Forum: Application & Admission (7 Comments)
Winter session vs spring session
Posted by - carito2013 - on 4 January 2013 - 6:03am
Hello, I was wondering if the chances of getting accepted to a top B school are affected somehow if one applies in the spring session rather than in the winter.
Posted by - carito2013 - on 5 January 2013 - 8:24pm
Thank you again for your input!
Posted by - carito2013 - on 5 January 2013 - 5:36pm
Yes, Thomas that helped a lot! And I was talking about different deadlines for the same September 2013 intake. I hope your assumptions are right since I'm a Non-European applying for the spring deadline. On another note, could you also give me some pointers on what makes a good application essay? Should I have a thesaurus in hand? Or let it be more natural? Should an essay talk about something that is not already on my CV or mentioned in another part of the application?
Again, thank you for all your help!
Ana
Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 5 January 2013 - 5:54pm
Hi Ana,
well, with my assumption I just wanted to provide an example: That it could be that in one application period people with some specific characteristics apply more wheras in other periods people with other characteristics apply more. For instance that in one period people from one geographic background apply more than in another period. Or that in one period more men apply than women. It is just an assumption and maybe it is wrong. But even if it is true it will be impossible to anticipate which period is better as this may be due to changes from year to year.
For example, in Germany we have a change of the school length in some states - from a total length of 13 years to 12 years. This means that in one year more people will apply for universities than in the years before. This could mean that more people from Germany will apply for master studies at some point in the future making it more competitive for them to get accepted.
Since you cannot anticipate this actually I recommend you forget about it and trust in your competence.
As for the essays, I would take them very seriously. The topic should be provided by the schools and you probably find them in the application document or online. A typical topic is "Do you think that leadership becomes more important in the next years? Why?"
You should write them by yourself but let them be cross-read by someone else to make sure that the English is correct. Also make sure that you structure it well and keep in mind the purpose of it: You demonstrate that you are able to think critically and assess a topic from different perspectives.
Best wishes
Thomas
Posted by - carito2013 - on 5 January 2013 - 5:29am
Thank you Thomas, but I think you misunderstood my question. I'm talking about the fall, winter, and spring deadlines that some of the Top B schools have. I have transferred my application to the spring session/deadline, but I was wondering if I'd have a harder time getting accepted because I assume most applicants already applied for the previous two sessions.
Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 5 January 2013 - 2:22pm
Hi there,
I understood your question in that way: A program can be STARTED in September or February, for instance (= two intakes). Where do you have better chances to get in?
Now, do you mean the situation when ONE INTAKE - for example Sept 2013 - has several application phases before? For example, the first deadline is Dec 2012, the second is Jan 2013, the last one is May 2013?
Well, that's also an interesting question: Are your chances different if you apply in January or May for the SAME intake in September?
The schools would tell you: Apply as early as possible because with every deadline some of the study places are gone. But I still wonder if at some of the later deadlines your chances may rise compared to earlier deadlines, for example because:
- a school may have received and accepted lots of applications from Europeans at the December deadline - maybe for Non-Europeans the chances then are better at the Spring deadline because the school faces an urgency to accept more people from different regions...
- maybe at some deadlines the school - for whatever reason - received less applications; then it may feel the need to accept more people later...
These are just my assumptions and I don't see a way how you can proove them or - even more important - anticipate them.
Does this help you?
Best wishes
Thomas
Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 4 January 2013 - 12:22pm
Hi there,
Maybe a school faces a stronger demand in one intake and less in another one so that the chances to get in are a bit different.
Top b schools, however, nearly always face a strong demand and likely will not change their admissions criteria from one intake to the other.
Bottom line: If you can find out that a school systematically faces different numbers of applications depending on the intake and if for you it doesn't matter when to start the program - then maybe you can choose that intake with the smaller number of applications. But I wouldn't expect too much of it.
Best wishes
Thomas
