Round 1 vs Round 2

F1GMAT: How to know if you should wait until Round 2 to Apply for MBA Admissions?

VeritasPrep: Here are three reasons why applying to top MBA programs in Round 2 is probably a smarter bet than applying in Round 1:

1) The “Numbers” Advantage is Slight, if It Exists at All

“Wait,” you ask. “I read that more people apply in Round 2, and that applying in Round 1 means that you will have less competition in the early going, so it makes sense to apply as early as possible.” While it is true that more applicants tend to apply in Round 2 (in a traditional three-round admissions schedule), admissions officers know this as well, and they plan accordingly. Do you really think that, for Harvard’s class of about 910 students, the admissions committee will gorge on Round 1 applicants, leaving no room for Round 2 and 3 applicants? Of course they know that more people will apply in Round 2, and they have been doing this long enough that they can plan accordingly.

2) You Still Have Time to Erase or Overcome Weaknesses...

Applying during the first round or second round of deadlines for your MBA application is a hotly debated topic. There are people who support the argument that applying for the first round of deadline can give you an edge over people who are applying during the second round of deadline. Admission committee would have a bias towards people who are on time with their application. When you apply during the first round of deadline, it might give the impression that you are eager to do your MBA (This can reflect on your motivation to do an MBA). This is especially true for candidates who have scored in the average GMAT score range of the business school or have fallen short of the average by 20-30 points.

The argument against this theory is that when you apply for the second round of deadlines you would have enough time to go through second or third iteration of your essays. By the third iteration, you would have given enough thought into your essays and it would reflect on your application.

Another argument in favor of applying during the 2nd round of deadline is that normally the volume of applicants increase with 2nd round and that the evaluation criteria is much more stricter during the 1st round. Once the business school gets a realistic idea on the application volume, the...

F1GMAT: Applying on Round 1 or Round 2 - Which is a better MBA Admissions Strategy? Will B-Schools compare R1 and R2 candidates with shared background?

David Petersam(AdmissionsConsultants): If admissions committee members are organized and on top of their internal processes, yes, they are probably trying to get a sense of who they have in the pipeline for R2. This wouldn't matter for the strongest applicants but it might for the ones who are on the fence (meaning reject vs. waitlist, or waitlist vs. admit). The schools want to manage their numbers closely to make sure that they don't take weaker applicants early on if they don't need to. On the other hand, if they get a smaller R2 pool than expected, they might take more from R1 or have a larger waitlist.

I've also been asked if schools might use this overlap between the two admissions rounds to compare candidates with a shared background – for example, whether a school might look at both R1 and R2 applicants from the same field or industry and deny or...