Skip to main content

From the Director of Admissions: Advice for a Polished Application

Our Round 2 application deadline is later this week, on Thursday, January 9, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. For those of you who are putting the finishing touches on your application, I offer a few pieces of last-minute advice.

  • Video questions. I wrote a blog post late last week that offered some insights into how to answer the new video question element of the application. If you haven’t completed the video questions yet, you may want to read the blog post before doing so.
  • Essays. You may already have completed your essays by now, or are close to doing so. One suggestion between now and when you submit your application is to have someone who knows you well read the essays without knowing the essay questions to see if they can guess what the questions are. That feedback will help confirm that you are on track with your essays. (Of course, be sure that anyone reading your essays gives you only high-level, atmospheric feedback; the writing itself should be entirely your own work.)
  • Recommendations. You’ve likely already identified your recommenders and asked them to write in support of your candidacy. It may be worth touching base with them in the next day or so to remind them of the deadline and make sure they are still on track to submit their recommendations, if they haven’t done so already. Even though we do not need to receive recommendations by the January 9 deadline for you to be considered in Round 2, we will not begin review of your application until your file is complete, so the sooner your recommenders can submit their recommendations, the better.
  • Work Experience. It will likely serve you well to review your resume one last time before you submit your application. Three things to keep in mind in this final review: 1) make sure there are no typos; 2) keep it to one page (which will ensure the important things stick out and are not buried in extraneous information); and 3) be sure to list your accomplishments, not just your responsibilities. Adhering to these three guidelines will strengthen your resume and your overall application.

We covered these topics and others in our recent Application Tips Chat on December 12. If you want to view the PowerPoint from that Chat for other application advice, you can do so here.

Best of luck completing your Round 2 application!  If you have any questions between now and the Thursday deadline, feel free to email us at mba.admissions@yale.edu.


Bruce DelMonico
Assistant Dean and Director

Admissions Office
Yale School of Management
135 Prospect Street
Box 208200
New Haven, CT 06520-8200
203.432.5635, Admissions Office
203.432.6380, Visitor Center
fax 203.432.7004
mba.admissions@yale.edu