safety schools

($) “How many apps should I be doing?” – Round 2 Edition

November 22, 2022 by EssaySnark

A common trait of procrastinators is, they’re optimists. In fact, it’s one theory behind why certain people are chronically late; they’re just overly optimistic on how long it will take them to get where they need to go. It’s not that they’re bad people. They just have trouble dealing with reality, in this one certain...

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($) “I’m so excited! I got into my safety school!”

August 12, 2022 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

…said no BSer, ever. Premium content starts here… ———– ———– Premium content ends.

($) When your safety school is actually a stretch school.

March 4, 2022 by EssaySnark

This is another one of those EssaySnark posts that’s going to come across to some of you as a little harsh. But it’s again something we see happen All. The. Time. It goes like this: Premium content starts here… ———– ———– Premium content ends. Continue reading......

($) MIT and NYU are not safety schools

January 11, 2022 by EssaySnark - Discusses MIT Sloan, NYU Stern Leave a Comment

But they do happen to be schools with Round 2 deadlines in the future. Does that mean you should apply? Premium content starts here… ———– ———– Premium content ends. If you’ve already been writing essays for other schools since December and you’ve gotten feedback that your essays are in line with what the […]

($) Should you do a “safety” school in Round 1?

August 6, 2021 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

Are you feeling more confident right now — or less so? Often, the experience of developing the strategy for the first set of schools bums people out. They start to get discouraged, and wonder if they’ll ever get their apps where they need to be. Sometimes people start feeling desperate, and look to lob off […]

($) A Stanford applicant case study: Avoidable mistakes

October 30, 2020 by EssaySnark - Discusses Duke Fuqua, Stanford GSB

Reblahgging from the past, because based on some profiles and BSers we’ve seen lately, this info may be useful again!! We got an essay submitted for a freebie review last November and we spent a day reviewing it for everyone right before Round 2 (Stanford “What matters most and why?”) (tl;dr: getting rejected from...

($) “Why don’t you ever talk about my school?”

March 24, 2016 by EssaySnark

In Round 2 we worked with a Brave Supplicant who had executed on a well-rounded strategy, with a small handful of three applications so that they could focus and do the work needed to produce a quality job on each (and also because there wasn’t much time from when they began), with one stretch school,...

($) Reality Check Part 2: Prudent and practical advice for all active MBA applicants

November 19, 2015 by EssaySnark

We turned into DepressingSnark yesterday when talking about the true implications for you of how hypercompetitive things are this year and today is a continuation yet focused even more on the practical. Today we’re giving advice about WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING in response to this new reality. It’s a crazy situation when we’re seeing...

($) stretch schools

October 9, 2012 by EssaySnark

We left you hanging a few weeks ago after a discussion of the myth of SAFETY SCHOOLS. Now we’ll finally make good on our promise to talk about STRETCH SCHOOLS. It will probably come as no surprise to you that EssaySnark thinks “stretch schools” are a myth, too. Or not so much a “myth” —...

($) stretch schools and safety schools

September 7, 2012 by EssaySnark

There’s this soul-crushing concept bandied about out there in MBA admissions land: the SAFETY SCHOOL. You’re applying to some cream-of-the-crop brand name bschools and you want to hedge your bets, so you’re going to toss in a school at the opposite end of the rankings spectrum for good measure – just to make sure you...