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Round 1 vs Round 2 but why not Apply in Both?
Everyone seems to want to apply in R1 these days, but after watching waves of applicants year over year and their regrets, I can say that a more balanced application approach would combine R1 and R2. Here are my thoughts - I am laying them out there and welcome anyone to correct me me if you think I am off! But from what I've seen, unless you get into HBS/GSB in R1, there is almost always an R2, regardless of your success or failure in R1. My recommendation is don't make R2 an afterthought.
Quality of Applications
The recommended number of schools to apply to is 2 per month and doing more than that has a good chance to compromise your applications. While there is a good amount of overlap between different applications, the time required to adapt each component of the application (Resume, Essay, Short Answers, and the application itself) do take a good amount of time. It is especially daunting if you have 8 or more schools per round. Let’s just say that the final few schools in that group are unlikely to get the attention they deserve after the application fatigue.
Quality of Recommendations
As someone who was a recommender for an applicant to 12 schools in one round, I can tell you that you don’t want to subject your recommender to this kind of a mess. Here is why – as a recommender, I have to fill out a number of rankings and a number of quantitative forms asking about your leadership skills, your team work, communication skills and whatever else. I also have to write a few short replies (e.g. how do you know the applicant, or how do they compare to peers), and a good length recommendation (thank goodness most schools use the same prompt these days). However, even with the same prompt, it will takes 30-60 mins to do a thoughtful and good quality job for each school and it took me about 6-12 hours to write the recommendation on top of it. Now, every school I had to submit one of these babies for, I had to spend an hour to login, review, make sure my essay said Kellogg instead of Tuck in that version, and that I did not goof. I kind of dropped my guard in the last few, frankly, and I would not surprised if your recommender would do the same. Here is what I am thinking – this is a waste of my time. You are applying to 12 schools but you will only be attending 1. It is not practical esp since all the schools are the same group/category and it just seems you can’t make up your mind. You recommender will not feel that you are valuing their time, and if you are not valuing their time, they will not value your application. Be warned! If you are applying to a large number of schools, you need to candidly chat with your recommender and make sure they are on board with your strategy. Explain to them why you are applying to 12 schools, why it isthe right thing to do, esp if they applied only to 1-2 schools. Also, if you are applying to H/S/W and you clearly have no business doing that, mention it to them as well and see what feedback they have. You want to get all "problems" and "concerns" from them upfront and be on board. Also, recommenders will submit most recommendations the day before the deadline so expect to be on pins and needles
Interviews
Hopefully you are lucky enough to get invitations to an interview, imagine the volume you will have to deal with scheduling, preparing, and participating. This is something most people are not concerned but I can tell you, quality suffers and preparation declines if you have 6 interviews to do in a span of 2 weeks with some of these being in person and some via skype. You get sloppy, you confuse schools, professors, clubs, and stories you built for each program.
Managing Waitlists
Let’s say you applied to Fuqua and UNC in R1 and got on the famous Fuqua waitlist while getting admitted at UNC. Will you pay the UNC deposit in Feb before you hear your Fuqua decision in March? You will have to. If you get admitted to Fuqua, it is a sunk cost at UNC. Had you applied to Fuqua in R1 and UNC in R2, you could save the deposit dollars and have a nice vacation on that instead.
Making Admit Decisions
Do you think it is by accident that Emory and UNC have the admit weekend on the same day? Had you applied to UNC in R1 and Emory in R2, and converted at both, you would have a chance to visit both admit weekends. However, if you applied to both in the same round, you will have choose one. The same applies to other “similar” programs – e.g. Fuqua/Ross/Yale/Tuck – they tend to have overlapping weekends. It is a part of the admit strategy schools use and limited number of weekends available.
Typical R1-Only Application Scenarios:
Here is how an average R1-only applicant timeline looks like:
You see the issue? Instead of waiting, freaking out, and panicking, you could be working on your R2 apps during this whole time. You will learn quite a bit from R1 applications, interviews, and mistakes (you will make some funny and some painful mistakes).
