deferred admission for college students

Anyone with a long-range mindset who’s looking at options to pursue in their future is likely doing plenty of “What if?” calculations on the different opportunities they’re considering.

If you’re a college student who’s interested in one of those Deferred Admission tracks that we spoke of recently, like the ones offered through Harvard with 2+2 and Booth Scholars and MIT Deferred Admission and the rest, then you might be wondering:

“If I try for a top school now and I don’t make it in, will that jeopardize my chances later on?”

This is one of the few cases where the answer is a simple and emphatic NO.

In most other situations, when someone is trying for bschool and their MBA apps are rejected, it does complicate the picture for trying for that school again. Plenty of schools are reapplicant-friendly and every year, they admit lots of applicants who had first applied in a previous year. So don’t get us wrong, it’s never a mistake to try if you think you’re ready now. You wouldn’t want to put your future plans and dreams on hold just because you thought it might now work out.

But if someone is, say, applying to a top school in Round 3 in the Spring, in an effort to be admitted to the entering class that same Fall, then yeah, there are real complications that should be considered in case it doesn’t work out (please look at our various Round 3 warning posts here on the blahg for more details). Some admissions directors like to tell applicants there is no harm to applying in Round 3 but honestly, it really can make it more difficult to get in later, since you’re going to be putting together a new set of essays in only a few short months, and that’s truly challenging for most people when they don’t have that much new to talk about in such a short time. (Again, please check out our Round 3 warning posts for more on this.)

For all the Young Talent and Early Admissions types, though, who are trying for the special-focus programs like HBS 2+2 where you have a guaranteed future entry after you’ve built up some work experience after college, then there’s no risk for trying right now. You can apply to any of these tracks that you want as a college senior and if it doesn’t work out, it won’t impact your chances of getting in as a “regular” candidate later on. That means if you really want to try for an admit today to Harvard Business School while you’re a senior in college, then go ahead and give it your best shot in the 2+2 round. (Make sure you have a very high GMAT or GRE score though! That’s practically a pre-requisite to getting in during the 2+2 cohort.)

We hope you make it in!!! But if you don’t — and be prepared for a letdown, since 2+2 is super competitive these days — then don’t worry about it. Go ahead and pursue the plans you’d already put in place for your post-college career, and then if after a few years you decide that you still really want to go to Harvard, you can apply in their standard MBA admissions pool then. You’ll essentially be creating your own independent 2+2 track. No, it won’t be the same, since you won’t have the support of Harvard behind you from the get-go, but it’ll essentially be the same career trajectory. You won’t be considered a “reapplicant” in the typical sense, and the Harvard Admissions Board won’t look at your application poorly at all. If anything, they may be pleased to see your motivation for success at such a young age!

So anyone thinking of an early-admission track so go ahead and apply with no concern about how things might impact their chances later.

If you decide to try for it, we wish you all the luck in the world!! And we’re here to help if we can.

Used to be, the answer to that was “Not really anywhere.” If you wanted to go get an MBA, many schools wouldn’t even consider an app from you until you’d accrued some work experience. Regardless of how motivated you may have been, you couldn’t apply to business school straight out of college. Well guess what? Times have changed!

Now, a bunch of MBA programs are practically falling over themselves to get undergraduates to apply.

Just this season alone, a bunch of business schools launched or expanded formalized programs where they will accept you even if you have not graduated from college yet. This gives you a guaranteed deferred admission to a future entering MBA class.

The new ones this season are being offered at:

Columbia Business School who is calling this Deferred Enrollment (note: totally different from Columbia Early Decision, and also totally different from applying through a school’s standard admission, getting accepted, and then asking for a deferral)
MIT Sloan MBA where it’s called Early Admission
University of Virginia Darden who’s named it Future Year Scholars

These are tracks of admission for a specific cohort: Seniors, as well as students who are in their final year of another (non-MBA) graduate program (with certain restrictions).

What schools have had this for awhile?

HBS 2+2 was the first track of its kind, launched over 10 years ago now
Then came Yale Silver Scholars
This season, Booth expanded its Booth Scholars program to allow rising seniors from any university to apply, rather than limiting it only to University of Chicago students as it had previously been.

There’s also at least one such track available at MBA programs in Europe, such as the Young Talent Path MBA track at IESE in Spain .

These new opportunities mean that graduating college students have more options than ever before if they’re motivated to aim for a top-tier business school early on and they like the idea of setting up options ahead of time. We’ve heard it said multiple times recently that a college degree is what a high school diploma used to be, and that a graduate degree is becoming an expectation as part of a typical career path, rather than a possibility or nice-to-have.

If as a college student you’re wondering about committing yourself too early, don’t worry: You’re never locking yourself in to any one specific future through these programs. If anything changes for you as you go out into the world and build your career, and when it comes time to start the MBA, you realize that maybe it’s not the right next step for you, or not at that exact time, then you don’t absolutely have to attend. There may be some deposits that are unrefundable, but you’re not sealing your future fate 100% by applying or accepting an admit to one of these programs. The schools understand that you still have a lot of Real Life to experience, and that maybe you’ll change your mind.

However, more and more college students are becoming more and more motivated to tackle their careers with a vengeance, and this is one option to consider. It can sure be nice to embark onto the first phase of your post-college career knowing how the next three to five years will play out for you! Some people really like that sense of security and enjoy putting a longer-term plan into place when they can.

You also get to avail yourself of tremendous resources from your school: You’ll be part of the student community, with all sorts of mentoring opportunities and special programming, and at some schools you’ll have access to the fellow students and alumni as you navigate your career and think through possible career paths. It can be a tremendous resource and support system, almost like a built-in ecosystem to nurture your career.

If you’re wondering how competitive these programs are, it’s harder to say, based on all these changing factors. There’s a lot more awareness of these opportunities at college campuses all over the world, which means the schools are seeing more applications. We can tell you that way back when Harvard Business School first launched its 2+2 program in 2008 or so, they got 630 applicants and admitted 106 — which was around a ~17% admit rate, which was INCREDIBLY favorable for those candidates compared to the realities of getting into HBS in their standard cycle.

Now that there are so many of these tracks available at so many different schools, it’s possible that some of them will become less competitive (maybe). It unfortunately also means that the increased awareness among college seniors will lead to way more candidates for the limited spots. Many schools may implement a waitlist for these deferred-start programs just as they have with their full-time MBA admissions — but don’t worry, if you’re on the waitlist to start at a top school in the Fall, you’re considered separately from these college-senior waitlisters. Those pools don’t mix. You won’t be competing against an experienced-admit if you’re a coming-from-college admit (and vice versa).

EssaySnark can help college seniors looking to lock in their MBA admits early — check out our MBA admissions consulting services or hit us up if you have questions! Our MBA Application Guides also may be useful, though do note that many schools have different essay questions and specific requirements for their college-senior applicants, and those are not necessarily covered in our individual school guides, which by definition focus on the standard MBA admissions process of applying to school the year that you want to begin.

We’re happy to help if you have questions! Please post them in the comments section and we’ll let you know what we can about your situation and the schools that you’re interested in.

We’re more and more impressed by the caliber of talent coming out of college these days and if you’re a go-getter who has an MBA in your sights some day, then putting the foundation for that now might be a decision that truly pays off!