Columbia Mailman wants me to take a placement exam?

[EmmyMarie]

I applied to Columbia Mailman School of Public Health's Part-time Master of Healthcare Administration Program - Department of Health Policy and Management. I received an email from them yesterday stating "the board has begun a preliminary review of your application and would like to see more evidence of your quantitative ability. Would you be willing to come to the university and take a biostatistics placement exam?" This email has me perplexed. Why not just waitlist me if they truly felt my application was lacking? Or should I be optimistic and conclude they just want to give me an opportunity to tip the scale in my favor? Has this ever happened to anyone else???