Notification Day is either extremely elating or devastatingly depressing. Here’s what you should do if the news is bad.
It’s never easy to receive bad news, but when that bad news changes your whole outlook on life, it’s nothing to scoff at. The first thing you should do if you receive the “thanks for applying” email instead of the “congratulations” email is to focus on the fact that your school choice is not going to change your life. Getting an MBA is the headline and the specific school where you do it is just a detail. There are dozens of schools where you can get exactly what you need to achieve your dreams, so never think fatalistically about getting in or not.
Plan B is more important than plan A.
Why would having a backup plan be more important than your primary goal? Because getting your primary goal doesn’t send you into a mental tailspin. Failing to hit your plan A can cause severe problems for you if you are not prepared. Having a thoughtful and achievable plan B is like having insurance on your future. People who fail to craft an alternative to their primary objective risk getting distracted, getting depressed, or worst of all, giving up. If you are truly MBA material, you won’t settle for failure. You will rise up and move forward.
Should you settle or should you try again?
The big question when not getting accepted is whether you should move on to your backup schools or wait and reapply to your target school again. Reapplying has it’s advantages, such as getting an extra measure of consideration the second time, getting an extra year of experience, and having some time to improve other core profile attributes. Of course the bid disadvantage is that you have to wait another year. Wrestling with this decision is one of the most important ones you will make and it ties directly into having a plan B in the first place. This is not a decision you want to put off until you get rejected, but rather something you should think about up front. Try to imagine what you will really feel like if you get a “no” from your dream school. Knowing this in advance can help you make the right call.
Get feedback from your target school.
Not every school’s admissions committee will give you feedback on your application and why you were rejected, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Going in person is one of the most effective ways to get a response, but if this is impractical for logistical reasons, try calling them. Email is the default for most people, but is also the lease effective way to get any information. If you are lucky enough to get feedback, use it to tweak your subsequent applications so you can correct your course for round two or three.
For information on how we can guide your business school application process, email us at mba@amerasiaconsulting.com or go to http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/contact