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Hello,

I took the GMAT for a 5th time on December 18th, and I managed to get the 700 that I was desperately striving for. I thought that I would have enough time to work on applications for the upcoming round 2 deadlines, but because of work obligations, spending Christmas with my family, and being out of the country for New Year's, I have not had much free time nor will I have much free time before the deadlines arrive. Therefore, instead of putting together a half assed application package, I have decided to apply for round 3. Here is my thinking...

This whole GMAT / MBA road has been a long one, almost a year and a half to be exact. I enrolled in a ManhattanGMAT prep course in July of 2009, and my first GMAT attempt, (a 640,) was in November of 2009. I was determined to get a higher score so I decided to skip the round 2 applications for fall of 2010. After a second attempt fell short, a (630,) I decided to eschew round 3 for fall of 2010, and apply the following year for fall of 2011. After my 3rd and 4th attempts fell short, (a 640 and a 620 respectively,) I passed on round 1 of this year's deadlines. I originally scheduled my 5th attempt for before Thanksgiving, but I was feeling unprepared, and pushed it back to December 6th. Because I did not get any studying done over Thanksgiving, I pushed it back yet again, this time to the 18th. In the end, I finally got the much needed 700, without which, there would be no admission to any reputable school. The bottom line, is that I've waited and waited and waited. Waiting another year, for round 1 for the fall of 2012, is simply not an option.

(As a side note, why do schools even have round 3 deadlines if it is so difficult to gain admittance? Why not have two rounds and be done with it? In my situation, I'm not waiting until the last minute nor am I applying to schools as a last resort because I didn't get in elsewhere. I delayed applying earlier because I needed to get a higher GMAT score, without which I would have no shot at admission. I've got the score, why should I have to wait another year because round 3 is impossible to get into?)

Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I would like to apply to about 4-5 of the following schools:

NYU (could probably apply round 2)
Michigan*
North Carolina
USC (could probably apply round 2)
Texas (could probably apply round 2)
Georgetown
Emory (could probably apply round 2)
Wisconsin (could probably apply round 2)
Vanderbilt

*Michigan is my dream school, and if accepted, I would enroll in a heartbeat. In fact, part of the reason I'm delaying this process until round 3, is because I'm probably not going to be able to make Michigan's round 2 deadline, (January 5th,) in time.

Profile:
GMAT: Male
Race & Ethnicity: White, Hispanic / Latino
Age upon start of MBA program: 29
Years of work experience: 5+ in commercial banking
Education: The College of Wooster, graduated in 2004
Major: English
GPA: 2.716**
Extracurricular:
-4 year letter winner, Men's Lacrosse
-Studied abroad in Spain
-Contributor to student newspaper
GMAT: 700 (90%), 45Q (72%), 40V (89%), AWA 5.5 (77%)

**Clearly my GPA is outside of most if not all schools' 80% range. Sadly, I did not take school very seriously back then, but it is what it is. I have since taken a couple of college level courses to help alleviate some concerns and I plan on addressing this issue in the optional essay.

Other items of note:
My letters of recommendation won't be terrible, but they won't be great. In other words, the will not hurt my chances, but they will not put me over the top. I do feel that I could put together excellent essays, if I devote enough time to them. The only other negative would be volunteer experience, of which I have had almost zero since college. The only type of volunteer experience that schools may be looking for is the fact that I am a "big brother" to a kid from a low income family near my hometown. This started as a summer job during college, but I have since maintained communication with this individual and I make a point to see him and help him out as best as I can whenever I am home for the holidays. However, this is all on my own dime / time, it is not a part of an official organization or group. Other than this, I'm screwed when it comes to volunteer experience.

I would be interested in hearing what my chances are and whether I'm crazy to be proceeding with my round 3 plans.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

I would be interested in hearing what my chances are and whether I'm crazy to be proceeding with my round 3 plans.

Firstly, well done on hitting your GMAT score. You battled through and it has paid off!

I don't think you're crazy applying R3. People do. That's why they have R3. Let me ask you this, if everyone here told you you were crazy to be applying R3, would you not apply? Or would you actually ignore them and apply anyway?

Point is, do you lose anything by applying R3? If not just apply. Without sharing your essays, it's hard for anyone to assess you just based on your profile. You might have amazing experiences.

The one thing I do note is you are 29. If you put it off for another year, you'll be +1 year on the wrong side of the average age.

Thanks for responding humblebee.

I think if I was sitting here a year ago, and people were telling me that I was crazy about applying in round 3, I would probably just go ahead and wait another year. However, I've already done that. I worked extremely hard studying and preparing for the GMAT for the last year and a half, and I'm ready for the next step, (at least in my mind.) That's why I'm slightly perturbed about this whole round 3 stigma. It's like schools are telling you, "We have 3 rounds, but you better not apply in round 3! If you do apply in round 3, then you better have a damn good explanation for it!"

Like you said, I will be 29 this upcoming fall, with 5+ years of work experience. I'm right in the sweet spot in terms of these statistics, but if I wait around for round 1, I will be 30, with 6+ years of work experience, and trending away from that sweet spot. I'm not sure whether this makes a huge difference, but in my opinion, the time has come. (Although I still would be interested in hearing what my chances are.)