Dear Waitlisters -
We haven't forgotten about you. In fact, we will spend more time considering your candidacy than we did for our admitted students. Why? Because we want to make fully informed decisions about your candidacy. The team has been actively re-reviewing your files and your updates to evaluate your potential contribution to and fit with the incoming class. Our decision hinges not only on what you bring to the table, but what the rest of the dinner party looks like. We'll have a better sense of that after May 1, when Round 1 and 2 admits give us their enrollment decision.
There are two main reasons for being placed on the waitlist: (1) you had good academics, work experience and personal experiences, but there were many other candidates who promised to bring the same thing to the table as you did; or, (2) you had good work and personal experience, but there wasn't enough evidence in your academic record to give us confidence that you wouldn't struggle in our program.
Here's how I'd suggest managing your waitlist status: For those of you with strong academics and work experience, other than making sure that you let us know that you are still interested in attending Ross and providing the requisite update, there isn't much you can do to increase your chance of being admitted because it really boils down to how many people with a similar contribution potential decide to enroll.
For those of you with strong experience but less competitive academics - you can still retake the GMAT (we'll accept your highest score) and/or if you had little to no quant courses in undergrad, then you could take a college-level math class to strengthen your candidacy. Make sure you submit your transcript upon completion.
Quite honestly, some of the best students in our program have been those admitted from the waitlist. By "best" I mean - the leaders, the most committed to the school, the biggest contributors, the innovators. Unless they shared with their classmates that they had been on the waitlist, no one would know.
I remember making a call to a waitlister a couple years ago and having to leave a voicemail asking the person to call me back. The next call was to his girlfriend who was also admitted from the waitlist. She was ecstatic for herself and wanted to know if her boyfriend had also been admitted. I couldn't officially share the news with her before sharing it with him, so I let her know that I left him a voicemail to call me. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to return my call before I had to leave the office for recruiting travel. So as not to prolong the anxiety of waiting to connect with me by phone, I asked another Admissions Committee member to give him a call. The newly admitted couple were able to celebrate their happy news together.
The team and I look forward to making admit calls to waitlisters in the coming month. Though I won't know how many until after May 1, rest assured that there will be many. Thanks for your continued interest and patience.
