Karen’s advice from last February on managing your waitlist status still holds true. And whether you are on the waitlist or you’ve applied and you’re waiting for your admission decision, there are some things that you can do to prepare yourself for B school or for another year in the workforce. In this series, we’d like to explore what some of those things are and we’d love to hear from you about how you are spending your time and setting yourself up for a successful transition or plan B.

1. Relax, Regroup & Refocus: one of the defining characteristics of most MBA applicants is that they are driven and ambitious folks. As such, they tend not to spend time reflecting on successes such as meeting the goal of applying to B School. We know what it takes to submit a robust, well-rounded, outstanding portfolio of essays and other credentials. Take time to pat yourself on the back for making all those deadlines, managing your recommenders, bypassing social engagements in favor of GMAT preparation and essay writing. The journey to B School is long, expensive and if you are doing it right, peppered with opportunities to get to know yourself a bit better.

Relax. Put that Wall Street Journal down, kick off your heels and loosen your tie. We know you’ve got a lot riding on this, but the benefits of taking a deep breath before pushing ahead is that it allows you to reduce your stress and anxiety and deal with your B School support network from a place of confidence.

I can count on all of my fingers, and all of yours, the number of phone calls we have received from applicants minutes after they’ve hit the “submit” button or received a “waitlist” notification. They are nervous, anxious, and rattled. Do whatever it is you do to relieve stress and allow you to think clearly, go for a run, call a friend for a cup of coffee, browse the local mega-bookstore. Putting your effort, application and future in perspective helps you formulate a strategy based on wisdom, not fear.

We often tell applicants that if they could take a peek behind the door of any of the top school’s admissions process, that they’d be incredibly comforted by the integrity, attention and humanity that goes into the process. For candidates we are not able to admit in the current cycle, we let them know as soon as possible so that they can begin working on “Plan B”. For candidates who are admitted, we want to alert them as soon as possible so that they can begin the (usually multi-layered) process of transitioning out of a job, city, relationship, etc. and for those candidates who are waitlisted, we try to keep their numbers low so that we can provide the care and attention that is required.

And why do we know so much about relaxing, refocusing and regrouping? Because all of us on the admissions committee hold advance degrees, we’ve been where you are and we’ve taken the GMAT/GRE/LSAT in pursuit of our dreams too, so we know we’ll do our best to look out for you. To ensure that your hard work receives our most fair, robust and thorough evaluation. You've done the hard work, and now we get to do what we love. We hope that helps you to relax, even if only for a moment or two.