@GMAT Ninja - THRILLED to share that one of my R3 clients was accepted to both Kellogg and Duke Fuqua! AND, they had a 2.5 undergrad GPA. I can't emphasize enough the importance of your narrative and explaining why NOW.
How would one tackle a situation where they have been aiming for Fall 2025 for their MBA but due to a company wide layoff, round 3 does seem like an attractive option. Being an international student, is it worth waiting until round 1 and how should the career gap be explained in this scenario?
That's exactly the sort of situation that we mention in the video. Sometimes, it's worth the shot to apply in R3 because of your personal circumstances. Yes, your odds might be limited, for all of the reasons that we mention in the video. But sometimes it's still very much worthwhile to apply anyway, especially if you're thoughtful about targeting MBA programs that might be a bit less competitive in the later rounds. In the video, we mentioned international applicants mostly because the US visa system can be slow and somewhat unpredictable, and if you're submitting applications late in the cycle, you might struggle to get your visa on time. Check with your target programs to see what they say -- some of them actively discourage international applicants in R3/R4, others don't. And please keep in mind that we focused specifically on US MBA programs in this video -- visa systems work very differently in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere in the world. If you've just been through massive, impersonal corporate layoffs, you'll just want to explain the situation in your application. That part is straightforward enough. I hope that helps a bit, and good luck with your applications!
Not necessarily. INSEAD, for example, has two intakes each year, and four application rounds for each intake. So the entire system is very, very different than at top US programs, since INSEAD has EIGHT deadlines per calendar year. We can say similar things about the visa process -- different countries handle all of that very differently, too. If you're focused on Europe, I would recommend reaching out the specific programs that interest you, and see what they have to say about different admissions rounds. I hope that helps a bit, and thank you for the kind words about the video!
Hi Charles! I had a question regarding the deferred MBA process. Some schools say that there is a separate deadline for deferred applications and no “rounds” as such, while others say that you can apply in any round just like the normal MBA admission rounds. My question is that does this “Round 3 factor” as discussed in the video affect the admission chances, scholarships etc for deferred MBA applicants? Follow up on that, is there a right time to apply for the above or any time before the deadline functions similarly with respect to the aforementioned factors?
Deferred admissions is a very different thing, and our wisecracks about R3 generally aren't relevant to the deferred admissions process. One theme in the video is that R3 is a crapshoot because schools are trying to manage their "yield" -- basically, the percentage of admitted students in R1/R2 who accepted their offers -- and it's impossible to know whether there are many slots leftover for R3/R4 applicants. None of that is relevant for deferred admissions applicants, since they don't actually start school for several years. In other words, you can think of deferred admissions as a completely separate process in many ways. Different MBA programs handle deferred admissions differently, but most of what we say in this video about R3 doesn't really apply. Generally speaking, deferred admissions deadlines are in March or April anyway; if an MBA program doesn't have a specific deferred admissions program, you might want to reach out the admissions office to see if they have a preference for when to submit your application. I hope that helps a bit, and have fun with your applications!
Just what I needed, answered a lot of questions I had.
Awesome, I'm glad that we published this at the right time. Thank you for watching, and good luck with your applications!
Haha😂. Thanks folks. I knew I'm screwed, just wanted to know how much.
@GMAT Ninja - THRILLED to share that one of my R3 clients was accepted to both Kellogg and Duke Fuqua! AND, they had a 2.5 undergrad GPA. I can't emphasize enough the importance of your narrative and explaining why NOW.
How would one tackle a situation where they have been aiming for Fall 2025 for their MBA but due to a company wide layoff, round 3 does seem like an attractive option. Being an international student, is it worth waiting until round 1 and how should the career gap be explained in this scenario?
That's exactly the sort of situation that we mention in the video. Sometimes, it's worth the shot to apply in R3 because of your personal circumstances. Yes, your odds might be limited, for all of the reasons that we mention in the video. But sometimes it's still very much worthwhile to apply anyway, especially if you're thoughtful about targeting MBA programs that might be a bit less competitive in the later rounds.
In the video, we mentioned international applicants mostly because the US visa system can be slow and somewhat unpredictable, and if you're submitting applications late in the cycle, you might struggle to get your visa on time. Check with your target programs to see what they say -- some of them actively discourage international applicants in R3/R4, others don't. And please keep in mind that we focused specifically on US MBA programs in this video -- visa systems work very differently in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere in the world.
If you've just been through massive, impersonal corporate layoffs, you'll just want to explain the situation in your application. That part is straightforward enough.
I hope that helps a bit, and good luck with your applications!
Great video! Do you think is the same for European tier 1 schools?
Not necessarily. INSEAD, for example, has two intakes each year, and four application rounds for each intake. So the entire system is very, very different than at top US programs, since INSEAD has EIGHT deadlines per calendar year. We can say similar things about the visa process -- different countries handle all of that very differently, too.
If you're focused on Europe, I would recommend reaching out the specific programs that interest you, and see what they have to say about different admissions rounds.
I hope that helps a bit, and thank you for the kind words about the video!
Hi Charles!
I had a question regarding the deferred MBA process. Some schools say that there is a separate deadline for deferred applications and no “rounds” as such, while others say that you can apply in any round just like the normal MBA admission rounds.
My question is that does this “Round 3 factor” as discussed in the video affect the admission chances, scholarships etc for deferred MBA applicants?
Follow up on that, is there a right time to apply for the above or any time before the deadline functions similarly with respect to the aforementioned factors?
Deferred admissions is a very different thing, and our wisecracks about R3 generally aren't relevant to the deferred admissions process.
One theme in the video is that R3 is a crapshoot because schools are trying to manage their "yield" -- basically, the percentage of admitted students in R1/R2 who accepted their offers -- and it's impossible to know whether there are many slots leftover for R3/R4 applicants. None of that is relevant for deferred admissions applicants, since they don't actually start school for several years.
In other words, you can think of deferred admissions as a completely separate process in many ways. Different MBA programs handle deferred admissions differently, but most of what we say in this video about R3 doesn't really apply. Generally speaking, deferred admissions deadlines are in March or April anyway; if an MBA program doesn't have a specific deferred admissions program, you might want to reach out the admissions office to see if they have a preference for when to submit your application.
I hope that helps a bit, and have fun with your applications!
Deferred enrollment deadlines are roughly at the same time as R3. But, deferred candidates are evaluated separately from the R3 candidates.