"The Waiting Is the Hardest Part"

Plenty of prospective students are desperately waiting to hear about decisions from b-schools they have applied to. I remember this stage of the application process well...in fact I think it was the worst part. At least when you were working on applications you had something to do to keep you busy. But once you send off the applications, there's nothing to do but worry. Well my advice to all prospectives students is that while you can't avoid thinking about when you're going to hear back from schools, you can avoid worrying more than necessary.

I had a bad habit of checking the Business Week forums every five minutes to see if I could glean any sort of information from other people on there. There really wasn't any useful information other than the occasional students who showed up on the boards to answer questions and assuage applicants fears. So if you can, avoid reading the forum boards. You're not going to figure out your chances of getting in by reading the boards either. People obsessively ask for stats or post their stats in some sort of effort to see if they have a chance of getting in or not. Here's the truth: there's no way to determine your chances of being accepted just by comparing your stats with other people on the forum boards! If the application process really were that black and white...what the heck would be the point of an application process then?

Most schools either have set dates that they will notify you on, or they notify you on a rolling basis. So until the notification date comes around, or you get that e-mail about your application status, just try and relax. You've already worked hard on you applications and when you get into b-school, you're going to work like you've never worked before. In the meantime, enjoy the fact that you have achieved a huge milestone of even applying. If you have heard back from schools, make sure you do yourself a favor an visit the schools before accepting if you haven't already. Visiting a school is the one most important things you can do as you decide. Try and meet faculty and students to get a sense of the environment you're going to be in for the next two years. Kudos to all you prospectives who are planning to be here for Discover or Welcome Weekend.

If you have any questions about the application process, ask an Owen Blogger or other current student. That's where you're going to get a straight answer. Don't waste time trolling the forum boards for answers when you can get much better information right here.