Applying to business school can require a lot more time and energy than you might initially think.  Many applicants reduce the number of schools they apply to after beginning work on the applications and realizing just how much is involved with each and every application, and the average candidate applies to 3-4 schools.  With so many admissions factors (resume, work experience, GPA, activities, volunteer experience, GMAT score, recommendations, essays, interviews, etc), how should you prioritize your time?

MBA admissions officers will consider all of the pieces of your application holistically when making an admission decision.  But in terms of what YOU should focus your time and energy on at this point, focus on the pieces YOU CAN STILL CHANGE.

Your GPA/transcripts?  For most: already set in stone.  Your work experience?  Not much you can change there, unless you happen to get a promotion right now, or begin working on a new and exciting project just in time for applications.  Recommendations?  You have a limited amount of influence on these.  The two component s of your application that you can STILL CHANGE, and therefore where you can maximize your time and effort:  GMAT score and application essays.

GMAT test-takers who score higher report studying more hours than lower-scorers, according to GMAC.  Preparation does make a difference–reviewing the math formulas and problems you may not have seen in years; reviewing grammar rules and logical thinking; learning how to approach these new data sufficiency questions;  and most importantly, practicing on the computer in a timed, realistic testing environment.   Familiarizing yourself with computer adaptive testing strategy and training with full-length timed practice tests will go far in increasing your comfort level with the exam and allowing you to perform your best on test day.  Given how important the GMAT score can be for admission to top MBA programs, this is an area worth investing your time and resources in.

The application essays are the one component of your application where you create something FROM SCRATCH to represent who you are as a person.  You have the opportunity to convey what you will bring to the program, and what the program will do for you in the context of your career goals.  In some cases, the essays can make or break an admissions decision, and can balance out a weaker aspect elsewhere on the application.  Be sure to devote sufficient time to crafting these essays, something that many applicants unfortunately fail to do.  Admissions officers can tell when you threw something together at the last minute, and usually the quality of hastily written essays without much thought or effort will not stand up to competing applicants’ applications at top ranked schools.  Set aside time to brainstorm for your essays, to organize and plan them, to draft them (possibly multiple times), and to proofread and edit them.

As you may have noticed if you are deep into your application essays at this time, there is a lot of overlap among the essay questions you’ll see on MBA applications.  The exact wordings of the various questions can change quite a bit, but what schools want to know is basically the same.  To that extent, most essays can be put into one of these three categories.

Questions about your Past

These include questions like:

Tell us about a time where you demonstrated leadership.
Describe an example when you faced an ethical dilemma.
Describe your experience working in teams.
Comment on your career progress to date.
Please list your 3 greatest accomplishments and why you view them as such.

You’ll encounter a number of these that ask you about events and scenarios in the past.  The most important tip for these types of questions is:  focus on the “why”, not the “what.”  While these questions do provide a way to illustrate some of your experiences, the MOST important aim of these questions is to learn more about who you are as a person, so try to keep personal insight in your answers.  Don’t worry as much about exactly what accomplishment example to use, spend more of your effort working on the “why” behind the question–why was this important to you?  What did you learn from it?  What would you do differently now?   How, if at all, did this experience affect you and your goals?

Questions about your Present

These include:

What matters to you most?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
What are you passionate about?

And others focused on your personal attributes, interests, and character.  The most important piece of advice with these questions is:  show, don’t tell.   Don’t simply list your strengths and weaknesses in a long laundry list, for example.  Illustrate and make them believable by SHOWING the reader your strengths or passions or whatever it may be through the use of examples and anecdotes.  This not only makes your essays more interesting, it provides more insight into who you are and what you will bring to the future MBA class.

Questions about your Future:

These include:

What are your short and long-term career goals?
Why do you want an MBA?
Why do you want an MBA from our school?

These questions are arguably the most important category of essays in determining your admissions decision.  Unfortunately applicants sometimes devote less time to these questions, not realizing that if you fail to convince the admissions committee of the fact that you need an MBA from their particular school to accomplish your specific career goals, then it is going to be next to impossible to get in to a top program.   Be sure that you devote sufficient time to brainstorming for and crafting these career goals/why MBA essays.   Your story should make sense, and you should be illustrating, in these essays as well as throughout your application, how your past, plus the MBA, leads to your future goals.

Here it is, mid-September, and your business school plans are moving along on schedule.  Your GMAT is (or will be) fine, you’ve researched and perhaps even visited your top-choice programs, and you’ve lined up your recommenders…

Well don’t look now, but first round deadlines are rapidly approaching.  Check out just a few:

Harvard Business School - October 1
Wharton - October 1
Kellogg (Northwestern) - October 2
Stanford GSB - October 7
Haas (Berkeley) - October 20

If your plan is to apply for round one (and that’s a good plan), but your applications are not yet nearing completion, you’ve got two choices:

1. Kick into high gear, and get them done
2. Hold off and submit your applications for round two

The benefits of applying early are widely known.  The first round applicant pools tend to be slightly smaller than in later rounds which may help your chances. After all, all of the spots remain available.  Plus, wouldn’t it be nice to get admitted early and be able to relax for the months leading up to your matriculation?

Are there any downsides to racing to get your application submitted for round one?  Uh, yeah.  There’s one big one, and I think it’s obvious.  If in the rush to submit your application on time, you give any less than your best effort, then it’s just not worth it.  Any possible advantage to applying early will be more than negated if you submit a sub-optimal application.  Keep in mind that first round applicants, while smaller in number, tend to be strong.  These are the folks who have planned ahead, tested early, and are well organized.  In all, they’re an impressive group.  Don’t go into battle with them less than fully armed.

Here, then, is my advice:  if you feel confident you can get your application completed on time and that it will reflect your very best work, then by all means go for it.  But, if the deadline looms too large, and you know that with more time you can craft a more compelling case for your admission, then back off and prepare to submit a killer application in round two.

And if anyone accuses you of procrastination, you can tell them, “no, it’s strategy.”