MBA application - Round 1 or Round 2?

Another common query around full-time MBA application time is - when to apply? In round 1 or 2 or even round 3? First, avoid applying to round 3/final round if possible. The reason is pretty obvious - most the admission decisions have been taken by then so you are fighting for the last remaining seats. But what about between round 1 and 2? Well, here the reasoning is a bit fuzzy and you will get different answers from different people biased on which round they themselves applied.

I strongly believe that you should apply/or at least plan to apply to your most preferred schools/dream schools in Round 1 and leave the remaining schools for round 2. My reasoning is based more on practicality rather than some myths that are floating around.

One common myth is that a lot of "strong candidates" apply in Round 1 and so if you are not a strong candidate you should apply in Round 2. Well, first of all what is a strong candidate? Who knows -there is no clear definition of it because I have seen a lot of so called "strong candidate" get rejected. Second, if everyone knows about this myth than people will accordingly adjust their application rounds over time to falsify this myth. Also do you seriously believe the admission committees of top schools will take in sub-par candidates in round 2 over round 1 just to fill the required number of seats.

Here are my real reasons for applying in round 1:

- MBA applications take much longer to put together than you anticipate. So if you plan to apply in round 1 and in case you are not able to finish the application in time, you could in the worst case push the application to round 2. You don't get that luxury in round 2

- If you get rejected from your most preferred school, you get a chance to realign your own expectations and really plan on what schools to apply in round 2 for a successful outcome. You don't get that luxury if you apply to your best schools in round 2.

- If you get accepted in your preferred school, you don't have to apply anywhere else in round 2! Once you know how much time/energy it takes to put together one app, you will realize that this reason itself is a good enough reason to apply in round 1.

- In case you are borderline candidate, schools will put you on a wait-list after round 1 to see how the round 2 applicant pool shapes up. After they have reviewed all the round 2 applicants, they compare the round 1 wait-listed candidates with round 2 candidates to make the final decision. So in a way you are getting two reviews/chances for admits if you apply in round 1. You don't have that luxury in round 2.