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Mission Admission: Deciding How Many Business Schools to Target

Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

Mission Admission: Deciding How Many Business Schools to Target - mbaMissionThese days, as candidates consider their strategies for Round 2 of the MBA application cycle, many have a logical question in mind: To how many business schools should I apply? The answer, of course, varies dramatically from applicant to applicant, but the golden rule is that you should only apply to an MBA program if you have enough time to polish your application to its best state. So, if you have time to “perfect” only three applications, you should focus on applying to just three schools—and not consider submitting several additional “average” applications.

In terms of a target number—assuming that time is not a factor and you can commit yourself to all of your applications—five or six is generally optimal. With five or six applications, you can apply to a mix of reach, competitive, and safe schools—and can thereby truly cover your bases. Of course, each applicant has his/her own risk profile and timing to consider, but for most candidates, applying to too few schools can increase the risk of not being admitted, while applying to too many can be overkill.




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  • Dartmouth Tuck (Round 3)
  • London Business School (Round 3)
  • Texas McCombs (Round 3)
  • Vanderbilt Owen (Round 4)
  • Berkeley Haas (Round 4)
  • Penn State Smeal (Round 4)
  • Penn Wharton (Round 3)
  • Columbia (Round 3)
  • Northwestern Kellogg (Round 3)
  • Virginia Darden (Round 3)
  • Chicago Booth (Round 3)
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  • MIT Sloan (Round 3)
  • Stanford GSB (Round 3)
  • Yale SOM (Round 3)
  • Cornell Johnson (Round 3)
  • UCLA Anderson (Round 3)
  • USC Marshall (Round 3)
  • Toronto Rotman (Round 4)
  • UNC Kenan-Flagler (Round 4)
  • Georgetown McDonough (Round 4)

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