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simplyanuj
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Avg days required for 1 school application 14 Dec 2014, 13:59
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Hi All,

I am currently preparing for GMAT and will be working on School Applications and essays once I am done with this so I just wanted some thoughts from the experienced guys that normally on Avg how many days does it take to put together a school Application including Essays and everything for 1 particular school(considering I will be having full whole day to work on Apps)
Will really appreciate if you can share your thoughts regd same.Thanks a lot



Thanks
AK
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cgottuso
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Avg days required for 1 school application 05 Jan 2015, 15:21
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My first app took the longest - after the first it was much easier for the subsequent apps. It's surprising how long research and essay writing, revising, revising, revising, and revising takes! It's hard for me to gauge how long it took as I would research and write for one school, let that sit, and then research for another school and return to revise the first school and send it to someone else for revision. I did this with three different people for each school. I'm sorry I can't give you the type of answer you're looking for, but I advise you NOT to underestimate it! It will take you approximately longer than you expect!
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luckyseventy7
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Avg days required for 1 school application 05 Jan 2015, 16:16
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cgottuso
My first app took the longest - after the first it was much easier for the subsequent apps. It's surprising how long research and essay writing, revising, revising, revising, and revising takes! It's hard for me to gauge how long it took as I would research and write for one school, let that sit, and then research for another school and return to revise the first school and send it to someone else for revision. I did this with three different people for each school. I'm sorry I can't give you the type of answer you're looking for, but I advise you NOT to underestimate it! It will take you approximately longer than you expect!
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Couldn't say it better myself- definitely don't underestimate how much work each app is. Also, the earlier you can start the better.

Hands down my first app took the longest too. Just thinking of topics to write about, your goals, accomplishments, why MBA, extracurriculars etc. can take a long time. Also collecting random information like historical employment dates, awards, undergrad activities etc. Took me maybe a week or two (not full days but while working full-time job).

After that it does get a lot easier because you can leverage a lot of that work to the next app. Though, a lot depends on how similar or not the next school's essays are. If the essays were really similar I'd be able to pump out a draft of the next app in a weekend, not including the time spent waiting on reviews from people or revisions that would add time. The worst was when there was barely any overlap in essay topics between schools and you have to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm ideas to address the new topics. Best of luck.