The following appears courtesy of MBA Game Plan. Visit MBA Admissions Blog by MBA Game Plan for current news and advice on getting into the world’s top-ranked MBA programs. At this time of year, we get a lot of questions from MBA applicants about Round 3: What are their chances? What can they do to get into competitive business schools? Should they even apply in Round 3 at all? First of all, applying in Round 3 is not automatically a bad idea. We’ve written about this plenty the past , so we won’t spend too much time trying to talk you into Round 3. We’ll assume you at least have some legitimate reasons for apply in Round 3 this year, rather than applying in the previous round or waiting until Round 1 next year. So, if you’re going to apply in Round 3, how can you maximize your chances of success? A Round 3 game plan isn’t radically different from the strategy you would employ in Round 1 or Round 2, but here are several things you can do: Make it easy for admissions officers to see why you’re applying in Round 3. You don’t need to devote an entire optional essay to the subject, and you don’t at all want to sound at all apologetic about the timing of your application. However, ideally it will be clear to admissions officers why you’re applying now. Did you decide to wait to get a significantly higher GMAT score? That will show up on your GMAT score report. Did you want to finish a community college class to get a couple of As on your transcript? That will be easy for admissions officers to figure out. Did you want to see how an entrepreneurial venture shook out before deciding to apply? Make sure to touch on it in an essay or interview, and then move on. That will be enough to make it clear that you didn’t roll out of bed yesterday and decide to apply on a lark. Don’t approach this as a dry run for next year. Round 1 applicants sometimes say to themselves, “I’ll hurry up and do this now, an if I don’t get in, then at least I learned a lot and will be better for it when I apply again in the fall.” While you shouldn’t be afraid of coming back as a reapplicant if you strike out now, there’s something to be said for being committed and really going for it now, rather than slapping together something now and assuming that you’ll just try harder next time. If you’re applying, do it to get in, not for practice. Take enough time! This advice applies in any round, of course, but so many of the Round 3 applicants we know are in fact people who decided to apply mere weeks before the deadline. If you’re pulling all-nighters to draft your essays, or giving your recommenders laughably tight timelines to have a shot at getting in your application by the Round 3 deadline, then you’re in trouble. If you find yourself rushing that much, you may very well be better off waiting until Round 1 next year. It’s true that there are fewer seats available in Round 3, but business schools have a final round for a reason: They’re still ready to accept people. Many applicants get into competitive MBA programs in the third round every year. If you’re a strong applicant submitting a strong application, you definitely have a chance of getting in. Are you applying to business school soon? Get a head start by picking up a copy of our book, Your MBA Game Plan , now in its 3rd edition. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter ! This post appears courtesy of MBA Admissions Blog by MBA Game Plan . It originally appeared here: Maximizing Your Chances in Round 3 .
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