpreted as “desperation” or “begging”, not passion, and would reflect poorly on his readiness to handle, for example, the demanding negotiations required in internship or job hunts. No one wants to hire or work with a desperate beggar!

The one surefire way to demonstrate passion is through self-improvement, which aligns with the mission of the school and reflects your sincere effort at carefully considered growth, an extremely attractive quality to adcoms since that is one of the main purposes in applying to an MBA in the first place.