Advance Planning : 2014 Applications (MBA Class of 2016)

Thanking you Gurpreetsingh for posting this for people who want to apply in fall 2013 only.

I have two questions:
1. Some colleges have R1 deadlines in September/October but R3/R4 now. Is it better to apply in R3 or R1 for this year?
2. For Asian colleges also, R3 has less chance than R1?

Will the deadlines be the same this year also. I mean for those who want to apply for fall 2014........

I'm impressed with people getting started so soon! Another thing to keep in mind is that the essay topics often change from year to year. I had briefly considered writing some of my essays in the late spring last year, but it turned out to be a good thing I procrastinated because the topics were completely different from the previous year's class. The essay questions will typically come out around the same time a school releases its round deadlines--usually late summer, as aerien mentioned.

I am going to watch this season very closely as a sandbox for 2015

All the best Gurpreet
Which schools are you looking at right now?

Thanks Souvik, I will be applying to Insead Jan 14 intake R2 and later I will give TOEFL to make sure I don't have to skip some schools because of it.

I still have to do the homework of finalizing the schools and that's why I have come up with this idea of starting early to make sure I have the list ready for each round. It becomes pretty tight with full time job and other activities. So our strategy should be to start early and be prepared for everything but essays.



I fully agree to you !! My strategy is to prepare for everything but essays. If we have the time we can still make rough drafts for our R1 schools because most of the schools does not change all the essays each year.

Posting in this thread for later....

free-gmat-club-chat-w-linda-abraham-from-accepted-com-150090.html

Starts in less than 45 minutes for folks planing early or 2014.

Thanks for this thread. I'm in the middle of my GMAT prep. Plan to take it when I'm visiting the states in June. GMAT is getting ALL my intention until then. I hope to be done with GMAT after that, and I then transition and put all my force into Applications. I really want to apply a good 3 weeks before R1 to all of my schools. (That's my plan for now at least).

Some tips to those who are planning to apply in Fall 2014 and are thinking about it now.

1)Start taking notes about the things you are doing at work in your community. Keep a notebook. Whenever things happen, you contribute something, you learn, you grow. Write it down. It will come in handy when it's time to write your essays in the fall. You wont have to kill yourself trying to remember details.

2)If you are weak in an area, say community service, START NOW. Generally, we know what the colleges look for academics, GPA, classes, degree, we can't change. GMAT you can use to your advantage, you can "master it" to show your intellect. If you are weak in community service, for example. Start doing something now. It will look better if you have only 5 months of community service vs. none at all.

3) DON'T wait until the last minute. If you can focus on GMAT and get it out of the way early (by July, let's say), that'd be great. That way you could completely focus 100% on applications for a few months ideally july, august, september) And be 100% ready for round one, where, if you are a qualified candidate, there are more spaces available.

Thanks for starting this discussion!

Hi Gurpreet,
Thanks for starting the thread, this thread can be very useful this year for applying to R1.

Some of the colleges that i have shortlisted at 1st were :
Georgetown,Kennan-Flagger,Rotman,Purdue,Ross,Tepper,Boston,Duke,Tuck,Dardeen.

I am more interested in operations so i have listed the below as priority
Tepper,Ross,Duke
In India & Asia
I want to apply to ISB,MBS and NUS.
Still there is long way to go,lots of research has to be done to shorten the above list into 5 Colleges
Please do suggest how you guys are carrying out the research for colleges.

Samvit

I will be applying to all my schools in R1 this fall. I'm getting it out of the way. But I've been working on my app for a decent amount of time now.

Should be around mid-June. I applied and re-applied and both times essays were out in mid-June/early July. Also using lasts years dates are pretty safe guidelines. When I re-applied none of the schools moved by more than a week in either direction.

It's a safe bet you will need a Why MBA/Why us? essay for just about every school. Have an idea in your mind and start really researching the "why us?" part. Contact students and learn as much as you can from them. Find groups you want to join when in school and contact officers in those groups. All of these things will be helpful no matter how the essay prompts are specifically worded.

Thanks for the tips.
regards

Partial information revealed by Harvard's admission director:

Source

===============

Columbia application deadlines for Aug 2014 entry:
Early Decision: October 2, 2013
Merit Fellowship Consideration: January 6, 2014
Regular Decision: April 9, 2014

good thread !

Heard that Columbia and HAAS put out their dealines.
Columbia:
August 2014 Entry
Early Decision: October 2, 2013
Merit Fellowship Consideration: January 6, 2014
Regular Decision: April 9, 2014

HAAS:

https://www.mbamission.com/deadlines.php
This has a summary of the deadlines as they get released.