It's A Waiting Game

Anyone who is currently applying to business school knows, the worst thing that could happen to you is being put on the waitlist. It seems counter-intuitive, since being on a waitlist isn't a direct "no" right? It's better than outright rejection? The answer deep down is yes, a "maybe" is always better than a "no" (or a "ding" as the message boards are calling them). 

Emotionally though, it makes you a wreck. When you apply for business school, waitlist isn't ever one of the options that you really consider. You usually figure that everything will be mostly black and white, will either be a "yes" or a "please go away". Being waitlisted gives you hope of going to that magical place, and you can almost taste the sweet educated, business school-y air...but alas, you shouldn't get your hopes up because there's still a large chance you won't get in.

[As a side note, since being put on a waitlist myself, it absolutely kills me that when trying to find information on waitlist protocol I keep getting routed to sites where "expert consultants" (like Veritas Prep, Admissions Consultants or Kaplan) can help me with my situation or, heaven forbid not getting in, future b-school apps...I mean c'mon, could you prey on anyone in a MORE vulnerable state?! After spending a couple grand on preparing for tests, taking tests, sending scores and submitting apps, a couple thousand more for some "expert guidance" seems reasonable...whats wrong with me?!]

So I did a little bit of digging... I visited a lot of schools, the school that I'm waitlisted at in particular, which I will only say is on the west coast. The general consensus is that there are few things that you can do in your situation. Especially if the Admissions Office has specifically asked you not to contact them, you don't want to run the risk of being "that" crazy student. But here are some tips that I've gotten (mind: they probably aren't applicable across the board at all schools, but it generally passes my gut check, so use with caution)

1. Show interest: Seems obvious- you already sent in an app right? How else can you show interest? Well, if you haven't visited the campus, go visit the campus. If you haven't sat in on classes, go sit in on some. Seek out "other groups"- most schools have women and diversity associations that host their own information sessions. Attend a few
2. Check-In...Once: Usually if you're waitlisted, they ask that you don't send in any additional materials unless they're updated GMAT scores. However, if you go to visit, get a promotion or have significant changes in your job/job function, drop a QUICK note detailing changes. Do it sparingly!
3. Re-take the GMAT: I know that this suggestion is enough to make most people want to off themselves...but.. it's always an option
4. Find a Sponsor: Sometimes, receiving a supplementary note of support from an alumni helps your application, but very minimally, so use caution here. Also, your sponsor should know you well and be able to speak about your strengths and weaknesses- if it's just a fluff piece, they'll know

 So what do we know about numbers?

1. Timing: This is not actually something I "know", but in terms of waitlisting, students I have spoken to agree that they usually waitlist heavily from Round 1 candidates. If you think about this from the strategic positioning of the school, it makes a lot of sense. You want to hedge your bets! Keep the ones that you're vaguely interested in but also keep your options open in case there's other fish in the sea
2. Timing 2: Hearing back...many schools (my school is one of them) have rolling waitlists, meaning they put everyone on a list, and then pull people off as they start hearing back from other students who won't be attending. If you applied Round 1, this means you can hear back anytime between February (usually Round 1 decisions are released mid/end of January) and August (when Round 3 is announced). Most of the students I spoke to that were waitlisted at my particular school agreed that they were waitlisted Round 1 and heard around the same time that they began releasing decisions for Round 2....so hopefully your wait won't be as painful as you think
3. Proportions: Schools have all sorts of numbers they throw around in terms of the proportion of students that they take off the waitlist. Admissions Consultants claim that the top schools accept anywhere from 10-25% of the waitlisted applicants. 
•  An interesting side note here is to look at the number of waitlist offers, the number of actual waitlisted applicants and then the number accepted. It's interesting to see that pretty consistently, only half of the waitlisted offers are actually accepted. Of those accepted, it seems that it would be 10-25% of those are actually admitted
4.   Fun with numbers!!
• As I was touring another California school, an admissions office broke it down like this: They receive ~7000 applications a year, they interview ~1000 and then they accept ~300.  The numbers are harsh, but unfortunately, life is not fair. Embrace it
•  The data is dated, but in supposedly, there were approximately ~3000 apps submitted to the school I'm waitlisted at for the class of 2012. Assuming that this is relatively normal, according to a waitlist chat transcript from the same school (Eeek from 2007!- but school website assures its a "small percentage" that are placed on the waitlist), they accept ~200 people across all rounds on the waitlist. Of these 200 they accept approximately 50. So, on the bright side...my school could accept as high as 25% of it's waitlist!
• Maybe the numbers are all over the place, so to give some perspective, in April 2010, BusinessWeek released an article where they claimed that the once guaranteed double-digit growth YoY was begin to slow down a bit- there might be a lot of causes for this, so it's important to keep a few in mind
• The economy is starting to recover...but slowly- that means people who want to cash in on the upswing might prolong their bschool apps til a later date when they have decided whether or not they want to switch jobs or go to school
• The system is normalizing itself- the glut that occurred in 2008-2009 were particularly bad because that's when the economy was at its worst. It's normal that the system would return to the standard normalized trend
• On the other hand, the economy is not recovering very quickly- this means that people are still trying to find themselves a "leg up" by going back to bschool OR they are going back to bschool for lack of being able to find a job
• Don't rejoice yet because it still depends on your profile- if you're a consultant, unfortunately, cards are stacked against you. There's a lot of you out there, and you typically trend younger when you begin applying- so you'll need to find a way to stand out from the crowd 

Finally.... I guess I will leave you by saying, I don't know what's going to happen to me. I will hear with Round 2 most likely around the end of March. Although I will be crushed if I don't get in anywhere, I keep telling myself that life will go on- even though it seems as if this will be the end-all, be-all, turning point, climactic peak of my life...If I don't get in anywhere, I promised myself I would allow myself to be sad for a week, and then I would make plans to figure out how to try again next year.