MBA Application Deadlines For The 2023-2024 Admissions Cycle

What goes down must come up?

That’s the likely scenario for MBA applications in the forthcoming 2023-2024 admissions cycle. Last year, the Top Ten business schools reported an overall acceptance rate of 22.2%, up from 18.4% a year earlier, as MBA applicant pools shrank.

With a large number of layoffs of young professional workers in the past year, most are expecting a slightly more competitive admissions season which has launched in full with the publication of Harvard Business School’s new MBA application deadlines.

Almost always, HBS is the first school out of the gate to post its deadlines, and this year the round one app deadline for Harvard’s MBA Class of 2026 of Sept. 6, with decisions on that round going out on Dec. 6. The school also set a round two deadline of Jan. 3, 2024, with decisions due on March 27th. The school made no change in its essay nor its 900-word limit on the prompt’s answer: “As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?”

Harvard will only accept the traditional GMAT exam or the GRE this year for both Round 1 and Round 2 applicants. For those applying to its 2+2 deferred admission program in 2024, the school plans to accept the new, shorter GMAT Focus test.

MBA APPLICATION CHANGES AT COLUMBIA AND DARTMOUTH TUCK

Columbia Business School, meantime, has switched things up this year, moving to a round admissions schedule from its more typical rolling process. The school made the move to align itself with other peer schools but also to reduce possible stress on applicants who may find it difficult for CBS to be an outlier. “My guess is they wanted to have more people sending in their applications earlier than previously so they set up rounds,” says Linda Abraham, founder of Accepted.com, an admissions consulting firm. “Last year their early decision deadline was 9/28 and they didn’t really start considering regular decision applications until after that date. The 9/13 round one deadline should get them more early applications.”

As most applicants know, schools generally read your application and then deliver whether to invite you in for an admissions interview. But in a few instances, you can get on an interview schedule without an invite. That is true at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College which has three deadlines that offer applicants guaranteed interviews. If you are applying in the second round at Tuck, you can get a guaranteed interview simply by getting your application in by Dec. 1. Otherwise, the regular round two deadline at Tuck is Jan. 4. If you apply by the Sept. 7 early action deadline at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business instead of the Oct. 1 round one deadline, you’ll also get a guaranteed interview. If you are someone who would likely impress a person one-on-one, you will have an advantage getting in front of someone to make your case for admission.

Other schools quickly followed Harvard, Stanford and Columbia–among the early birds posting new deadlines–with their own announcements. Here’s the latest on those deadlines (bookmark this post so you can easily access the updates to follow as each school publishes its new deadlines and essay prompts).

Earliest 2023-2024 MBA Application Deadlines

 

