Is Round One the Best Time to Apply for MBA Admissions?

Future MBAs have a lot to keep track of when applying to business school, so we’re here to provide some straight talk on the issue of admissions rounds for business school—namely, whether applying in round one, round two, or round three is best for your particular strengths.

Many MBA admissions officers will tell candidates that if they can submit their applications in round one—or at least avoid round three—they should do so, the logic being that most of the spots in the class will be filled by strong applicants by the time round three comes along.

But there are no absolute rules for when to apply; it is dependent upon the strength of the business school candidate. Before applying, every candidate should think about which round is best for him or her as an individual. Inevitably, there are two common questions that crop up during the MBA admissions process.

“What are the main benefits of applying in round one of MBA admissions?”

All things being equal, a candidate would have a slight edge in the first round. Our admissions partners at mbaMission offer the maxim, “Quality before speed.” You should submit your application when it presents you at your best—whichever round that happens to be.

At the same time, if certain factors apply to you, it’s advisable to do everything you can to make sure both you and your application will be ready for round one.

1. If you are part of an overrepresented group, submitting your application before your constituency is well represented in the class can be a wise move.
2. If you are a unique candidate with a low GMAT score, shoot for a round one submission, because fewer spots are available for such candidates later on. If several low-GMAT candidates are accepted in the first round, your school of choice may be constrained by its need to drive its GMAT average higher and may not be able to send out another offer to a candidate with a low score.
3. If the admissions committee blatantly confers an advantage on candidates who apply early and you are certain that you want to attend this school, then applying early is probably worth the effort.

“If I wait for round two, will I be too late?”

Overall, don’t worry if you can’t submit in round one. The majority of spots are awarded in round two. Rest assured, the schools will always find room for a strong applicant.

Unfortunately, when you are being compared to a group of unknown competitors, being concerned about every perceived difference or deficiency your business school application might reflect is unavoidable.

Some candidates worry if they are a year older than the average incoming student at their target school; others fret if they are a year younger. Some applicants fear having a GMAT score that is ten points below a school’s average, and many worry about sending their applications after round one. However, the overall strength of your candidacy, which is a measure of many factors, is far more important than where you fit in relation to any single statistic—not to mention whether you apply in round one or two.

So, although the general advice encourages candidates to apply early if ready, no one should put off their MBA admissions dreams for a year if applying in round one is just not practical.

You may be surprised to discover that admissions committees encourage early applications but also concede that the difference in selectivity between the first and the second rounds is very small. To back up this statement, we offer these insights, exclusively from mbaMission’s interviews with admissions officers:

“People ask, generally, is it better to apply in the first round or the second round or third round? We definitely advise people to avoid the third round if possible, because space can become an issue by the time the third round rolls around. But we do view the first two rounds as roughly equivalent.” –Bruce DelMonico, Admissions Director, Yale School of Management

“[We] get about a third of our applications in Round 1, about 55% in Round 2, and the remainder in Round 3 … We encourage people to submit their application when they feel that they offer their best possible applications. … So, if you can get everything lined up and completed and you feel really good about it …, then I would encourage you to apply in Round 1. But if it takes you a bit longer, and you want to take the time to look at your application again and maybe have somebody else look at it, then Round 2 is fine, too.” –Soojin Kwon Koh, Admissions Director, Michigan–Ross

“We look at statistics over the years—how many applications we got, how many we admitted and how many we yielded—and we try to even it out so we’re not being too generous in one round at the expense of another round.” –Dawna Clarke, Admissions Director, Dartmouth–Tuck

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