Here is a highly-successful R1-only Applicant:
In the highly successful case, lets say you got into the mid-tier Top 20 or Top 10 programs, do you think you will relax and skip R2? Not really... so should you be really waiting until third week in Dec to start working on the applications over the holidays? Unless you get into HBS/GSB in R1, there is almost always an R2, regardless of your success in R1.
R1+R2 Strategy:
Here is one possible strategy, though I am sure you could still improve it and customize it. I would go with an aggressive approach but being real with yourself. If you are not HBS material, don’t put all the effort into the HBS app and neglect Ross or Anderson which may be more up your alley only to be heartbroken when you get dinged from both/all of them since you invested all of your time into the HBS app you had no shot at to start with.
Round 1: 5-7 schools - Target & Stretch
Round 2: 5-7 schools
(depending on your R1 results – it may be looking for scholarship money, trying to improve your results, or safety play)
Comprehensive R1 vs. R2 video with many AdComs
A few more thoughts and ideas:
Try to apply in Multiple Rounds if you can. As it has been written in many of the R1 vs. R2 posts, supposedly R1 is better than R2 (it remains to be argued how much but supposedly that’s what the rule of thumb says). At the same time, you want to put your best foot forward in whatever round you apply. If you are rushing and your applications are half baked or you are about to get a promotion in Dec, many consultants will advise that it may be better to scrap R1 and just apply in R2. That’s true…. But if you apply in R2 only, then you lose on the opportunity to gain valuable application experience and understand the logistics of submitting, getting recommenders, interviewing, and waiting. It is a helpful rehearsal experience, even if it is a ding. :shocked
Should you tackle GMAT first and then focus on the applications? Probably – you want to decide which schools you are targeting and your timing during the planning phase and then focus on the GMAT. My recommendation is not to worry about applications quite yet until you finish the GMAT unless you are in a time crunch. Ideally you would be done with your GMAT in May or June! In time for the R1 apps in Sept/Oct.
Just to catch international folks up who may be new to the “Rounds” – you can’t apply to the same school the same year in multiple Rounds. If you get dinged at HBS in R1, you can’t “try to improve” in R2 . If you get dinged in R1/R2/R3/etc, the earliest you can apply is next year (any round) but keep in mind that reapplicants are scrutinized more and while their applications are sometimes faster/easier, the getting in part is often harder after a ding.
Everyone seems to want to apply in R1 these days, but after watching waves of applicants year over year and their regrets, I can say that a more balanced application approach would combine R1 and R2. Here are my thoughts - I am laying them out there and welcome anyone to correct me me if you think I am off! But from what I've seen, unless you get into HBS/GSB in R1, there is almost always an R2, regardless of your success or failure in R1. My recommendation is don't make R2 an afterthought.
Quality of Applications
The recommended number of schools to apply to is 2 per month and doing more than that has a good chance to compromise your applications. While there is a good amount of overlap between different applications, the time required to adapt each component of the application (Resume, Essay, Short Answers, and the application itself) do take a good amount of time. It is especially daunting if you have 8 or more schools per round. Let’s just say that the final few schools in that group are unlikely to get the attention they deserve after the application fatigue.
