This post originally appeared on the U.S. News–Strictly Business MBA Admissions blog.

With round two notifications pouring in from many schools, M.B.A. hopefuls need to know what to do now, no matter which status group—admitted, waitlisted, denied—they fall into. After an appropriate amount of time spent doing the happy dance, posting the news to Facebook, and celebrating over dinners or drinks, admitted applicants should focus on two things: getting their finances in order, and tactfully informing supervisors of their impending departure, especially if the news will come as a surprise.

Once you’ve been admitted, your school will present you with a package of information about public and private loans and scholarships. Many top schools offer varying types of financial support, though the majority of students will need to figure out how to pay for the bulk of their graduate management education. The program may have access to loans or lines of credit for both domestic and international M.B.A. students and will sometimes act as the guarantor for private loans.

After you have searched your target schools’ websites for all available sources of funding, you may want to peruse general sites such as FastWeb, Peterson’s, and FinAid. Also, all U.S. citizens and permanent residents may take out Federal Direct Student Loans up to $20,500 per year, with a fixed interest rate of 6.8 percent. Getting your credit in order before applying for a loan is crucial, so make sure to regularly check your credit report and fix any errors that appear before it’s time to begin the loan application process.

When it comes to letting your bosses know you’re about to head for the hills, diplomacy and professionalism are key. In an ideal world, you would have already included your supervisor in the process by asking her or him to act as a recommender for your application. If that was not possible, use good judgment to determine how much notice your employer should reasonably expect. Present your resignation in writing, and explain why you’re moving on. Remember, your supervisor and colleagues form a part of your developing network, and you should make every effort to avoid burning bridges from this point in your career.

Applicants who have just received word that they’ve landed on the wait list of their dream school need to manage this state of M.B.A. limbo well. In fact, I devoted an entire post to this topic in 2011. Follow the rules of your particular school and know that the wait list is often a test of your judgment. If the program does provide the option of submitting additional materials, be judicious when deciding what to send. Exercise restraint in communications, but also convey your enthusiasm whenever possible. They want to be sure you’ll say yes if admitted!

For those facing the dreaded “ding” from their program of choice, the blow can feel devastating. If possible, seek feedback from the admissions committee to learn precisely what, if any, were the weaknesses in your application. Deirdre Leopold, Harvard Business School‘s managing director of M.B.A. admissions and financial aid, plans to offer feedback to candidates who made it through the interview process but were ultimately not offered a seat. Leopold says, “The challenge of comprising a class rich in diversity of backgrounds and perspectives” is what drives HBS’s admissions decisions. The vast majority of the calls she’ll make offer reassurance that “it wasn’t anything that is or went wrong” with the candidate’s application or interview, she says.

If you are denied, give yourself time to detox and cool off, but not too long. Planning needs to start as soon as possible, so you can show improvement before you apply in the next Round 1, which is only six months away. Schools look quite favorably upon reapplicants, as it shows a strong interest in the program.

Be ruthless in assessing the good and the less-than-stellar aspects of your application, and act on the feedback you receive so that when you do reapply, the admissions committee will be able to see real growth and commitment to strengthening your candidacy.

This post originally appeared on the U.S. News–Strictly Business MBA Admissions Blog.

Is there such a thing as a right time to apply for an M.B.A.? Many prospective b-school applicants confront this question when they feel that their current career trajectory has stalled. For others, pursuing an M.B.A. straight out of undergrad is a no brainer, as they avoid putting their lives on hold for two years—and forgoing a potentially significant salary to do so.

The Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the Graduate Management Admission Test, reports that applicants under 24 are the fastest-growing group among those who take the GMAT. But how do you know whether you’re really ready to tackle the intense demands of a full-time M.B.A. program? Whether you’re wrapping up your senior year or have already clocked three to five years in the workforce, there are several factors you should evaluate to determine if it’s time to take the M.B.A. plunge.

First up, make sure your head is in the game. Business school admittedly includes its fair share of cocktail-fueled socials and late-night carousing, but most people will tell you that they’ve never been busier, or slept less, than when in b-school. Between classes, quizzes, team meetings, recruiting, clubs, and a veritable smorgasbord of special events, the life of an M.B.A. student can seem like a nonstop circus act.

Taking two years to get an M.B.A. is not just a business decision, it’s a life decision that may include the interests of boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, and children. Do you have the discipline to balance the grueling workload of an M.B.A. program with your existing work or personal obligations?

