2018-19 Full-time MBA Application Deadlines

The biggest news of the 2018-2019 MBA application season came early from Harvard Business School when HBS announced that it would do away with its third and final round (see Harvard B-School Kills An Admissions Round).

With more and more MBA candidates filing their applications in the first and second rounds, respectively in September and January, Harvard admission officials thought an extra round wasn’t really needed, anymore. The school, however, will retain a spring round, however, for applicants to its 2+2 deferred admissions program. Consultants estimate that round three accounts for fewer than 5% of Harvardā€™s incoming class of roughly 930 MBAs in recent years.

Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business also eliminated a round this year: the school’s ‘early action’ round which typically had a deadline of early October. Instead, Tuck is moving to three rounds starting with a first deadline of September 24, a second on Ā January 7th, and a third on April 1st. Ā More importantly, the school’s admissions team has made a commitment to speed up admit/deny decisions. Tuck found that MBA applicants to the school had to wait 100 days–longer than any other peer school–to get an answer from Tuck on its November round.

“Weā€™re ‘sun setting’ the ‘applicant-unfriendly’ November round,” announced Tuck admissions chiefĀ Luke Anthony PeƱa,Ā Ā “Weā€™ll now offer three admission rounds with more applicant-friendly turnaround times.” The upshot: For its November round, Tuck cut the wait time by more than 25% to 73 days to Dec. 6th. Last year, November candidates had to wait until Feb. 9th for a decision.

Once Harvard tips off the season with its Sept. 5th cutoff, the deadlines fall like dominoes. Yale SOM and Duke follow on the 12th, then Stanford and Wharton cutoffs occur on the 18th, followed by INSEAD and Northwestern Kellogg a day later, with Chicago Booth on the 27th and Dartmouth Tuck on the 24th. As more schools report their dates, expect September and October to be ground zero for round one applicants.

Otherwise, there has been some more slight admissions deadline creep in this year’s deadlines, with Wharton scheduling its round one cutoff a day earlier than a year ago on Sept. 18th, along with several other leading schools. For Columbia Business School’s early decision and January intake round, the deadline was also moved up a day to Oct. 4th this year. Columbia offers two intakes, an August entry and an accelerated January intake. Unlike most of its peer schools, Columbia uses a rolling admissions process for both entry options, evaluating applications and extending interview invitations as they are received.

Itā€™s always wise to follow the links to the web pages of the schoolā€™s admissions office. Itā€™s always possible that there could be slight changes in the dates, or greater detail. And there can be significant differences in the number of rounds and deadlines from school to school. While HBS is now down to just two deadline rounds, INSEAD and London Business School both have four rounds for each of their intakes. HEC-Paris has a half dozen for its Sept. 2019 intake and an amazing 11 rounds for its Jan. 2019 intake.

APPLY AS EARLY AS YOU CAN BUT NOT UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE THE BEST JOB POSSIBLE

No matter what you do, thereā€™s some helpful general advice: If you can, apply in the first round when none of the seats in the class are filled. At most schools, early applicants have an advantage over those that complete their applications in later rounds. Typically, the second application round is the largest, and many schools, including Wharton, advise candidates that round three is the most competitive mostly because the vast majority of the class seats are already filled. There are some other reasons why you want to get your app in early:

  • The ability to receive a scholarshipĀ awardĀ from the schoolā€™s Financial Aid Office prior to the date by which you must respond to your offer of admission.
  • Ample time to complete recommended quantitative and/or language coursework prior to arrival on campus.
  • Access to on-campusĀ housingĀ lottery systems at some schools.
  • Sufficient time to complete the visa application process for international candidates.
  • Attendance at a schoolā€™s Admit Weekends. Sometimes, round three candidates lose out on this opportunity.

All that said, the best time to apply is when you believe youā€™ve done the best job possible with your application. If you have to rush and cut corners to make round one, donā€™t. Hold off until another round. At all the highly selective business schools, admissions officials are looking for reasons to cut you from the pool. After all, the odds are substantially against you and as many as 80% of the candidates in any schoolā€™s applicant pool are usually fully qualified to attend. So you want to make sure you are putting your best foot forward when you do apply.

Weā€™ll update this list continuously as more schools provide info on their new deadlines. If a school has released its essays for the 2018-2019 admissions season, you can access them by clicking on the ā€œYesā€ in the table below.

