Mapping Out Your MBA Application Timeline
- Spring and summer of your application season is for research, test-taking, and application strategy and development
- September and October—Round 1 deadlines
- Early January—Round 2 deadlines
- Late March/early April—Round 3 deadlines. Spring deadlines are ideal for deferred MBA admissions for college seniors and part-time and EMBA programs.
Once you’ve decided to pursue an MBA, your work is cut out for you. Applicants must fit in test prep, visit schools, and develop essays with other personal and professional commitments. The best way to do this is to put together your MBA application timeline several months before your target deadlines.
If you’re planning to apply to business school in the fall, come up with a game plan now. That way, you can complete the admissions components within a schedule that doesn’t necessitate sleepless nights and a jumbo bottle of Tums.
Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our All-In Partnership to test prep to hourly help with targeted tasks. Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.
Your MBA application timeline should allow time for:
Community Involvement
Now is a great time to deepen or establish your involvement with a community organization. Have you remained active with outside activities over the last couple of years? Then consider stepping your activities up a notch. Offering to organize an event is a great discrete activity. It allows you to work in a team, make an impact, and show results. Think up roles that will allow you to take a leadership position and create a real impact before September.
Listen to B-Schooled Episode #104: The Importance of Extracurriculars and Community Service
Essays and Test Prep
The amount of time MBA aspirants will spend on their applications will vary, depending on writing abilities and general work efficiency. That said, plan to spend between 40 and 60 hours preparing four to eight applications. Non-native English speakers will also likely need to allot more time to their applications, particularly on writing, revising, editing, proofing, formatting, and inputting essays.
The other piece of this puzzle is, of course, the GMAT or GRE. Have you completed the exam and feel satisfied with your score? If you still need to take the exam, you have a lot of work ahead of you, as applicants typically devote at least 100 hours to test preparation.
Did you know that Stacy Blackman Consulting also offers test prep services? Request a free game plan chat with SBC’s lead test prep coach by emailing testprep@stacyblackman.com
Depending on where you are in the process, you may have to take a prep class and perhaps take the test more than once. The good news is that round one is still nine months out on your MBA application timeline. So, you have enough time if you get serious soon.
Bolstering your Quant Profile
An undergraduate GPA hovering around 3.5 is generally considered fine. If your GPA is 3.2 or below, or you majored in liberal arts, you may want to consider taking quantitative classes to enhance your academic profile. The MBA canon generally consists of Calculus, Statistics, and Microeconomics.
Did you take any of those classes as an undergrad and score a C or below? If so, you should retake the classes now. Where you take the class is much less important than the course material and grade (aim for A’s!!). A local community college is a great option.
Hear straight from SBC consultant Sherry, formerly in AdCom at Duke Fuqua, as she shares her tips for low GPA applicants:
@stacyblackmanconsultingMath for Management: MATH X402 at UC Berkeley Extension Mathematical Solutions for Businesses: MGMT X 110 at UCLA Extension? original sound – Stacy Blackman Consulting
Structured Work Sessions
Some people work most efficiently when they can break up tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces. Meanwhile, others prefer to devote several hours to their writing in one sitting. By now, most MBA applicants know how they work most effectively. Structure your writing and editing sessions accordingly.
We typically recommend that candidates allocate two to three hours each time they sit down to work on their essays, particularly for the first few drafts. Approach the essays holistically. You won’t have a compelling final product if you’ve only snatched 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there.
Conversely, most applicants should also avoid the “marathon session.” Few people are still sharp or creative eight hours into a writing and editing session. If you need to make up for lost time, try breaking it up with a session in the morning and another in the evening.
Thoughtful Revisions
Applicants should also build several weeks for reflection and feedback into their MBA timeline. If you can return to your essays days later with fresh eyes, you’ll often think of a better example or more inspired language to illustrate a certain point. This won’t happen if you’re forced to work at warp speed.
Distributing your writing and editing over a reasonable period also makes it easier for friends, family, or colleagues to provide feedback. It’s unfair to ask someone to turn around comments in a 24-hour period. Build a few days into your MBA application timeline to allow them ample opportunity to give you their critiques. Also, leave yourself adequate time to reflect upon and incorporate their feedback.
The b-school application process is stressful, but careful planning with an MBA application timeline will make the experience manageable. Also, it can help you channel your energies into continually improving your candidacy until the moment you submit your applications.
***
Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our All-In Partnership and Interview Prep to hourly help with essay editing, resume review, and much more! Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Kerry
Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Geri
Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds. Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students. In additio ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants. ×