How Do You Sell Round 3?

Question

I'm not applying Round 3 anywhere, but for those of you that have applied Round 3, how exactly do you say with a straight face, "I'm really excited about going to school here, I love the students, and I love the teaching model. This is the school for me."

Isn't it obvious to schools that Round 3's are hail mary passes?

helg · Answer

Well. Theoretically speaking a strong candidate might hold a better chance during R3 than R1&2 because he will be competing not with his equals but with with rejects from other schools, who did their apps in a hurry 8-)

Provided however that the seats available are split equally between applicants of all the three rounds.

aaudetat · Answer

I don't think the seats are equally split. Some schools really do use R3 on an as-needed basis. I believe Cornell and Stanford both specifically say that applicants to their final rounds will receive admits on a space-available basis.

Some R3 applicants are hail-marys, some are panic-apps, and some are probably just procrastinators. 

I never said in any of my apps that "this is the school for me." I always just talked about how this or that aspect was a good fit for me and why. That can still be true whenever you apply.

lepium · Answer

Actually in R3 he'd be competing with rushed apps. AND with waitlisted people (who are arguably quite strong). And all of them will complete for about 10% of the total seats (with the 90% going to R1ers and R2ers).

Cheers. L.

helg · Answer

*in a high-pitched voice*

OMG!!! I'm doomed, DOOMED!

*dances the dance of desperation of an applicant waitlisted till R3*

GMATT73 · Answer

That strategy got John Elway into five Superbowls, didn't it?

johnnyx9 · Answer

That's true, but he only won the last two.

I guess what I meant was, there are some schools that are big on "community" (actually, I'm sure most schools say this) and they want to know that you really want to be a part of their school. It just seems ironic that in an interview for this desperation Round someone would be in an interview and the interviewer would say, "Why do you want to go to our school?" And obviously both the interviewer and the interviewee know the answer is, "Because I didn't get in to my top choices, so you're my emergency back up plan."

rhyme · Answer

Well, its no more silly than "Why do you want an MBA?" Which if people were honest, 90% of time, boils down to one of two answers:

Either 
A) I want more money and power
or
B) I hate what I'm doing and want to do something else.

Which I spose would translate into:

'My job sucks. I'm really tired of doing what I'm doing and I should have picked better out of undergraduate. I've kind of hit a plateau at work and I don't see a lot of opportunities for advancement. My salary isn't what I think it should be and I want to make more money. Your MBA will help me do all that. Thats why I pay you so much money for it."

londonluddite · Answer

I've only applied in R3 to a few elites, basically i underestimated the input required (in the UK people don't plan their lives around a MBA) in the admit process. I have a pretty respectable profile - 750 gmat, 3.8 ish gpa, managerial exp at a top IB. Its not all hail marys in R3 :-D

pelihu · Answer

There's a common sentiment that candidates with quirky profiles tend to do better in the final round. I believe this is based on the belief that schools will admit their core students in the early rounds, so people with strong but fairly typical profiles do well early on. I also think that the typical strong candidate (those that have been planning for an MBA for some time) tend to apply earlier because they are aware of the process.

In the final round, schools are looking to fill out the class with some diversity so people with unusual backgrounds will stand out. People with typical profiles might find that seats for people like them have already been filled.

I've seen versions of this theory in several b-school consultant blogs.

Nsentra · Answer

Done! Submitted Tuck 5 min. ago. The reason I went for the last round is because I just wasn't ready to submit by R3 and I felt like I learned so much from the process of applying to earlier rounds, that I can really show this in my essays. Tuck is definitely not my backup school, I just started the whole application process way late.

lhotseface · Answer

or 

C) I want a two year vacation, want to meet interesting people and at the same time put a degree on my resume that can only help further my career.

antapple · Answer

Apparentely my final round at Darden went really well, just got an admit!
So, there are still some spots around! keep on tying guys, there is hope!

johnnyx9 · Answer

Congrats Antapple!

antapple · Answer

Thanks alot!

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