LBS 2012 - Calling All Applicants

Completed my LBS interview yesterday. Clearadmit wiki was really helpful as most of the questions asked were from there.
- Tell me about yourself.
- How assertive are you?
- Do a SWOT analysis of your venture.
- Why LBS?
- What other schools have you applied? If you get into all, which one will you pick?
- What kind of person are you?
- How will you manage in a class with people of diverse cultures?
- What is your biggest achievement? & biggest failure?
- Tell me about a time when you had to take a difficult decision.
- How will you fund your studies?
- Did you ever get into a confrontation with anyone? How did you deal with it?
- Few more specific questions on my application.
In the end had an open conversation about Alumnus's LBS experience.
The presentation part was ok, thinking back I could have handled it better.

Thank you for sharing! How long did your interview last?

Not really, since many R1 admits haven't filed in their loan applications yet, and LBS claims that all new and pending applications now have come to halt.

Thanks for the update. So are R1 applicants being asked to arrange funding from alternate sources?

I just had my interview, I think it went well overall but I made a disastrous presentation (possibly the worse ever...).
Thank god it was only in the very end of the 100-minute interview.

Does anyone know how much weight the "impromptu" presentation carries in the overall interview's assessment?
Thanks!

Was it because you were not familiar with the presentation topic or you think you didn't structure your presentation well enough to make a strong argument?

Oh,no! Extremely disastrous! Without HSBC loan arrangement, how can I get funded! In China, any kind of education loan requires collaterals, mainly the property rights, and they don't accept second-lien houses.

I think the presentation topics in general don't require specific knowledge.
Let's say that I wasn't inspired in terms of ideas, no very much structured in terms of presenting the arguments, and confused in their delivery.

Best of luck to you!

The problem is, LBS's vague words and opaque attitude make it hard for us to understand what is happening on the school's side. Is it really because HSBC plans to shut down this loan scheme, or just because of some temporary negotiation issues between the school and HSBC? Furthermore, for matter of such significance, none of our Chinese admits has received formal notification email from LBS; we just read it from the webpage.
I hope more and more admits will pay attention to this and bring it to the dean.

For those who've completed the interview process, what questions did you guys get for the presentation?

Also, has anyone else also not received information on setting up their interview?

From what I read, the interviewers particularly tell the applicants not to disclose the presentation topic to public. The topic will be given to you on the spot and it's a fair competition. Good luck!

just had my interview with LBS alumnus here in Singapore. a very senior person in financial industry.

90-min long and i found it was somewhat challenging, lots of follow-up questions about my answers (perhaps because I am from banking too).

I think LBS alumnus interview is probably the most prepared and difficult one among all. my interview read every single piece of my application and even my blog |||. (i have a blog where I randomly write up some articles for finance and economic news)

some questions i can recall:
1) why MBA
2) typical day
3) trends in my industry
=> loads of discussion on this question based on my answers, i was challenged.
4) how I am described by friends
5) good leadership style
6) cultural issue (I spent the past 8 years living in 3 countries across Asia pacific)
7) work-life balance
8) my interview gave me a random quantitative question to solve. it was damn easy but i was so fking nervous plus a bit misunderstanding, took 3 mins to solve. I asked my gf afterwards, she answered me after 3 seconds. sigh!!! T.T
9) goals => and some follow-up questions.

presentation part, i had 5 mins to prepare. I did barely barely OK I'd say. my interview discussed my point in the mid of my presentation and I managed to finish by the time limit. language-wise, not very good. sigh.

anyway guys, I did my best. hope for the best on 29 March.

To: rechardql

how many chinese admits already from R1 please?

From the school's portal i see there are seven admits, including WL conversions from last year.

Thank you. 7 admits from R1 is a lot.... hope R2 places can be as good.

any idea how may chinese admit enrolled last year? appreciate ur info.

Hi all,

Its been more than 2 weeks and I havent heard either way - is that normal? Anyone else who is still to hear about a possible interview call? Thanks