If you want to explicitly hear an admissions officer say how strong your application is, get yourself put on a waitlist. Had my Tuck waitlist review. Even here the stumbling block seems to be 'differentiation'. Surprisingly no direct mention was made of Tuck love or lack thereof in my application. In a way it's good. Both the schools who have waitlisted me encourage additional materials and both want me to differentiate myself. So less effort for me.
We went through the various aspects of my application (essays, work exp, recommendation etc.) Most of my application components, including - surprise - the interview, fell into the 'good/great/strong' category. I don't read too much into adjectives like these as they are thrown around with such abandon. I did however, learn a thing or two about my application during this review. Apparently my academics are 'extremely strong'. And I was worrying myself silly about my undergrad gpa. My work experience at X is 'interesting'. Well, thats an interesting choice of words. Had the lady not been so friendly I would have thought she was being sarcastic.
I haven't talked about recommendations too much here. Doesn't mean that I have not worried myself sick about them. Both my recommenders are engineers, not given to hyperbole and I didn't do any recommender management whatsoever. When I went to ask for recommendations, this is how the conversation went
Me - I am applying to business schools. Can you give a recommendation?
Recommender - Sure, why not.
Me - I hope it'll be strong. (self-deprecating laugh)
Recommender - Yeah sure.
Me - (awkward silence followed by hasty exit)
So it was a relief to know that the recommendations fell in the 'great' category.
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4 comments:
Hmmm... if everything is good/great, what else do you need to do to differentiate yourself?? Hope you make it through bud.
I hope you hear good news from Wharton soon!! :-)
It's interesting getting recs from engineers. Mine were from engineers as well, and when I asked for recs, they found themselves having no idea what b-schools looked for. I took them to lunch and spoke about what I learned through this entire b-school process to hopefully give them some guidance. Since everything's submitted already, I can only hope they found their way through the sea of rec questions - and didn't outweigh my "weaknesses" over my "strenghs." :-P
To top it off, both of my recommenders are non-native English speakers - which leaves me to wonder if their recs are full of grammatical errors...
You might have a good shot at Sloan. My guess is that they like engineers.
I hate waitlist, too. Good luck!
well..paranoia is good...if you ask me !
in my case the wait is making me wonder, if it is worth the effort (the MBA degree i mean)...
but im saying that cos i dont have an invite as yet !
good luck and hang in there...let the positive energy flow !
cheers
Ash
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