2025-2026 MBA Application Deadlines At Leading Business Schools

The forthcoming 2025-2026 admissions season is fraught with uncertainty.

Amid widespread concern that fewer international applicants will be willing to go to a U.S. school during the Trump era and economic uncertainty causing domestic applicants to hang onto their jobs, many admission experts are predicting a decline in application volume. The Trump Administration made that a near certainty in May by attempting to ban all international students at Harvard University and by pausing all interviews for student visas to explore an expansion of social media vetting.

That is good news to those willing to move forward because it will likely mean applicants will face less competition to get into highly selective MBA programs. Those who apply in this cycle, moreover, are likely to be ahead of the potential for a U.S. recession when application volume typically soars.

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL MOVED UP ITS ROUND ONE DEADLINE BY A DAY THIS YEAR

The official opening of the 2025-2026 season begins on Sept. 3, the round one deadline at Harvard Business School. That’s a day earlier than last year’s round one cutoff. After that date, application deadlines fall like dominoes at one business school after another.

What to expect? While the deadlines typically remain more or less the same from year-to-year, essays do change. This year’s essay prompts, too, will be indirectly influenced by the Trump administration. At Columbia Business School, for example, one of last year’s required essays was clearly focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, a no-no in the Trump era. The prelude to that essay was a bit of a woke word salad with such phrases as “mitigating bias and prejudice, managing intercultural dialogue, addressing system inequity, understanding identity and perspective taking, and creating an inclusive environment.” Columbia then asked applicants for 250 words to describe a time or situation when they had to utilize one or more of these five skills.”

All that is gone. Now, the school simply asks candidates to answer this prompt in 250 words or less: “Please share a specific example of how you made a team more collaborative, more inclusive or fostered a greater sense of community within an organization.”

WHICH SCHOOLS ARE GRANTING GMAT AND GRE WAIVERS?

This year for the first time our tables list whether a school offers MBA candidates waivers from a standardized test with a link to the school’s details on what is required to obtain a waiver. Many of the top MBA programs, including Michigan Ross and UVA Darden, now grant waivers to both the GMAT and the GRE. In most cases, an applicant must submit proof that they can do the quantitative work in the MBA program to gain a waiver, though some programs have become test optional.

As the schools release their 2025-2026 MBA application deadlines and essay prompts, we will continuously update our tables to provide applicants with the latest guidance.

Earliest 2025-2026 MBA Application Deadlines At U.S. Schools

School	Deadline	Interview Notification	Decision	Essay Release	Test Waiver
Columbia	June 17, 2025 (R1-Jan. intake)	Rolling invitations	No later than Aug. 15	Yes	No
Columbia	Aug. 13, 2025 (R2-Jan. intake)	Rolling invitations	Rolling	Yes	No
Brigham Young (Marriott)	Sept. 1, 2025 (Early/Priority Scholarship Oct. 15)	Rolling/td>	Rolling	Yes	Yes
Harvard Business School	Sept. 3, 2025 (R1)	TBD	Dec. 10, 2025	No	No
Pennsylvania (Wharton)	Sept. 3, 2025 (R1)	Oct. 22, 2025	Dec. 10, 2025	Yes	No
Columbia	Sept. 3, 2025 (R1-Aug. intake)	Rolling invitations	Rolling	Yes	No
Michigan (Ross)	Sept. 8, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Dec. 5, 2025	Yes	Yes
Stanford	Sept. 9, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Dec. 10, 2025	Yes	No
Northwestern (Kellogg)	Sept. 10, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Dec. 10, 2025	Yes	No
Yale SOM	Sept. 10, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Dec. 4, 2025	Yes	No
UC-Berkeley (Haas)	Sept. 11, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Dec. 11, 2025	Yes	No
Duke (Fuqua)	Sept. 14, 2025 (Early Action)	By Sept. 25, 2025	Oct. 16, 2025	Yes	No
NYU (Stern)	Sept. 15, 2025 (R1)	Rolling	Dec. 1, 2025	Yes	No
MIT (Sloan)	Sept. 29, 2025 (RI)	Rolling invitations	December, 2025	Yes	Yes
Duke (Fuqua)	Sept. 30, 2025 (RI)	By Nov. 12, 2025	Dec. 11, 2025	Yes	No
Emory (Goizueta)	Oct. 1, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Dec. 3, 2025	Yes	Yes
Washington (Foster)	Oct. 1, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Dec. 19, 2025	Yes	Yes
Georgia Tech (Scheller)	Oct. 1, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Nov. 21, 2025	Yes	Yes
Minnesota (Carlson)	Oct. 1, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Nov. 15, 2025	Yes	No
Washington (Olin)	Oct. 5, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Nov. 7, 2025	Yes	No
Michigan State (Broad)	Oct. 6, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Nov. 14, 2025	Yes	Yes
Indiana (Kelley)	Oct. 15, 2025 (R1)	Rolling invitations	Dec. 20, 2025	Yes	Yes
Brigham Young (Marriott)	Dec. 1, 2025 (R1)	Rolling/td>	Rolling	Yes	Yes

Earliest 2025-2026 MBA Application Deadlines At Top European Schools

School	Deadline	Interview Notification	Decision	Essay Release	Test Waiver
INSEAD	June 17, 2025 (R3-Jan. 2026 intake)	By July 16, 2025	By Aug. 22, 2025	Yes	No
HEC Paris	June 22, 2025 (R3-Sept. 2025 intake)	Rolling	July 18, 2025	Yes	No
HEC Paris	June 22, 2025 (R3-Jan. 2026 intake)	Rolling	July 18, 2025	Yes	No
HEC Paris	July 22, 2025 (R4-Sept. 2025 intake)	Rolling	Aug. 1, 2025	Yes	No
INSEAD	Aug. 5, 2025 (R4 & Final-Jan. 2026 intake)	By Sept. 5, 2025	By Oct. 10, 2025	Yes	No
HEC Paris	Aug. 17, 2025 (R4-Jan. 2026 intake)	Rolling	Sept. 19, 2025	Yes	No
Cambridge (Judge)	Aug. 26, 2025 (R1-Sept. 2026 intake)	Rolling	Rolling	Yes	No
INSEAD	Sept. 16, 2025 (R1-Aug. 2026 intake)	By Oct. 17, 2025	By Nov. 21, 2025	Yes	No
HEC Paris	Sept. 21, 2025 (R5-Jan. 2026 intake)	Rolling	Oct. 17, 2025	Yes	No
HEC Paris	Oct. 19, 2025 (R6-Jan. 2026 intake)	Rolling	Nov. 21, 2025	Yes	No
HEC Paris	Nov. 23, 2025 (R7 & Final-Jan. 2026 intake)	Rolling	Dec. 19, 2025	Yes	No