Most schools only accept applications once per year. The deadlines for submitting applications range from about early January to June. This varies widely depending on the specific school. In general, higher ranked schools have earlier deadlines. Also, some schools have different "rounds" of admissions, whereby the earlier you submit your application, the earlier you hear back (and, some would say, the better chance you have of getting in). You need to check the websites of the specific schools that you're interested in to get their deadlines.

You can usually submit applications before you take the GMAT, as long as you send your GMAT score to the school before their application deadline. So, you could likely submit all your applications before December (when you take the GMAT), then send your scores, so your application will be complete before January 1. You'd probably get your admissions decisions in April or so, if you made that January 1 target date.

As for essays and recommendations, they can be time consuming, so I'd recommend going online, downloading the applications for the schools you wish to apply to, and getting started!

Good luck!

umaa wrote:Friends,
I just started preparing for GMAT. I'm going to take my GMAT around December 2008. Is it necessary for me to wait till August to submit my application for business schools? I don't know anything about it and I'm very confused.

When can I submit my application to business schools in USA?
Are they accepting applications one year once?
How long would it take to prepare essays and recommendations to apply for the business schools?
How long do I need to wait to get response from them?


You might feel these are all unnecessary questions before taking GMAT. I'm going to quit my job and I don't want to sit at home for the whole year and enrolling into a business school.

While you can submit an application to many schools before you take the GMAT, it is usually wiser to have the GMAT and then decide where you are applying unless you are extremely confident of that your score will be competitive at your target schools. Since the GMAT score is an important admissions element and lacking that high confidence level, we usually recommend that you know the score before applying so that you don't waste application fees applying to programs you don't have a good chance of getting into.

Best,
Linda