While the news of a ding from one’s target school can lead to a period of disappointment and reflection, the time of year is approaching for reapplicants to get up, brush themselves off, and get ready to give it another go. If you’re in this position, then you’ve undoubtedly learned a lot about the application process over the past admissions season. While you do have this working to your advantage, you’ll obviously want to do everything in your power to put together the most effective application possible the second time around. One of the most important things a reapplicant can do is to seek feedback on his or her application from an informed source – ideally the school itself.
Wharton and Kellogg allow all rejected applicants to request a feedback session on their previous year’s application. Meanwhile, other programs are more selective in offering tips and encouragement to especially promising candidates. A number of applicants who were denied admission to Tuck recently received an email with the following offer:
“Tuck pro-actively offers feedback to a small number of applicants, so our encouragement is sincere. Of the applications we reviewed this round, the admissions committee felt that your candidacy showed significant potential and merited encouragement. If you plan to re-apply next year and would like to receive feedback on ways in which you could strengthen a future application to Tuck, a member of the admissions committee would be happy to provide you with coaching. Given the admissions cycle, we will be able to offer feedback the week of May 23, 2005.”
You can make the most of such a meeting with an adcom member by having a number of pointed questions about specific elements of your application. However, you should keep in mind that the schools can only be so forthcoming about certain topics and are only able to spend a limited amount of time with each applicant. Feel free to drop an email to info@clearadmit.com for more information about our Feedback Report, a service that offers candid and comprehensive feedback about your entire application.
In other news:
Alex Brown, whose efforts were instrumental in shaping Wharton’s transparent admissions process and facilitating interaction among past, present and prospective students, is on the move. The Clear Admit team would like to acknowledge all that he’s done for the space, and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.
