Need some advice on the "Jan 5" deadline vs rolling admissions

Question

Hi All,

I'll be applying to Columbia in R2 as a nontraditional candidate; high gpa, but a 710 gmat (Q47). I feel confident about my essays for Columbia, but of course I'm wondering if that gmat will hold me back.

I know that Jan 5 is deadline for merit scholarships and I had hoped to increase my gmat before then (didn't work out).

My question is should I not submit the app on Jan 5 and retake the GMAT later this month and submit my app later? Or should I submit my best app with the 710 on Jan 5-- is there any advantage here other than merit scholarships (and if not, I'm assuming i have no chance at any schol money with my current stats).

Any advice would be appreciated.

jmg08d · Answer

You should definitely apply R2. CBS has a section in their application that let's disclose any future plans to retake the GMAT/ GRE. The only requirement is that any future exams must be scheduled within 30 days of your application submission date. My advice would be to submit your application now and register to take the GMAT within the next 30 days. Good luck.

okay · Answer

downsides are that the longer you wait to apply, the fewer spots there will be left in the class. You can mention on the app that you are planning on retaking it

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

If you're going to apply this round you had better do it by January 5th. Even at that point it becomes a steeper challenge to grab a seat because most of the people they admit are during EA. This is the case with all schools that have an EA option, the odds are lower than you would be facing with a school that doesn't have an EA. In terms of the number of seats and the overall acceptance rate.

Your GMAT is not awesome but it's not completely embarrassing. One of my former clients, Asian even, graduated from MIT recently and that was his GMAT. **point to any positive past performance in the area of math or stats**.

If you're a non-traditional applicant that makes me think that maybe you are a diverse applicant and that's a definite positive. The main thing for diverse applicants is that they are desired by the schools but need to demonstrate that they can do the work. If the GMAT is just not looking like a good investment of your time then I would recommend that you do MBA math and allow that to be the proof of your quant skills. This doesn't mean that you can't continue to strive for a better test score in terms of GMAT or GRE. But it does allow you to bring some finality to this part and move on to the application.

Nobody really cares about your test score unless your application is awesome. No Adcom member pounds the table to get you into their school because they are so driven with passion to admit your test score. So really doing an excellent job on the resume the essays application boxes and the letters recommendation is the pretty underutilized and more predictable strategy for getting into schools. Most applicants don't really know what that looks like.

If there's any possible chance that you don't need an internship and can demonstrate that fact then you might be better off applying to J Term. The deadline for that is in October but it's rolling and get it in fast. The key to success is ignoring Oct deadline and getting your application in ASAP. I don't think I would really worry about Merit Scholarships so much. I think that's somewhat unpredictable when you don't have a GMAT that's well in excess of the average. I've had clients be offered good-sized scholarships who did not have a great test score but it was entirely unpredictable on which schools.

https://MBAPrepCoach.com

bb · Answer

Need some advice on the "Jan 5" deadline vs rolling admissions

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