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Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could comment on the differences among the various application rounds? I know there is much debate between rounds 1 and 2, with each round having its own set of pros and cons, and that generally you want to avoid round 3. I also know that the deadlines for scholarships are during round 2, but that does not really concern me.

In my case, I'm slightly behind the 8 ball if you will. I just took the GMAT for the first time on Monday, scoring a 640. My goal is 700 or at least 680-690. With my profile, I believe a score in this range would give me a good shot at the schools I'm looking at. Initially, I was aiming for round 2, which is coming up in January. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to retake the GMAT until early January. (I'm taking an accounting course right now that is occupying a fair amount of time, so I want to wait until it finishes before I dive back into the GMAT preparation.) So now I'm looking at round 3 which is in March.

The question is, is it worth it to apply during round 3? With my profile, I am not going to be a slam dunk applicant, so I'm trying to maximize the potential of getting accepted. Would it be smarter to just wait for next year's round 1? I was planning on attending business school in the fall of 2010, so it would really kill me to have to wait around until 2011, but if my chance for admission is greater, then I can wait.

To get an idea of the schools that I'm looking at, here are my top 5 choices:

Michigan
London Business School
USC
Duke
Georgetown

Any thoughts?

Well, Round 3 generally is the kiss of death, often for even the most qualified of applicants. Tough to say where you fall on that spectrum, since you didn't say much about your work experience or other elements of your background. That makes it impossible to say how you'd fare as a Round 3 applicant, especially since I don't know how your other metrics fall relative to your somewhat low GMAT score.

One suggestion for you would be to split the difference, i.e. apply to a couple of the schools you're interested and see what happens. So, for example, you could apply to USC and Georgetown, a couple of the lower ranked schools on your list.

Otherwise, it is true that to maximize your chances, you should avoid the third round.

best,
Tasha