Leave Yourself Time in Round 1

In high school or college—or maybe even recently on an important project at work—you might have been able to wait until the last minute to do something and still come out looking like a champ. But we can assure you that won’t be the case for anything having to do with your MBA application efforts. Procrastinating is a sure-fire way to weaken your materials.

Early in any candidate’s MBA journey comes preparation for the GMAT or GRE. If you believe you can wing this critical piece of the process, think again. Studying for these tests usually requires months of effort—as well as leaving enough time for a “do-over” if your first attempt doesn’t go so well.

Same thing applies for your resume, essays and data forms. You can’t just throw these things together as the clock ticks down. They require a lot of upfront thought and several rounds of edits in order to ensure your unique voice is coming through.

While this comes much later in the process, preparing for an interview is similar: if you don’t practice at all until the night before, you’re bound to realize you aren’t quite as smooth as you hoped you’d be. Then you’re either going to stay up late to work on your responses or not be able to sleep because you’ll be so worried about your upcoming performance. Neither helps put you in the best frame of mind when it’s “go time.”

And if you don’t do thorough research on two or more programs you’ve been accepted to and make your final decision on a whim or gut feeling . . . well, that could be a multi-thousand-dollar mistake. Enough said!

So if you are going to apply to business school this application year, do yourself a favor and ensure you have ample time to complete each part of the process. Daily progress—no matter how minimal—is much better than attempting to do everything right before the deadlines hit.

Think of it this way:

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