Quality of Recommendations
As someone who was a recommender for an applicant to 12 schools in one round, I can tell you that you don’t want to subject your recommender to this kind of a mess. Here is why – as a recommender, I have to fill out a number of rankings and a number of quantitative forms asking about your leadership skills, your team work, communication skills and whatever else. I also have to write a few short replies (e.g. how do you know the applicant, or how do they compare to peers), and a good length recommendation (thank goodness most schools use the same prompt these days). However, even with the same prompt, it will takes 30-60 mins to do a thoughtful and good quality job for each school and it took me about 6-12 hours to write the recommendation on top of it. Now, every school I had to submit one of these babies for, I had to spend an hour to login, review, make sure my essay said Kellogg instead of Tuck in that version, and that I did not goof. I kind of dropped my guard in the last few, frankly, and I would not surprised if your recommender would do the same. Here is what I am thinking – this is a waste of my time. You are applying to 12 schools but you will only be attending 1. It is not practical esp since all the schools are the same group/category and it just seems you can’t make up your mind. You recommender will not feel that you are valuing their time, and if you are not valuing their time, they will not value your application. Be warned! If you are applying to a large number of schools, you need to candidly chat with your recommender and make sure they are on board with your strategy. Explain to them why you are applying to 12 schools, why it isthe right thing to do, esp if they applied only to 1-2 schools. Also, if you are applying to H/S/W and you clearly have no business doing that, mention it to them as well and see what feedback they have. You want to get all "problems" and "concerns" from them upfront and be on board. Also, recommenders will submit most recommendations the day before the deadline so expect to be on pins and needles
Interviews
Hopefully you are lucky enough to get invitations to an interview, imagine the volume you will have to deal with scheduling, preparing, and participating. This is something most people are not concerned but I can tell you, quality suffers and preparation declines if you have 6 interviews to do in a span of 2 weeks with some of these being in person and some via skype. You get sloppy, you confuse schools, professors, clubs, and stories you built for each program.
Managing Waitlists
Let’s say you applied to Fuqua and UNC in R1 and got on the famous Fuqua waitlist while getting admitted at UNC. Will you pay the UNC deposit in Feb before you hear your Fuqua decision in March? You will have to. If you get admitted to Fuqua, it is a sunk cost at UNC. Had you applied to Fuqua in R1 and UNC in R2, you could save the deposit dollars and have a nice vacation on that instead.
Making Admit Decisions
Do you think it is by accident that Emory and UNC have the admit weekend on the same day? Had you applied to UNC in R1 and Emory in R2, and converted at both, you would have a chance to visit both admit weekends. However, if you applied to both in the same round, you will have choose one. The same applies to other “similar” programs – e.g. Fuqua/Ross/Yale/Tuck – they tend to have overlapping weekends. It is a part of the admit strategy schools use and limited number of weekends available.
Typical R1-Only Application Scenarios:
Here is how an average R1-only applicant timeline looks like:
- Sept/Oct: Apply in R1 into a bunch of Target & Stretch schools and maybe one safety
- Oct: Wait & be excited
- Oct/Nov: Get a few interview invites & dings from half the stretch & half the target programs
Wait & freak out a little - Nov: No interview invite from your safety school (automatic ding)
Wait and freak out a lot.
Start thinking about R2 - Mid-Dec: get dinged from all stretch programs, WL at a few, and Admitted at a few
Panic and put a haphazard app for R2
You see the issue? Instead of waiting, freaking out, and panicking, you could be working on your R2 apps during this whole time. You will learn quite a bit from R1 applications, interviews, and mistakes (you will make some funny and some painful mistakes).
Here is a highly-successful R1-only Applicant:
- Sept/Oct: Apply in R1 into a bunch of Target & Stretch schools and maybe one safety
- Oct: Wait & be excited
- Oct/Nov: Get all interview invites and interview at all 10 schools (huge effort)
Wait & freak out a little - Nov: No updates, so wait and try not to think about applications but without admit offers, you still start to think about R2
- Mid-Dec: admitted everywhere, with some scholarship offers here and there
In the highly successful case, lets say you got into the mid-tier Top 20 or Top 10 programs, do you think you will relax and skip R2? Not really... so should you be really waiting until third week in Dec to start working on the applications over the holidays? Unless you get into HBS/GSB in R1, there is almost always an R2, regardless of your success in R1.
R1+R2 Strategy:
Here is one possible strategy, though I am sure you could still improve it and customize it. I would go with an aggressive approach but being real with yourself. If you are not HBS material, don’t put all the effort into the HBS app and neglect Ross or Anderson which may be more up your alley only to be heartbroken when you get dinged from both/all of them since you invested all of your time into the HBS app you had no shot at to start with.
