Posted by - wifeng - on 14 October 2015 - 3:09pm

• Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 14 October 2015 - 4:28pm

  Hi there,

  schools continue to encourage applicants to apply as early as possible. It makes sense from both sides: For schools, it helps them to plan their marketing activities better (less applications measn more marketing in later stages). For applicants, it may be helpful to know early whether their target school accepts them or not (if not, they still have enough time to apply somewhere else).

  However, your question - how do chances to get accepted differ across an application circle? - cannot be answered seriously in my opinion.

  • Some schools may have strict quality criteria who are the same whether you apply early or late.
  • Other schools may adjust their strictness throughout the application cycle such that they allow people with lower quality CVs to join (e.g., if the overall number of applications is lower in a given year); or such that they do not accept applicants from certain countries anymore (even if their CVs have quality) if they already have sufficient students from that region accepted in that year.

  My point is: Forget about these strategic thoughts because you can never know what's going on. Either you are able to get accepted by a school or not. Be self-esteemed enough to just send your application and be prepared to have alternatives in case you get rejected. Just my humble opinion.

  By the way: The more you prepare your application in advance - e.g., by identifying and anaylzing the right schools where the match between the school's requiremenst and your expectations is high - the more likely you will get accepted and be satisfied throughout your studies. Follow the strategy outlined in my MIM eBook to learn how to do that.

  Best wishes
  Thomas

  By Thomas Graf
  Director MIM Compass
  Author of the MIM eBook

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