If the answer is yes, the next step is to get real about what it’s going to cost you. Assuming the cost of an M.B.A. program is one of the most expensive academic decisions you’ll ever make once you factor in living expenses, course-related travel expenses, and, for older applicants, the loss of two years of income while pursuing the degree full time. You can certainly find inspiration in No Debt M.B.A., a blog by a 20-something professional with a seat at one of the top five M.B.A. programs who plans to graduate in 2013 with no student loans. But most applicants to the elite schools should brace themselves for six-figure debt—at least for a while.

On the bright side, GMAC’s 2012 Alumni Perspectives Survey reports that on average, alumni across all participating graduation years recouped one third of their financial investment in their graduate degree immediately after graduation, and saw a 100 percent return on investment after four years.

Deciding whether you have enough work experience is a trickier issue, as more schools roll out the welcome mat for younger applicants. One example is Harvard Business School, whose 2+2 Program specifically courts outstanding college seniors. Most M.B.A. programs still require at least two years of work experience, but not the five or even seven years that used to be the norm. If you can demonstrate maturity, highly focused career goals, leadership skills, and enough life experience to contribute to an incoming class, your age or thin amount of work experience become far less important.

It’s no surprise that an M.B.A. expands your skill set and your network of contacts, as well as significantly increases your long-term earning potential. Candidates should talk with family, friends, and mentors—and potentially an M.B.A. application adviser—early in the application process to determine where they are in the so-called “window” for business school.

But only you can judge when all of the necessary elements have come together to make the time right.

This post originally appeared on the U.S. News–Strictly Business MBA Admissions blog.

Hypothetical question: Should you land in the hospital and find that your treatment will be managed by a medical student rather than an attending physician, would you feel a bit panicky, or proud to play a role in what is known as a “teachable moment”?

In the latest issue of Harvard Business Review, dean of Harvard Business School Nitin Nohria says that disconcerting or frightening though it may be, we have an obligation to help train the next generation of doctors—and business schools can learn a lot from the medical profession.

But inserting business students into real-world managerial situations is no easy undertaking. Unlike med students, who often help make life-and-death decisions, Nohria notes that M.B.A. candidates typically rely on case studies to navigate thorny business scenarios, albeit from a safe distance. At HBS, that all changed a few weeks ago when more than 900 first-years embarked on the global immersion component of the new M.B.A. curriculum module known as Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD).

Working in teams of six, students connected with 140 organizations to create a new product or service for one of them for a developing market. If sending the entire first-year M.B.A. class to a dozen cities in 10 countries scattered across the globe sounds ambitious, it was.

Harvard had to establish partnerships with foreign companies to help students secure visas and obtain the necessary immunizations, and it had to familiarize its students with the customs and business etiquette they would encounter. It’s easy to see why Poets & Quants called it the “boldest experiment ever carried out in graduate business education.” (To better understand the course from a student’s perspective, M.B.A. blogger Parker Woltz provides an engaging description of her FIELD experience in Vietnam.)

HBS has clearly seized the “go big or go home” philosophy in an effort to close what the dean calls the “knowing-doing gap”; however, HBS is by no means the first elite business school to embrace managerial field training.

In 1992, the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business introduced the groundbreaking Multidisciplinary Action Projects (MAP) course, an intensive field-study experience requiring teams of first-year students to spend an entire semester collaborating to resolve high-stakes business challenges inside actual organizations.

The action-based learning approach is the cornerstone of the Ross experience, and after executing more than 1,500 projects for 750 organizations worldwide, Alison Davis-Blake, the school’s dean, asserts in her latest blog post that “Experiential learning is a true differentiator in our graduate programs, especially in the global context.”

One of the more unusual examples of a field experience comes from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. In professor Viva Bartkus’s course “Business on the Frontlines,” M.B.A. students study about and then travel to countries struggling to rebuild their economies after a war or violent conflict.

The aim is to examine the role of business in these countries’ attempts to restart their economic growth, pull their populations out of poverty, and stabilize society. The course has a lengthy waiting list of students, says Mendoza’s Carol Elliott, and has recently expanded in both size and scope to include students from the Peace Studies Institute and Notre Dame’s law school.

Most business schools today acknowledge that a global career is inevitable for incoming students, and field experiences that transcend sector and geographical borders are one of the best ways for M.B.A. students to prepare for a competitive job market.

But Nohria, Harvard’s dean, admits the FIELD program will probably face some bumps in the road for the first few years. “Like hospital patients being treated by a new resident, everyone involved will experience some nervousness and discomfort,” he says. “But in a global economy that will put heavy demands on the next generation of managers and leaders, that’s a small price to pay for knowledge and experience.”