I was thinking about writing something on this blog about the waitlist and decided to sit down with Megan Lynam, Director of Admissions and Fuqua Class of 2003 … who was also admitted from the waitlist! I had a nice chat with Megan about the MBA waitlist process and wanted to share with you some key things that I wish I had known last year. Megan also blogs from an admissions perspective, so you may want to check out some of her posts, too.

There were really 3 burning questions on my mind: Why am I on the waitlist? What can I do now? When will I know my fate?

Why?

There are a variety of things that could place someone on the waitlist. I personally know someone with a strong undergrad GPA and a 99^th percentile GMAT who was on the waitlist last year. I also know someone with impressive and extensive work experience who was on the waitlist. And I know people who are the perfect Fuqua fit, with good extracurriculars, who nailed their interview … who were also on the waitlist.

The best answer is that the admissions committee liked everything about you, but saw something in your application that gave the committee “pause” — meaning there was some part of your application package that was confusing, unclear, inconsistent, or simply not convincing. This could have been a weaker academic profile, a concerning recommendation, a gap in your story, unconvincing answers for “Why Duke,” etc.

What Can I Do?

In our perfect world the MBA admissions committee members would call everyone on the waitlist, talk with us for 2 hours, and provide detailed feedback about whatever aspects of the application held the committee back from an admission offer. But this would obviously be time consuming and would ultimately be giving us a fish, rather than teaching us how to fish. Hurdles and disappointments are a part of life, and resiliency and self-awareness are two characteristics that admissions committees seek in their applicants.

So instead, each waitlisted candidate needs to do some serious introspection and honest evaluation of his or her application package. Reread your essays and think about your recommendation writers. Ask yourself: Is this really presenting a full picture of who I am? Am I really conveying my reasons for why I want to be at Duke? Do I make a compelling case for what I’d contribute to the school? Is there anything that doesn’t make sense?

The truth is that the waitlist is really not the place for waiting. You have a wide-open spectrum to make the case for why you should be admitted. There are no word counts, criteria for recommenders, or subjects assigned. The goal is to essentially address any concerns, gaps, or confusion in your application file. This can be done by staying in touch with the admissions committee via mbawaitlist@fuqua.duke.edu. You can send them information like:

• Rewritten essays
• Reports of additional coursework
• Updated test scores
• Notifications of job changes or achievements
• New letters of recommendation

But you aren’t restricted to just these items — you can be creative to further make your case, just be sure to address any area that you think may have been lacking in clarity or focus in your application package.

There are basically no rules for the waitlist other than the consideration: how will the admissions committee view this? Remember, you are coming to business school to get an education and ultimately get a job. As you “take advantage of the waitlist” with supplemental essays, letters, and so on, you should try to treat admissions as a prospective employer. If you are overbearing, too persistent, or fake, that isn’t going to help your case.

For more information, check out these Frequently Asked Questions about the waitlist.

When Will I Know?

The process is simple: basically, if you’re waitlisted, the next time you may hear from the admissions office is when decisions are released for the following Daytime MBA application round. So, Early Action waitlisted candidates will either hear a yes, no, or nothing (which means still on the waitlist) when Round 1 decisions are released. Any waitlisted candidates remaining from Early Action, as well as those waitlisted in Round 1, will be reviewed along with the Round 2 applicants. If your decision is updated to admit or deny, then you would hear something around the Round 2 decision release date. Similarly, all candidates on the waitlist from prior rounds are considered with the Round 3 applicants and would hear updates around the Round 3 decision release date. All of this communication will be via email — same as the rest of the applicant notification process.

After Round 3, things change somewhat. You could possibly hear from the admissions office at any point after Round 3. An invitation for admission would come by phone.

Given this timeline, you’ll want to be sure that any updated materials that you send are received by the MBA admissions committee at least 2 weeks before a round’s decision release. After Round 3, waitlisted applicants should keep the admissions office updated regularly through the summer, because the waitlist could be reviewed at any time.

Check the Daytime MBA apply page for decision release dates for each admissions round.

Final Thoughts

Being on the waitlist isn’t the ideal place to be, but it’s better than an outright “no.” The key is to stay positive, do your best, keep learning, and ultimately just let the chips fall where they may. I’m a firm believer that things happen for a reason, and one way or another we all somehow land on our feet. Best of luck.

Cherry blossoms at Fuqua!

… and I’ll tell you why:

1. No Recruiting! I wrote about my very hectic recruiting experience this year, and I’m pleased to report that it all paid off. I’m going to work at Morgan Stanley this summer as a credit analyst on their Fixed Income Desk — imagine a big trade floor, lots of computer monitors, lots of noise, etc. — I’m very excited. My wife doesn’t want to miss out on all the NYC fun, so I’m packing up my little family and we’re
   

   Enjoying the outdoors with my daughter.

   all moving to the big city this summer.

2. Springtime. Growing up in Southern California, I’ve never really experienced a proper spring. I went out of town during spring break and came back to Durham to find all the trees filled with flower blossoms. In addition, the sun is shining, the temps are warmer, and the days are longer. I’m playing with my 2 toddlers outside a lot more, and we’re even going camping next week.
3. School. The core curriculum that all first-year students go through (accounting, stats, operations, etc.) provides an excellent foundation in business. But, starting with Spring Term 2, our course load consists of electives, and so far it’s awesome. I’m in classes ranging from valuation to entrepreneurial strategy, and each one is fascinating in its own way. More importantly, all of the students in the electives are very passionate about the material, so the class discussions are very engaging.

