Happy New Year! Will 2014 be a life changing year in which you are admitted to business school? We very much hope so! Many of our Fortuna clients are sharing their own stories of where they were when they learned they had been admitted round 1 to Wharton, LBS, Kellogg, Columbia and other top business schools – what is your story?

If you applied in round 2, you might be asking yourself “What should I do now?” as you wait to hear from the admissions team. As former Admissions Directors who have been gatekeepers at top schools, we’d like to share a few tips:

1. Now is a great time to continue your school outreach. It’s important to stay on top of school news and follow your target program on social media as well as check for any website updates. Continue to network with school alumni, and if you don’t know any alumni personally, consider using social networks like Linkedin to see if you can get an introduction.

2. It’s not too early to start preparing for your MBA interviews. When meeting with Admissions, it’s important that you come across as enthusiastic and show that you have taken the time to do your homework on the school. You should also take time to think further about your strengths, weaknesses, career goals, and about specific examples you can use to respond to behavioral questions. For more MBA interview prep information, check out the article in Forbes, 10 Tips for Acing the MBA Interview, with great advice from Fortuna’s Malvina Complainville, former Assistant Director at Harvard Business School.

3. If you haven’t done so already, address any glaring weaknesses that you see in your MBA application. A common example is a GMAT quant score that falls below the 75% range for a top school, or a scarcity of quantitative classes as an undergrad. In this situation you can take a quant course or seek out more quantitative projects at work. These can be great opportunities to share how you are improving your profile with the admissions team at interview stage.

Rather than passively waiting to hear back from your target schools, you can actively engage in next steps to further improve your chances of MBA admissions success.