Sharad was waitlisted from a top 50 US school but got into a top 20 US business school
With merely 2 years of work experience, and after getting waitlisted by a tier two business school, cracking some of the top business schools in the US might seem like a difficult task. But this is exactly what Sharad was able to do.
After getting rejected by a Top 50 US Business School, Sharad cracked Penn State, a US Top 20 business school, and Texas A&M, a top 50 US Business School.
Sharad’s essay analysis
Like any MBA applicant, Sharad needed to look deeper than just the surface level to get these answers. He was giving answers he thought were enough but we needed to tap into his personality and decision-making process to come up with answers that would be convincing for the admissions committee.
When an applicant gives a very superficial answer to questions like “Why MBA?’, or ‘Why this school?’, it fails in convincing the admissions committee.
Sharad’s essays made it seem like he wasn’t convinced of his reasons to do an MBA or to choose Penn State. Thus, we asked him to go through every word of the tutorials and other resources that were provided to him and introspect to come up with much more personal reasons for his choice of an MBA.
Waitlist strategy
Sharad landed on the waitlist for a business school before getting his acceptance to two top US business schools. A waitlist letter can be disheartening for most students and that’s what happened with Sharad too.
However, Sharad did not have the time to feel disheartened since many more of his business school interviews were still lined up. We decided to come up with a waitlist strategy for him and then focus on the rest of his MBA applications.
The waitlist strategy was three-part.
1. The first step was to get a fresh letter of recommendation.
2. Sharad had an acquaintance who had been associated with the school that had waitlisted him. The second move was to have him endorse Sharad, if possible.
3. Carry on networking with the current students and alumni of his target school.
With the waitlist taken care of, Sharad could focus on all of his other interviews.
Which he absolutely nailed!
Sharad walked away with two admits to US’ top business schools, Penn State and Texas A&M.
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