So the journey continues. It was about this time last year that I was making decisions, resigning from my job, and getting ready to move cross-country to start my MBA. Looking back, I really feel like I have gotten exactly what I wanted out of Fuqua. If I could rewind the clock a year, I’d make the same choice again.

Coming into this year’s recruiting cycle, I knew I wanted to cast my net as widely as possible. I genuinely wasn’t sure how much traction I was going to get in terms of first round interviews, let alone follow-up interviews. But I was pleasantly surprised to end up with many first round interviews (I’m very good at walking people through my resume now … and talking about my biggest weakness). Of that, I flew out for a hand-full of final round interviews. The most intense final round day I had was 10 interviews back-to-back combined with a 45-minute presentation on a company pitch that I was assigned a week before hand.

The interview prep, travel, actual interviewing, and thank you noting combined with my usual school responsibilities kept me extremely busy over the last few weeks. I have probably missed more class in the last 4 weeks than I’ll miss in the next 4 terms, but through it all my professors have been understanding, my team supportive, and most importantly, my wife has been a champ. Seems like every Sunday evening I’d give her an overview of the week to come — what city I’ll be in, which companies, and how much time I’ll be needing at school to prep. Even though I was away in some distant city, she still packed up our 2 kids and made it to every Fuqua Friday without me!

I also want to give some praise to the Career Management Center. They don’t exactly get in your face before each interview, but if you want help they’re absolutely there and very helpful. I’m not sure I fully realized this until the recently weeks. They’ve been extremely informative through the process and are also excellent people to bounce interview or offer strategies off of. After all, they do this for a living and so they’ve generally seen it all at this point. The myth (and naïve hope) at any business school is that the career center basically lines up top companies and simply gives you jobs like candy (at least, I sort of thought that). But what I found was that the career center ends up being a strategic partner — you work WITH them (rather than them working FOR you) and when you learn to work together, the opportunities roll in.

North Carolina pumpkin patch.

Most of the “Fall Festivals” I’ve experienced (in Southern California) are just a few pumpkins and bales of hay in some deserted parking lot next to noisy railroad tracks or a freeway. This is not the case in North Carolina. Really, the bar has been forever set for my kids. I don’t think they (or I) will ever be content with a parking lot pumpkin patch again.

We recently trekked out to a fall festival with Fuqua Families (a subgroup of Fuqua Partners), which is an amazing support system for any MBA student with a family. The group hosts a variety of activities for students and their families. It’s a great chance to get outside the walls of the business school and experience the area with second-year students and their families who act as seasoned guides. And the best part is that most of the activities are sponsored by the Fuqua Partners organization (which generally means it’s free!).

Corn Crib.

Given the fall backdrop, October’s activity was a pumpkin patch trip. The day was a whole new level of “pumpkin patching” for me and my family. Everything from tractor rides to corn mazes to face painting to a corn crib. What’s a corn crib? A giant box filled with 38,000 pounds of corn kernels, slide included — it was like a giant sandbox, only filled with corn. And of course, you get to trek out into the vast pumpkin patch and pick your own pumpkin right off the vine.

The event was a hit! We met fellow Fuquans and their families, spent the day outside in the fresh air, and of course, brought home a set of awesome pumpkins.

The fall season is upon us and the leaves are changing. If you haven’t lived somewhere with 4 full seasons, North Carolina catches all of them and it’s a sight to see.

But I think it’s important to note that as the 5 programs came into scope, I continually tried to identify if the school was somewhere I could thrive, somewhere I could learn and grow, and ultimately somewhere I could be happy.

Fuqua's Fox Center -- where I also happened to write this blog post.

With Fuqua, I remember a very clear moment when this all came together.

I arrived early in the morning for my on-campus interview on a cold day in March (one of the few days that it snowed last year). I’d never been to North Carolina and was largely taking it all in and trying to envision myself and my family here. With an hour to spare and very few people on campus that early, I strolled down the main hall and ended up at the Fox Center.

It was quiet there (which I’ve since learned isn’t usually the case as it’s normally filled with students eating, studying, and socializing). But as I sat there and looked out the massive 30 foot windows with the snow on the ground, the trees in the background, and the sun just starting to peak through the clouds, I had a kind of premonition. My mind fast-forwarded through time and I could literally see myself there: studying and learning, hiking on the trails just outside the windows, networking and recruiting, socializing, and enjoying Fuqua Fridays with my family and friends.

The rest of that March day was filled with interviews, class visits, and campus tours. (Visit the admissions events calendar to learn about upcoming campus visits.) It was great to see Fuqua first-hand, and as expected I found sharp faculty, great curriculum, solid students, and so on. But somehow those few quiet moments in the Fox Center were what really sealed the deal for me. From then on, Fuqua was where I needed to be.

Since coming to Fuqua this past August, I’ve enjoyed many activities in the Fox Center. I don’t know what Mr. and Mrs. Fox were hoping for when they donated funds to help construct this area, but amazingly it’s a core component of every Fuquan’s experience. My assumption is that everyone spends at least a few minutes in the Fox Center every day. And it’s still my favorite area of the business school.