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  • Feedback request
    From: ytgebre  Jun 21, 2012 Posts 1

    I applied this year, and I was rejected without an interview. I am still hioghly enthusiatic about Wharton, so I am seriously considering reapplication. Before, I decide to apply though, I need to see whether I have any realsitic chance of admission this time. For this reason, I would like to request feedback about my current year application,; I should like to know whether I could fix the weakness(s) that led to my rejection. Can I get thisinformation?

    Yonatan Gebre

  • Re: Feedback request
    From: victormlee  Jun 21, 2012 Posts 2,553
    In reply to

    Hi, Yonatan,

    First of all, my sympathies; I've been turned down from opportunities in my life, and it's never fun.

    That being said, the good news is that Wharton is particularly receptive to reapplicants; if you are still convinced that Wharton is the right program for you, I would encourage you to reapply when ready. 

    Now, due to the previously overwhelming number of requests for feedback and the desire to be as fair as possible, Admissions has tended to adopt a policy in recent years not to provide feedback to reduce the possibility of anyone getting an unfair advantage in future applications.

    So, what can you do? I recommend three steps:

    1) Forget about the application for at least several weeks. Give yourself more time to clear your head, separate your emotions from your application, etc.

    2) Once you have given yourself some distance from the application, send it off to trusted friends who both know you very well and who also have successfully gone through the business school application process. See if they identify a coherent, convincing message in what you wrote - and if they can detect your genuine voice in what you have written.

    3) After having taken some time away from the application, go back and analyze each part one by one and really critically analyze where you might have been weak. Put yourself in the shoes of a hypothetical AdCom reviewer and see if you can identify next steps or areas for further improvement. Most likely you will find at least one area in which you could have developed. If you can't, there are at least three possibilities: a) you aren't being objectively critical enough; b) your denial was more an unfortunate result of just who else applied - unlikely if you were declined pre-interview phase; or c) you need to reconsider if you chose the best recommenders (if you didn't see their recommendation text).

    Hope this helps.

    -Victor

    WG '11

S2S: Reapplicants