GSB R1 and R2: Lets the pants pooping commence!

Well there goes my Kellogg waitlist then!

Not that I'm really holding out anymore.

Frankly, I was surprised they did not offer you full scholarship

What are the other 8 mistakes you don't want to make?

Am not sure if I can post copyrighted material here

Naw, Pelihu tells me it's ok to post summaries and the like, as long as you're not making money. And it's always nice to cite the source. So do it

OK, so here are the 9 mistakes you don't want to make on an MBA waitlist from "The Nine Mistakes You Don't Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist" by Linda Abraham, founder and president of Accepted.com:

1. Ignore the instructions given to you by the school in the waitlist notice or in further correspondence
2. Be modest about your recent achievements (In Russia we say 'Modesty adornes you, when there's nothing else to adorn you' )
3. Hide your genuine interest in the school
4. Don't seek expressions of support from third parties
5. Plan a one-time deluge of correspondence
6. Fail to assess reasons for being waitlisted or act on an assessment
7. Complain to the school about the agony of being waitlisted
8. Provide excessive apologies or express regret about weaknesses/mistakes
9. Play schools against each other

Whoops.



Whoops.

Nooooo... You did not, did you?

Well, as for mistake number nine, it is still acceptable to make a polite phone call to a school where you are waitlisted syaing:
- it is the deadline for submitting a deposit in school X where I was accepted in two days, but I would really love to attend YOUR school rather than X, but teh deposit is a considerable amount of money for me so could you be so kind as to check once again my waitlist status?

On those extra recs for gsb, did you mail them in, or were you able to add another recommender through the online app?

I don't know that I agree with the recommendation of sending new correspondence every 2-3 weeks. I had people tell me not to do that and that by doing so you run the risk of annoying the Admissions people. I heard that it was better to send correpsondence every 4-6 weeks while on the Wait List.

If you send a letter every 2-3 weeks I would bet that a lot of the information you mention is redundant with what you've already mentioned in your essays, interview, and previous correspondence.

I don't know if it is true, but I heard that because the GSB is not going to review your application until all of the second round applications have been submitted, they'll end up looking at all of the correspondence you sent at once.

Moreover, because the Chicago GSB won't give you any feedback as to why they put you on the WaitList in the first place, how can you know what to emphasize?

I was not asked any of those questions. The interviewer just went thru my resume and asked me whether I did this, did that, and I just said yes, yes. Then some questions to dig deeper in the resumes, and some probe up questions based on what I answered...

Thanks for your suggestion anyway.

No, it is not possible to add anything to your submitted online app. All extra recos went by mail.



By "new correspondence" everything that is related top your app is meant - not only your own updates but also additional recos. I would agree with you that you should not send update letters as such that often. One letter in 1 to 1.5 month will suffice.



You are right about reviewing the whole application together with the second rounders, but I am sure they do make notes as to when those updates have been submitted. And they did acknowledge the receipt of the update letters I submitted.



They expect you to be smart enough to be able to assess your weaknesses and address them. Rose Martinelly said as much in Montauk's.

I think if interviwer does not ask you these questions directly, you should answer it one or other way. Based on my reserach, what I have found that GSB interviwer wants to know "WHY GSB" and "WHY YOU" ...

Those were certainly the only 'canned' questions I got asked. The rest of the 35 minutes we just chatted about the program and extracurriculars.

my interviewer too did not ask me these questions.. i was suprised.. in the end he asked me if i wanted to say anything else.. i told him why gsb and why me..what will i do for gsb.. but he did not seem interested at all.. he said he hears the standard answers..........

needless to say, i was bummed.. he did not seem too interested in my answers!

To me she phrased "WHY GSB" like this.... "You have been to GSB so many times, what you like about GSB".....

Same as mine.

The difference is this: After about 10 minutes spinning my resume, from work to extracurricular activities, the interviewer said: let me think of another question for you... I laughed over the phone when hearing this, and the other end also laughed. Then she asked me if I wanted to say anything, anything is ok. I laughed again (thinking that this interviewer didn't prepare well in advance what to ask me and now she don't know how to use up the 30 minutes), and I asked her whether I should tell her about my future goals (she hadn't asked about it). She was happy when I mentioned this (because she forgot to ask about it, I guessed). Then it's done with my answering part. She asked me whether I wanted to ask her anything. I got 3 questions and she answered them in a manner like an automatic answering machine, plus a yawn over the phone.

Don't know what the outcome will be.