Considering A Third Round MBA Application? by: Karen Marks, President and Founder of North Star Admissions Consulting on January 23, 2018 | 1,128 Views January 23, 2018 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Not getting the results you want? Late to the application process? If so, you might be considering submitting a third round MBA application. Here are some dynamics to think about before you apply ā and some realities that the admissions office wonāt tell you. Itās super hard to get in. Just like itās easier to get in during early action, you probably know that itās harder to get in third round. What you may not realize is how MUCH harder. To give you an illustration, some top business schools take fewer than a dozen third round applicants, on average. And those candidates tend to have sparkling credentials, come from demographics that the school is having trouble yielding, and/or special interest connections. This is not always the case, and I have worked with candidates who have been admitted to top schools third round, even without perfect credentials. Ā However, itās important to manage expectations and understand the odds. Submitting a weak application can hurt you if you reapply. Most schools will read both applications together, and if you submit a rushed application with weak essays and scores they will hold it against you. While this is true even if you apply in the earlier rounds (itās never a good idea to submit a lame application) the impact is even greater when you apply third round. Less time will have passed before they re-evaluate your candidacy, and the committee might question your judgment for having applied third round in the first place. You need to have a good reason. Unless you were deployed, ill, or have another really good reason for applying third round the schools may question your motivation. Did you not get into the schools that you really wanted to attend? Were you recently fired? If this is a last-minute decision, have you thoroughly explored your options and clarified yourĀ goals? Be sure to explain what valid personal or professional circumstances led you to wait until third round, so that the committee doesnāt jump to unfavorable conclusions. If you do decide to submit a third round MBA application, donāt take it as a bad sign if you donāt get in. As long as you submit a strong application, there is no reason that you canāt be aĀ successful reapplicant. Karen has more than 12 years of experience evaluating candidates for admission to Dartmouth College and to the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Since founding North Star Admissions Consulting in 2012, she has helped applicants gain admission to the nationās top schools, including Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton, MIT, Tuck, Columbia, Kellogg, Booth, Haas, Duke, Johnson, Ross, NYU, UNC, UCLA, Georgetown and more. Clients have been awarded more than $47 million dollars in scholarships, and more than 98% have gotten into one of their top choice schools.