The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley has released the application deadlines for the 2013-2014 MBA admissions cycle.  The three round deadlines are:

Round 1

Deadline: October 16, 2013

Notification: January 15, 2014

Round 2

Deadline: January 8, 2014

Notification: March 26, 2014

Round 3

Deadline: March 12, 2014

Notification: May 15, 2014

The new fall 2014 application will be available in August. For more information, visit the UC Berkeley Haas School admissions website.

The University of Michigan Ross School of Business has posted the MBA application deadlines for the 2013-2014 admissions cycle. This year’s deadlines are as follows:

Round 1

Deadline: October 1, 2013

Notification: December 20, 2013

Round 2

Deadline: January 2, 2014

Notification: March 14, 2014

Round 3

Deadline: March 3, 2014

Notification: May 15, 2014

International applicants are strongly encouraged to apply in the first or second round, and all applications are due at 11:59 p.m. EST on the day of the deadline. For more information, visit the University of Michigan Ross School of Business admissions website.

Columbia Business School has posted the MBA application deadlines for the 2013-2014 admissions cycle. The upcoming deadlines are:

August 2014 Entry

Early Decision Deadline: October 2, 2013

Merit Fellowships Consideration Deadline: January 6, 2014

Regular Decision Deadline: April 9, 2014

January 2014 Entry

Deadline: October 2, 2013

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All applications are due at 11:59 p.m. EST on the day of the deadline. Applicants should note that the August entry has two review periods — early decision and regular decision. Because the School uses a rolling admissions process, it is always to your advantage to apply well before the deadline. For more information, visit Columbia’s admissions website.

The Stanford Graduate School of Business has posted the MBA application deadlines for the 2013-2014 admissions cycle.  This year’s three deadlines are as follows:

Round 1

Deadline: October 2, 2013

Notification: December 11, 2013

Round 2

Deadline: January 8, 2014

Notification: March 26, 2014

Round 3

Deadline: April 2, 2014

Notification: May 7, 2014

The Stanford GSB notes that more applicants have been applying in Round 2 over the past few years, making the second round larger and more competitive. For those considering applying in either Round 1 or Round 2, the school strongly encourages applicants to consider Round 1. All applications are due at 5 p.m. PST.

For additional details, visit the Stanford GSB’s admissions website.

While there’s a lot of truth to the commonly held wisdom that applying to business school in the final round means your chances of being admitted are wafer slim, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School offers five compelling reasons why you still have a chance in the last MBA application deadline.

According to admissions, you shouldn’t give up hope before the final round because:

1. Fewer applicants apply in the fourth round, so while the number of total offers extended during this round might be lower, the admission rate (the percentage of applicants admitted) may be just as high as in the earlier rounds.

2. By the time the final round deadline arrives, the school can begin to see what the first-year class is going to look like and sometimes the class will need some balancing.  As an example, if there’s a lot of students coming in with marketing backgrounds and few from investment banking, applicants from I-banking would have a higher than normal shot in the last round.

UNC Kenan-Flagler says it’s quite possible that they might be looking for a student with a profile identical to yours, and therefore your chance of admission in the last MBA application round is high.

3. Even international students shouldn’t give up hope.  Almost every international student admitted during the fourth round who accepted the offer quickly has been able to complete the steps for a student visa and move here before the start of classes, the school says.

4. While most of merit fellowship funds are usually awarded in the earlier rounds, UNC Kenan-Flagler reserves some funds for those exceptionally strong candidates applying the final round.

5. Finally, if you submit your strongest application to the admissions committee during the final round and are not admitted, you’re on their radar for the next application season. If you apply again the following year, the school knows know you’re serious about getting your MBA, particularly at UNC Kenan-Flagler.  The dedication and persistence will be noticed.

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When Travis originally met with his Stacy Blackman consultant to kick off his application, what jumped out immediately was the depth and focus of his work experience. He led off with a resume stuffed to the gills with accomplishments and detail, much of it extremely impressive. After all, he had spent several years at a prominent engineering firm, been promoted ahead of schedule, and even filed a patent already, so it made sense that his work experience would dominate his resume. As he started talking about his application strategy, what he described was essay topics that drew from experiences at his firm, and a set of recommenders entirely from within the company. Despite the good first impression all of Travis’ work experience presented, his consultant felt his strategy had a huge missing piece: anything outside of his work.

What Travis needed to fill in were the extracurriculars, things he did outside of the daily work grind. Though a strong focus on work is of course great, his consultant wanted to showcase other aspects of his personality and prove that he could bring a diverse set of skills to an MBA program. Travis found this frustrating at first, since he loved his job and dedicated long hours to it, often to the exclusion of many other activities. He was also wary of suddenly jumping into new extracurricular activities at the last minute, as this would clearly look like resume-padding.

After some thought and discussion, Travis’ consultant found that he had worked many summers at the same summer camp he attended as a child, and while it had been a few years since his last work there, he had recently helped with their annual fundraiser and still had many ties to the camp. Travis and his consultant agreed that the long-term nature of the activity outweighed that it was recently a bit dormant. He had also been a competitive chess player as a youth and had started chess clubs in high school and college. Travis decided to start volunteering to teach chess at an afterschool program, and he and his consultant felt they could tie this extracurricular into one longer story.

With a little effort and thought, Travis and his consultant used extracurriculars to add extra dimensions to his application and strengthen his chances. As a result, Travis was admitted to Tuck, Kellogg and MIT and is entering Kellogg this fall.

Struggling to round out your profile? Contact Stacy Blackman Consulting to learn how we can help.