EARLIEST 2018-2019 DEADLINES AT TOP BUSINESS SCHOOLS

School Deadline Interview Notification Decision Essay Release
HEC Paris (Sept. 2019 Intake) June 1, 2018 (R1) NA July 6, 2018 Yes
INSEAD (Jan. 2019 Intake) June 20, 2018 (R3) July 27, 2018 Sept. 7, 2018 Yes
HEC Paris (Sept. 2019 Intake) July 1, 2018 (R2) NA July 27, 2018 Yes
INSEAD (Jan. 2019 Intake) Aug. 1, 2018 (R4) Aug. 31, 2018 Sept. 28, 2018 Yes
HEC Paris (Sept. 2019 Intake) Aug. 15, 2018 (R3) NA Sept. 21, 2018 Yes
IESE Sept. 4, 2018 (Early Decision) NA Oct. 19, 2018 Yes
Harvard Sept. 5, 2018 NA Dec. 11, 2018 Yes
Virginia (Darden) Sept. 7, 2018 (Early Action) Mid-July to Late-Sept. Oct. 17, 2018 Yes
Oxford (Said) Sept. 7, 2018 Sept. 21, 2018 Oct. 19, 2018 Yes
Cambridge (Judge) Sept. 7, 2018 Oct. 21-22, 2018 Nov. 5-12, 2018 Yes
Cornell (Johnson) Sept. 10, 2018 (Early Action-1-Year MBA) Nov. 15, 2018 Dec. 20, 2018 Yes
Duke (Fuqua) Sept. 12, 2018 (Early Action) Sept. 25, 2018 Oct. 19, 2018 Yes
Yale SOM Sept. 12, 2018 NA Dec. 5 2018 Yes
London Business School Sept. 14, 2018 Oct. 11, 2018 Nov. 21, 2018 Yes
NYU (Stern) Sept. 15, 2018 (R1: Fashion & Tech MBAs) NA Dec. 1, 2018 Yes
HEC Paris (Sept. 2019 Intake) Sept. 15, 2018 (R4) NA Oct. 19, 2018 Yes
Stanford GSB Sept. 18, 2018 NA Dec. 13, 2018 Yes
Wharton Sept. 18, 2018 Oct. 30, 2018 Dec. 13, 2018 Yes
Northwestern (Kellogg) Sept. 19, 2018 (R1) Sept. 21, 2018 Dec. 12, 2018 Yes
INSEAD (Sept. 20/19 Intake) Sept. 19, 2018 (R1) Oct. 19, 2018 Nov. 23, 2018 Yes
Dartmouth (Tuck) Sept. 24, 2018 NA Dec. 6, 2018 Yes
MIT (Sloan) Sept. 25, 2018 NA Dec. 19, 2018 Yes
Chicago (Booth) Sept. 27, 2018 NA Dec. 6, 2018 Yes
UC-Berkeley (Haas) Sept. 27, 2018 NA Dec. 13, 2019 Yes
Michigan (Ross) Oct. 1, 2018 NA Dec. 21, 2018 Yes
Emory Goizueta Oct. 1, 2018 (R1) NA Nov. 30, 2018 Yes
Toronto (Rotman) Oct. 1, 2018 (R1) NA Dec. 14, 2018 Yes
UCLA (Anderson) Oct. 2, 2018 NA Dec. 18, 2018 Yes
Columbia Oct. 3, 2018 (early decision/January intake) Rolling Decisions Rolling Yes
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) Oct. 3, 2018 (R1) NA Dec. 12, 2018 Yes
Virginia (Darden) Oct. 4, 2018 (R1) NA Dec. 12, 2018 Yes
Emory Goizueta Oct. 5, 2018 (R1) NA Nov. 20, 2018 Yes
Texas (McCombs) Oct. 9, 2018 (R1) NA Dec. 18, 2018 Yes
Georgetown (McDonough) Oct. 9, 2018 (R1) NA Dec. 19, 2018 Yes
Duke (Fuqua) Oct. 10, 2018 (R1) Nov. 8, 2018 Dec. 13, 2018 Yes
Cornell (Johnson) Oct. 10, 2018 (R1-1-Year MBA) Nov. 15, 2018 Dec. 20, 2018 Yes
Cornell (Johnson) Oct. 10, 2018 (Early Action-1-Year MBA) Nov. 15, 2018 Dec. 20, 2018 Yes
Washington (Foster) Oct. 10, 2018 NA Dec. 21, 2018 Yes
IESE Oct. 11, 2018 (R1) NA Dec. 4, 2018 Yes
NYU (Stern) Oct. 15, 2018 NA Jan. 1, 2019 Yes
Indiana (Kelley) Oct. 15, 2018 (Early) NA Dec. 20, 2018 Yes
Rice (Jones) Oct. 15, 2018 NA Dec. 14, 2018 Yes
UNC (Kenan-Flagler) Oct. 15, 2018 (R1-Early) Sept 5 to Oct. 31 (Open) Dec. 7, 2018 Yes
HEC Paris (Sept. 2019 Intake) Oct. 15, 2018 (R5) NA Nov. 16, 2018 Yes
Vanderbilt (Owen) Oct. 19, 2018 Nov. 16, 2018 Dec. 7, 2018 Yes
Cambridge (Judge) Oct. 26, 2018 (R2) Dec. 9-10, 2018 Dec. 24-31, 2018 Yes
Oxford (Said) Nov. 2, 2018 (R2) Nov. 16, 2018 Dec. 14, 2018 Yes
Emory Goizueta Nov. 9, 2018 (R2) NA Jan. 25, 2019 Yes
INSEAD (Sept. 20/19 Intake) Nov. 14, 2018 (R2) Dec. 14, 2018 Jan. 25, 2019 Yes
NYU (Stern) Nov. 15, 2018 (R2) NA Feb. 1, 2019 Yes
NYU (Stern) Nov. 15, 2018 (R2: Fashion & Tech MBAs) NA Feb. 1, 2019 Yes
Cornell (Johnson) Nov. 15, 2018 (R2-Nov.) Jan. 10, 2019 Feb. 20, 2019 Yes
Cornell (Johnson) Nov. 15, 2018 (R2-1-Year MBA) Jan. 10, 2019 Feb. 20, 2019 Yes
HEC Paris (Sept. 2019 Intake) Nov. 15, 2018 (R6) NA Dec. 14, 2018 Yes

Source: Business school websites

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