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The Waiting is the Hardest Part

2010年07月11日

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I helped a client “Taro” with a low 600 GMAT get accepted to a top 5 MBA program. Normally, I would advise a client with such a low score to wait until next year instead of applying to top schools. However, for various reasons, Taro was highly motivated to gain admission this year. So, our strategy was to take a two-tiered approach of applying to both safety and dream schools. Taro had already been accepted to a “safety school,” which is actually quite a good program. This left Taro and me to focus on the dream school that had placed him on its waitlist. Now, you might ask how someone with a low 600 GMAT could get onto the waitlist of a top 5 program. The short answer is this: great essays, which led to an interview invitation; extensive interview preparation which led to an excellent interview.

Still, the big challenge remained: how to get Taro from Waitlist to Accepted. Here, we employed a multi-tiered strategy, which included a supplemental essay and recommendation letter plus a campus visit. For the supplemental essay, the focus of the content was primarily the information Taro gained and people he met during the campus visit, which included attending classes. For the recommendation letters, we were able to get one alumnus of the program. This person was not appropriate as a recommender for the initial application, because Taro did not work closely with him. However, he was an excellent choice for the waitlist stage, since he could attest to Taro’s work ethic, integrity, excellent people skills, etc.

Finally after all of these steps, Wharton sent Taro the great news. Almost immediately, he contacted me to share his happy result. I was happy and proud to have helped turn another client’s dream school into reality.