Applicants may be placed on the waiting list if the Admissions Committee wants to defer its final decision to a later date. This may happen for a variety of reasons:
- The candidate may be qualified but not competitive with others already offered admission
- There may be a need for clarification in the application
- A limited number of spaces may have already been filled
- There may be too many admission offers still outstanding to predict whether there will be any more places available in the incoming class
If you have been offered a place on the waiting list, we encourage you to seek feedback from your interviewer, submit additional materials, and strengthen your application to enhance your chances. For example, you may be encouraged to retake the GMAT or TOEFL, complete additional course work, clarify your work experience or career objectives, or interview again.
A waiting list decision should be viewed as a positive outcome because it means the Admissions Committee believes the applicant may be qualified for admission after strengthening his or her application and demonstrating continuing interest in the Vanderbilt MBA program. Candidates who follow the recommendations of the Admissions Committee cannot be guaranteed admission, but they are given the benefit of the doubt when a final decision is made.
In recent years, the Admissions Committee has admitted many candidates from the waiting list to help manage the size of the incoming class. We do not rank waiting list candidates, nor can we predict the likelihood of admission. It may be a matter of weeks or months before a decision can be made. We will keep candidates on the waiting list as long as they remain interested and as long as there is still a reasonable chance of admission, right up until the start of orientation if necessary.
