From Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts), https://www.mbaadmit.com, email: info@mbaadmit.com
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MBA Admit.com: Specialists in helping candidates override weaknesses to gain MBA admissions success and, proudly, one of the most affordable top-quality MBA admissions consulting companies, with prices nearly 50% lower than our direct competitors.Should You Apply Early Decision?Around this time each year, with the start of the new admissions season, candidates who are thinking ahead begin to contemplate whether they should apply to some top MBA programs through Early Decision rounds. Columbia Graduate School of Business and Tuck are two business schools that typically offer this option. What are some of the factors you should weigh when assessing whether Early Decision is a good choice for you?
There are some candidates for whom Early Decision is an obvious ideal choice. For example, some candidates are simply enamored with a particular business school and know it is their first choice. If granted admission, they would quickly and happily accept. So, they want to apply through Early Decision in order to know as soon as possible whether they have admission (and if so, they might choose not to apply elsewhere).
Other candidates have a notable weakness or challenge to overcome in their qualifications or profile. Perhaps a candidate is coming from a small, regional company that is less attractive to some top MBA programs. Some candidates have only a marginally acceptable GMAT score and cannot improve it notably. Some candidates had hiccups in their undergraduate records, resulting in a lower-than-desired GPA. Depending on what the challenge is, such candidates should think through how to time their MBA applications excellently in order to maximize the odds that they might override the challenge(s) in their qualifications or profile. An Early Decision pool can often offer a good alternative for such candidates. In applying Early Decision, you are expressing to the given school that you greatly want to attend their program and are willing to give a deposit upon admission. Because of this, admissions committees are sometimes inspired to overlook a weakness in a candidate’s qualifications that they might not otherwise overlook.
Indeed, sometimes when a candidate with a notable weakness in their profile approaches us at
MBA Admit.com in Round 1 or Round 2 for assistance in preparing their MBA applications, we can see they would have had a better chance of overriding their weakness in an Early Decision round. For those who think ahead, it can pay off marvelously. We have had many candidates who succeeded at top schools like Columbia and Tuck in spite of glaring weaknesses, likely because they applied through Early Decision. In one example, a candidate gained admission to Columbia Business School with a 2.3 GPA in a graduate degree. I believe Early Decision made all of the difference for him and that he would not necessarily have fared as well in the regular decision pool.
Consider another scenario: Once you become aware of the nuances of admission for each of your target schools, you may come to understand that one of your favorite business schools does not favor candidates coming from small start-ups. If you are from a small start-up and you want to attend that business school, you may be better off applying early so that hopefully you will be one of the smaller number of candidates they admit with this profile. Thus, Early Decision might be ideal for you. If you wait too late, you may find that you are competing for a tiny number of seats that are still left for candidates applying from small companies. In contrast, if you know that a school tends to favor candidates of your profile and you do not have a notable weakness to override, you might have latitude to wait until Round 1 or Round 2.
A third category of applicants who consider Early Decision programs want to gain admission to a good business school early on so that they can feel “safer” in applying to more competitive schools, knowing that they have an admission in hand already. This, of course, raises the question about whether candidates are compelled to withdraw their applications from all other schools once they gain Early Decision admission somewhere. Usually, the Early Decision school has asked you to indicate that you would accept the admission, if granted. But, the reality is that many candidates each year choose to continue with Round 1 admissions at other schools even after they gain an Early Decision admission and they have paid the required thousands of dollars to the Early Decision school upon admission in order to secure their spot. If they ultimately get into another school they like more, they are willing to forfeit the deposit paid to the Early Decision school. Does the Early Decision school mind? Well, at minimum their bank account is happy with the thousands of dollars they gained from the Early Decision interaction.
What should you do as you assess if Early Decision is an option you should be entertaining? Assess your candidacy well to determine how strong you are as an applicant and if you need the advantage Early Decision gives to you. If you have a notable weakness, applying Early Decision to at least one school might be a great strategic move.
For a free Profile Evaluation, please send your resume to us at info@mbaadmit.com or fill out the profile evaluation form on our homepage at https://mbaadmit.com. To benefit from our free webinars, click https://mbaadmit.com/webinars/.Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.comhttps://www.mbaadmit.comEmail:
info@mbaadmit.com _________________
From MBA Admit.com: Proudly, one of the most affordable MBA admissions consulting companies. Direct email address: info@mbaadmit.com