You wasted time last summer and procrastinated in the fall. Now you’ve squandered the holidays and are left without excuses to put off applying to b-school. Here’s what you must know about round three.
As most MBA applicants know, round three is a bear by almost any measure. Most of the seats are filled. Most of the cohorts complete. Is it even worth applying at all with so little chance of getting in?
As Han Solo always said, “never tell me the odds.”
There’s no need to quote stats or cast shade on your chances of admission in round three, but it might be helpful to know why it’s so difficult to be accepted. For starters, there are several things working against you. Firstly, there are simply very few seats left at this point to hand out. The odds are literally stacked against you since most of the offers have already been extended. Schools desperately need to fill all their seats in order to maximize revenue, so grabbing any and all qualified applicants they can in the early rounds was good job insurance for the admissions officers at top schools. Secondly, schools in the late rounds have very specific profiles they are looking for to balance out the class.
There’s no way to know what gaps the top schools need to fill in the final rounds.
It’s a crap shoot to see if what you bring to the table just happens to be what the schools are missing in the profile of the incoming class. Do you hail from a common work industry like banking or consulting? Guess what? It’s unlikely the school will need another consultant in the class at this point.
Still, the raging stock market and boon economy can work in your favor.
When times are good, applications to b-school are down, so it’s technically easier in round three this year than in a typical year. Things are slightly less competitive since all the super high achievers at work are remaining employed vs. giving up a good thing to go back to school. Now’s a great time to apply even if you have a challenged application profile. Having said that, schools will only sacrifice so much on quality. While they love to fill all their seats, they would sooner take a loss than bring in an unqualified candidate or a bad fit.
Lastly, in a world of high achievers, putting something off to the last minute never makes a great impression.
B-schools are going to want to hear some kind of explanation for why you have waited so long to apply, but don’t worry—there are plenty of good excuses. Work success is always a good reason to have deferred your return to b-school. You can always simply tell the school that you were killing it at work and were either too busy to apply or were so committed to completing a project or achieving a goal at work that circumstances did not allow you the margin to put your best effort into applications in the fall.
For information on how we can guide your business school application process, email us at mba@amerasiaconsulting.com or go to http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/contact