Round 1: 5-7 schools - Target & Stretch
- Stretch: 2-3 schools
- Target: 2-3 schools
- Safety: 1-2 schools
Round 2: 5-7 schools
(depending on your R1 results – it may be looking for scholarship money, trying to improve your results, or safety play)
- Stretch: 1-2 schools
- Target: 2 schools
- Safety: 2-3 schools
Comprehensive R1 vs. R2 video with many AdComs
A few more thoughts and ideas:
Try to apply in Multiple Rounds if you can. As it has been written in many of the R1 vs. R2 posts, supposedly R1 is better than R2 (it remains to be argued how much but supposedly that’s what the rule of thumb says). At the same time, you want to put your best foot forward in whatever round you apply. If you are rushing and your applications are half baked or you are about to get a promotion in Dec, many consultants will advise that it may be better to scrap R1 and just apply in R2. That’s true…. But if you apply in R2 only, then you lose on the opportunity to gain valuable application experience and understand the logistics of submitting, getting recommenders, interviewing, and waiting. It is a helpful rehearsal experience, even if it is a ding. :shocked
Should you tackle GMAT first and then focus on the applications? Probably – you want to decide which schools you are targeting and your timing during the planning phase and then focus on the GMAT. My recommendation is not to worry about applications quite yet until you finish the GMAT unless you are in a time crunch. Ideally you would be done with your GMAT in May or June! In time for the R1 apps in Sept/Oct.
Just to catch international folks up who may be new to the “Rounds” – you can’t apply to the same school the same year in multiple Rounds. If you get dinged at HBS in R1, you can’t “try to improve” in R2
. If you get dinged in R1/R2/R3/etc, the earliest you can apply is next year (any round) but keep in mind that reapplicants are scrutinized more and while their applications are sometimes faster/easier, the getting in part is often harder after a ding.
24 Jun 2019, 09:37
Kudos
Bookmarks
kartikazad
27 Jun 2019, 12:50
Kudos
Bookmarks
Great article bb! I would love to pick your brain (or anyone from the community) here and seek your opinion on my predicament here if you can spare some time 
I belong to a highly over-represented group - Indian, Male and I believe I run the risk of not applying in R1 as the cohort shape will already be decided if I apply in R2. However, I am due for a promotion by Sep end; right at the time when R1 applications end. I am 99% sure of that promotion. Given this scenario, few options come to mind:
- Apply for all in R2 with the promotion on resume (dont want to do that as it can become too hectic to manage)
- Split R1 and R2 and applying to those colleges in R2 where I have a better chance (3-4 R1 and 3-2 in R2)
- Complete all applications in R1 and include the promotion in the resume / application without the confirmation.
I understand that as far as the actual work is concerned, there is nothing that will change, my stories, work experience etc. will remain same. However, there is a slight nudge in my brain that says that I will be able to show consistent growth in my career if I wait and include the promotion.
Any thoughts?
Thanks for your time.!
I belong to a highly over-represented group - Indian, Male and I believe I run the risk of not applying in R1 as the cohort shape will already be decided if I apply in R2. However, I am due for a promotion by Sep end; right at the time when R1 applications end. I am 99% sure of that promotion. Given this scenario, few options come to mind:
- Apply for all in R2 with the promotion on resume (dont want to do that as it can become too hectic to manage)
- Split R1 and R2 and applying to those colleges in R2 where I have a better chance (3-4 R1 and 3-2 in R2)
- Complete all applications in R1 and include the promotion in the resume / application without the confirmation.
I understand that as far as the actual work is concerned, there is nothing that will change, my stories, work experience etc. will remain same. However, there is a slight nudge in my brain that says that I will be able to show consistent growth in my career if I wait and include the promotion.
Any thoughts?
Thanks for your time.!
