Admissions season is officially underway — you might even say it started a month ago. All the top schools have released their round deadlines (except NYU, Haas, UCLA), most have published their essays, and some have even opened up their applications. EssaySnark will offer more in-depth guidance on each of these schools’ essays in the coming weeks. For now, here’s a summary of first-round dates and snapshot assessment (links are to the schools’ essay pages when available, schools are listed in order of first deadlines):
- Harvard Business School – R1 = Oct. 1. Essay questions mostly unchanged from last year though there’s a couple new options in the “pick 2” section. No big shift in strategy needed from what we’ve said last year. With HBS, focus on LEADERSHIP. Where have you taken initiative, inspired others, made an impact?
- Wharton Business School – R1 = Oct. 4. Completely different essays this year! And these are dissimilar to pretty much every other school’s. EssaySnark is guessing that Wharton wants to force applicants to write essays for them from scratch. No re-using of topics between your HBS/CBS apps, as so many did last year (usually not successfully — the adcom can tell when an essay was written for another school and can reject you outright just for that faux pas — resist the urge, don’t copy/paste). ETA: EssaySnark offers guidance for these new questions here.
- Stanford GSB – R1 = Oct. 6. Essay questions also mostly the same as last year, though there are some nuanced differences in how they’re phrased now, which indicates the adcom wants a different emphasis on answers than they saw last season. EssaySnark will dissect these changes later. For now, remember that there are no formulas for getting into the GSB. They want AUTHENTICITY and are very interested in candidates who will MAKE AN IMPACT.
- Columbia Business School – Early Decision (binding) & J-Term (accelerated) = Oct. 6. But — with rolling admissions, you’re at a significant advantage to submit early! And, only two essays now! Should be a snap, right? Maybe not. Two essays makes for very limited space. EssaySnark will offer more insights into the mechanics of CBS’s rolling admission process, and has already discussed the very different approach needed for their essays this year here and here.
- Duke Fuqua Early Action (binding) = Oct. 6. WOW: all they want to know about is why you want an MBA and why you want to go to Duke. How novel! This is definitely a different approach than any school has taken. It’s laser focus on the critical elements that you need to express to any school, with no opportunity for marshmallowizing that other schools let you do through the undefined “tell us about yourself” questions. Very interesting! EssaySnark will offer more discussion of this soon.
- London Business School – R1 is likely to be Oct. 6 (link is to a Word doc). Deadlines not yet released. Essay questions are quite different from last year. This will warrant a future post from EssaySnark.
- Chicago Booth = Oct. 13. Essays apparently not yet released. There was rumor in the spring that Chicago may be ditching their traditional PowerPoint slide presentation component to the application, but according to this page on their application process, sorry but no, the PPT is still going to be part of your package.
- Dartmouth Tuck – non-biding Early Action = Oct. 13. Note that you also need to have your interview completed by this date. Tuck is one of the few schools that interviews everyone, and they do that before you apply. No change at all to their essays from last year. These are standard questions and many are ones you could be asked in an interview at any school. Note that to qualify for Tuck scholarships you must apply in the EA round.
- Northwestern Kellogg – totally confusing two-part process R1 deadlines on Sept. 24 (or Oct. 14) and the real application deadline on Oct. 14. Read this page to get even more confused about this two-part process (what’s worse is they’re calling these dates “tentative”). This is due to how they interview everyone, and those interviews must be scheduled before apps are submitted. Kellogg’s questions are largely unchanged (click for EssaySnark’s analysis), although they’ve got a great new one: “The best mistake I ever made was…” How’s that for a twist on a classic “failure” question?
- MIT Sloan = Oct. 26. MIT has just two rounds. Always better to apply in R1 (for any school); R2 is still viable for MIT. Just don’t get complacent and think you can apply later! Essay questions scheduled for release in mid-July.
These are some of the best schools in the world although this is not meant as a definitive Top 10 list. Certainly though, enough schools have released their questions that it’s time to get cranking!
What schools do you plan to apply to?
Tell us what you think.