As we approach the end of October, we’ve passed most business schools’ first round deadlines. So if you still want a spot in the class of 2018 a year from now, it’s time to get serious about submitting applications to round 2.

By submitting an application to round 2 instead of round 1, you are not putting yourself at a disadvantage. Business school admission officers state that there is little difference in your chances of admission between round 1 and round 2. What matters most is that your application is as good as it can be when you do submit it. Rushing through your essay and short responses to meet a deadline is asking for an early exit from the admission pool.

A few business schools handle admission rounds differently

Second round deadlines run from November to January with the bulk of them popping up in early January. Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business has the earliest second round deadline of the schools listed below, November 4th. Unlike the majority of schools, Dartmouth has 4 admission rounds: an early action round, a November round, a January round, and an April round.

Columbia Business School has the latest second round deadline on April 13th; however, this is misleading. Columbia uses rolling admissions and two different start dates instead of multiple admission rounds. Applicants can either apply for a January start date or an August start date. The April deadline is for August 2016 start date. The August and January tracks are identical except that students who begin in August have the option of completing a summer internship while students in the January track complete courses over the summer between their first and second year.

Like Dartmouth, INSEAD offers four rounds of admission. The deadline listed below for INSEAD (Jan. 13th) is actually their third round. INSEAD’s second round deadline was October 14th.