Hopes, Heartaches and Sour grapes

As the deadline for releasing the Haas EWMBA round two admissions decisions approached, I went back to my long lost addiction - browsing the businessweek forum. Having gone through the traumatic waiting process, I felt that I could empathize with potential applicants. As expected the Haas EWMBA thread was abuzz with activity.

Let me begin with hearty Congratulations!! to all of the newly admitted applicants. We are all rejoicing with the hope that this will lead us to better opportunities.

But a lot of people did not get the news they hoped for. The ugly side of B-School admissions is that no matter how much one tries, there will be some applicants who will not make it. I have been dinged, and it was the Stanford application. The way I looked at it - you cannot win every battle - but with persistence you will probably win the war.

Given that there were dings, there were also the rounds of emotional outbursts. While I can understand the pain of the ding, a public emotional response to me is the equivalent of the kids on American idol who curse the idol judges - makes TV entertaining but doesn't reflect well otherwise. I hope that applicants who feel strongly about the unfairness of the admissions process should wait before scheduling any feedback session, especially if they want to apply to the same school again.

Lastly, Best of Luck to all the waitlisted applicants.