How many B schools to Apply to?
In considering how many business schools to apply to.... what is a safe but manageable number? I would love to apply to all of the top 15 schools, but at some point, there is probably a trade-off between quantity of apps and quality, as most schools additional require essays and materials etc. At the same time, if I apply to too few schools, there is the risk of not getting any acceptances at all.
I know this probably depends on my stats, so maybe this will help you guys give advice:
2-3 yrs Analyst Work Exp at GS/MS IBD non-NY (Chi/SF)
770 GMAT
Summa Cum Laude (3.9+ GPA) from (Mich/UVA/Berkeley)
Likely solid (but not "spectacular") Recs and Essays
Obviously my top choices would be H/S, but considering their ridiculously low acceptance rates I need to hedge my bets. Given that I'm in IBD I'm also not gonna have months of free time to crank out my essays so I don't wanna overextend myself by having to write dozens of essays.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Harvard/Stanford/Wharton Tuck/Columbia/UChi
maybe Yale/NYU as safety.
You have some top notch stats, assuming you have something to offer besides the fact that you look good on paper... I wouldn't think you would have an issue.
i would pay for those stats.
You've got to be kidding me if you're worried, those stats are top notch.
Thanks for the input, guys.
One problem that I'm worried about is how my relatively low level of work exp (2-3 years) will hurt me, considering that the average exp for top Bschools is ~5 years.
Also another issue is that I graduated from a top state school instead of an ivy... and I'm not sure if this will work against me when competing against high performers from H/S/W undergrad.
Given these perceived weaknesses... is 6-8 schools still enough for me to get in somewhere?
Weren't you a summer analyst just this past summer and saying you were applying for full-time opportunities in the fall?
Do H/S/W in Round 1 and then 3 more in round 2. Don't hit submit on round 2 until after you've been denied in round 1. That's my plan.
I'd strongly suggest applying to no more than 4-5 schools max. The targeted approach works quite well, and it's not like you get great economies of scale since applications are unique (or at least you should really be thinking as if they are.) I think you should choose only schools from top 5, m7, or whatever your 4-5 most preferred schools are, since you will get into at least one of them...I don't believe in the "safety school" approach. People who haven't been through the process underestimate the difficulty and time involved in putting a great application together, and they also usually place much more emphasis on "stats" than adcoms do.
I applied to four schools in round 1 (S/H/K/W) and was getting ready to do the Columbia and Booth applications for round 2, but got accepted in round 1 so didn't have to worry about round 2. I would have gone ape if I had to do more than four applications in one round, and probably wouldn't recommend anyone do more than three unless they really wanted to crank hard.
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