I've updated Amerasia's list of best tips and best practices for submitting your MBA application online. So hopefully this prevents many of you from not getting caught with your pants down just hours to go before the application deadline! 

In fact, I always tell my clients to start their online MBA application at the very beginning of the application process because it can help you understand what you are in for.  Most people think that HBS does not have a "goals" essay. Technically, they are correct.  But they do have a 500 character goal statement on the actual online form.  They also want you to rank your extracurricular equities in order of importance.  And if you read the language on the application carefully, it seems as though they only want you to fill out activities that occur during your undergraduate career. To make it that much more difficult, Harvard only provides you a few hundred characters (not words) of precious application UI to do so.  By the way, this does include characters like spaces. Surprise!  But not a good surprise if you waited until the 11th hour to open up and start reviewing the online application. There are many other instances of these types of requirements – MBA app hoops you have to jump through – when you were least expecting.

But since this blog post is about what you can and should do before finally pressing "submit", I do not want to revisit what you should have done.  Let us focus on what you can do right now.