LBS - Go or No go??

LBS is an awesome school. Definitely go

Thanks guys. What's bothering me are these things:

1. Post-work visa issues under new Tier system
2. Getting a job itself, given the conditions in Europe and UK right now
3. Loan programme from Prodigy Finance (the ones who are granting loans for LBS this year) is very expensive. A friend got a rate of ~9.5% and that's floating based on current LIBOR of 0.51%. LIBOR is only gonna go up in next 2-3 years and by the time I start paying loan back, the rate could have well climbed up to 13-14%, which is pre-preposterous

With regards to the post-work visa situation, the best thing you can do is reach out to the careers office at LBS. See whether they can help convince you that it will not be a problem. However bearing in mind 90% of the students at LBS are non-UK and significant number of them stay in London afterwards, it probably is not a major problem.

It all depends on where you want to stay to work afterwards and what you want to do. Studying in London does not mean you would be tied into working there, I am pretty sure it's possible to network and get interviews in NYC if you want. The job market in London is not nearly as bad as the rest of the UK and Europe. The only area hit is finance but even then they look to be taking grads from LBS every year. In MC, BCG has significantly increased their presence in London I believe so over the past few years took on quite a few new staff.

As for the loan, only you can work out whether the whole thing is worth it for you. I think it's the same for any international studying abroad. For instance the non-US co-signer loans all seem to be pretty steep but that's just the price you have to pay. I think ultimately it comes down to whether you think the School is a good fit. Also it is a question of whether you are willing to pass up a great school to go back into the lottery and apply later this year.