School	Deadline	Interview Notification	Decision	Essay Release
IMD	June 15, 2023 (R1 for Jan. 2024 intake)	By Rolling Invitation	Aug. 1, 2023	Yes
INSEAD	June 27, 2023 (R3 for Jan. 2024 intake)	July 28, 2023	Sept. 1, 2023	Yes
INSEAD	Aug. 8, 2023 (R4 for Jan. 2024 intake)	Sept. 8, 2023	Oct. 6, 2023	Yes
HEC Paris	Aug. 14, 2023 (R7 for Jan. 2024 intake)	Rolling	Sept. 15, 2023	Yes
Cambridge (Judge)	Aug. 29, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Rolling	Yes
Dartmouth (Tuck)	Sept. 1, 2023 (R1–Open Interviews)	Rolling	Dec. 7, 2013	Yes
Toronto (Rotman)	Sept. 5, 2023 (Early Round)	Rolling	Oct. 13, 2023	Yes
Harvard	Sept. 6, 2023 (R1)	Oct. 5, 2023*	Dec. 6, 2023	Yes
Pennsylvania (Wharton)	Sept. 6, 2023 (R1)	Oct. 24, 2023	Dec. 14, 2023	Yes
Virginia (Darden)	Sept. 7, 2023 (Early Action–Open Interviews)	Rolling	Rolling	Yes
Duke (Fuqua)	Sept. 7, 2023 (Early Action)	Sept. 21, 2023	Oct. 19, 2023	Yes
London Business School	Sept. 8, 2023 (R1)	Oct. 12, 2023	Nov. 30, 2023	Yes
HEC Paris	Sept. 11, 2023 (R8 for Jan. 2024 intake)	Rolling	Oct. 13, 2023	Yes
Stanford GSB	Sept. 12, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 7, 2023	Yes
Yale SOM	Sept. 12, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 5, 2023	Yes
INSEAD	Sept. 12, 2023 (R1 for Aug. 2024 intake)	Oct. 13, 2023	Nov. 17, 2023	Yes
Columbia Business School	Sept. 12, 2023 (R1 for Aug. 2024 intake)	Mid-October	Mid-December	Yes
Notre Dame (Mendoza)	Sept. 12, 2023 (Early Decision)	Oct. 10-12, 2023	Nov. 3, 2023	Yes
Northwestern (Kellogg)	Sept. 13, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 13, 2023	Yes
Columbia Business School	Sept. 13, 2023 (For Jan. 2024 intake)	Rolling	Rolling	Yes
UC-Berkeley (Haas)	Sept. 14, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 7, 2023	Yes
Michigan (Ross)	Sept. 14, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 8, 2023	Yes
NYU (Stern) (Full-Time, Tech & Fashion MBAs)	Sept. 18, 2023 (R1)	Dec. 1, 2023	Rolling	Yes
IESE Business School	Sept. 19, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Rolling	Yes
Cornell (Johnson)	Sept. 20, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 8, 2023	Yes
Chicago (Booth)	Sept. 21, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Nov. 30, 2023	Yes
Dartmouth (Tuck)	Sept. 25, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 7, 2013	Yes
MIT (Sloan)	Sept. 27, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 12, 2023	Yes<
Columbia Business School	Sept. 28, 2023* (Final for Jan. 2023 entry)	By Rolling Invitation	Rolling	Yes
Duke (Fuqua)	Sept. 28, 2023 (R1)	Oct. 26, 2023	Dec. 8, 2023	Yes
Minnesota (Carlson)	Oct. 1, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Nov. 15, 2023	Yes
Arizona State (Carey)	Oct. 1, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 8, 2023	Yes
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	Oct. 2, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 6, 2023	Yes
Michigan State (Broad)	Oct. 2, 2023 (Early Round)	Rolling	Nov. 17, 2023	Yes
Georgetown (McDonough)	Oct. 2, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 7, 2023	Yes
Toronto (Rotman)	Oct. 2, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 15, 2023	Yes
Vanderbilt (Owen)	Oct. 3, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 14, 2023	Yes
SMU (Cox)	Oct. 3, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Nov. 17, 2023	Yes
Washington (Foster)	Oct. 3, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 15, 2023	Yes
Cambridge (Judge)	Oct. 3, 2023 (R2)	Rolling	Rolling	Yes
Virginia (Darden)	Oct. 4, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Rolling	Yes
Emory (Goizueta)	Oct. 4, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 6, 2023	Yes
UCLA (Anderson)	Oct. 5, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 14, 2023	Yes
Washington University (Olin)	Oct. 5, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Nov. 9, 2023	Yes
Georgia Tech (Scheller)	Oct. 6, 2023 (R1)	Nov. 9-13, 2023	Nov. 17, 2023	Yes
Rice (Jones)	Oct. 9, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Starting Dec. 8, 2023	Yes
Texas-Austin (McCombs)	Oct. 10, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 14, 2023	Yes
Georgia (Terry)	Oct. 10, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 1, 2023	Yes
Indiana (Kelley)	Oct. 15, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 20, 2023	Yes
Southern California (Marshall)	Oct. 15, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 31, 2023	Yes
North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	Oct. 16, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 11, 2023	Yes
Notre Dame (Mendoza)	Oct. 25, 2023 (R1)	Nov. 14-16, 2023	Dec. 15, 2023	Yes
Michigan State (Broad)	Nov. 6, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Jan. 12, 2024	Yes
Brigham Young (Marriott)	Dec. 1, 2023 (R1–Priority Consideration)	Rolling	Rolling	Yes
Ohio State (Fisher)	Dec. 3, 2023 (R1)	Rolling	Jan. 19, 2024	Yes

An asterisk indicates an estimate based on last year’s dates because the school has not formally announced a date for when it will notify applicants of interview invites