If you’re fortunate enough to have received one or more offers of admission to business school this season, congratulations! That’s an impressive achievement and worth celebrating. But what can you do if you’ve landed on the waitlist or haven’t received an answer yet from your top-choice school?
Sometimes, the scenario is an acceptance at one of your backup or safety schools but waitlist status at a higher-ranked competitive or reach school. This the quintessential bird-in-hand dilemma for future business school students: Do you count your lucky stars that you have the option to earn an MBA from a school you were interested in enough to apply to in the first place?
Before you make a final decision, know that you have a few options that can keep the door open in case a favorable outcome emerges at that top-choice MBA program.
[Evaluate these three factors when comparing business school acceptances.]
— The delay tactic: Accepted applicants can and often do ask for a delay in responding to the offer of admission.
Although there are clear response steps in place once an offer goes out, MBA admissions is a very human process, and relationships and conversations have power. Many of our clients have received an extension for myriad reasons simply by asking.
Some students have had very unusual requests. For example, one of our clients told the admissions director of a highly ranked school about an opportunity he had to do a research project for the NBA on how basketball is perceived around the world and where the league could potentially expand.
He explained that the project might extend beyond the next few months, and he wanted to wait and see whether he could go back to school in the fall or needed to defer admission until the following year. The school accepted his request to let the admissions office know in August.
Another client asked and got more time, plus a scholarship offer a few days later to sweeten the deal. However, we’ve seen other cases where applicants who have had reasonable requests for an extension have been turned down. It’s all subjective.
[See do’s and don’ts for communicating as an applicant on the MBA waitlist.]
Another option is reaching out to your top-choice school for an early answer if deposit deadlines are looming. One client we worked with went to speak with the director of admissions of a local school in person. The official agreed to let him know of the school’s decision early so that he could act on another offer that included a scholarship before the deadline.
— Pay the deposit as insurance: In general, you’ll have up to a month to accept or decline an offer. However, if you’re accepted off the waitlist, the time frame to reply varies widely, from mere days to a couple of weeks, and your admissions offer will be withdrawn if you don’t respond within the time period.
You can hedge your bets by accepting the offer and paying the deposit to save your place, and then wait it out a bit longer.
If your dream school comes back to you with an admissions offer a few weeks later, contact the first school, explain your decision and request to withdraw your application. The admissions team won’t take it personally; they’ll simply move on to the next person on the waitlist.
You will lose your deposit, but ultimately you need to consider the bigger picture of your life and career. The financial hit from forfeiting your deposit is minimal in the grand scheme of MBA expenses that await you.
[See how to cut the cost of an MBA.]
— Feel good about the offers: It’s very much a numbers game when you’re applying to the top MBA programs, with only so many spots for an overwhelming number of talented candidates.
Ideally you only applied to business schools best positioned to help you achieve your professional goals. So even if ultimately you don’t receive good news from the dream MBA program, you’ll still be thrilled to go to b-school in the fall.
Give yourself as much time as possible to make your final decision. It may just be that once the initial sting of any rejections wears off, you’ll realize that you’re in a very enviable position.
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Decide Whether to Wait for Dream MBA Admissions Offer originally appeared on usnews.com
