MBA Application Deadlines For The 2023-2024 Admissions Cycle

application deadlines

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

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