The London Business School 2010 thread

I have an interview invite !!

Very strong profile mate. I think having Big 4 experience is the key for b-schools.

How do i access to the member profile access.

first post!

not a good one tho since i got dinged at LBS. was really hoping for that one but whatever...i got an interview with INSEAD and Oxford so that at least makes it a bit better.

hey guys, I got an invite as well! super happy!!

congrats to all of you who got invited!

Dinged!

Just got dinged. Congrats to all who got an invite...good luck.

Got dinged!

Truly depressing...
I am wondering whether my GMAT score of 700 for an Indian maybe the reason. I'll never know the real reason and only keep speculating.

Goodluck all.

I got dinged yesterday too which I was a little surprised at. My profile is this: 720/F/undergrad @ top tier US school in econ/3.5 years as sr analyst in structured trade finance in emerging markets.

Today I was surprised to find an email from the same MBA admissions person who dinged me:

Dear XXX,

Further to our decision e-mail yesterday, we have discussed your application with our colleagues in the Masters in Finance (MiF) admission team, and they encourage you to consider applying to the MiF for August 2010 entry. Having reviewed your CV, they believe that the MiF is a good fit for you to achieve your career goals.

If you wish to discuss this option further please contact XXXX in our MiF Admissions team – XXXX@london.edu

Kind regards,

XXX

The admissions person also CCed the guy in the MiF team in the email. At first I was a little annoyed b/c I thought the admissions committee was just trying to tell me to go to another LBS program which i assumed was less impressive. After doing some research I found out that the MiF program is actually pretty decent. Does anybody have any opinions on this? I think I am going to try to apply but I'm worried that the MiF is not considered with as much prestige as the MBA. Has anybody else who has been dinged received these type of emails?

Would you like to share your profile.

cheers

It depends on your carer goals, what i know is MiF is a great programee if you want to go into hard core finance roles and LBS is definately a good brand on CV.

I know a friends who graduated with MiF and working in Equity Research.

MiF == fantastic program, I know a lot of folks from there and have learnt a LOT from them about pure finance . I would highly recommend applying to MiF round 2 - seems like the ad-coms are highly supportive of that especially if you can convince them of "why now." Sorry if I sound abrupt. I have had a 12 hour midterm and the beers afterwards are really making themselves count in my head.

hey ankurb, my profile:

male, 27, from E Europe
decent undergrad from W Europe, x-change in Oz
5yrs WE:
2 yrs management training programme @ a global firm, 4 international projects
3 yrs in management consulting, based in London
some fast track promotions and good leadership experiences
lots of international experience (lived in 7 countries)
limited EC
gmat 760, awa 5.5

I think my international experiences help a lot as LBS seems to be keen on that. Plus, I must admit, I think it helps that I'm not from any over-represented pool...

Great profile mate, congrates.....My breif profile is as below:-

Age 26
Nationality:- New Zealand (India decent)
GMAT:- 720
4 year experience in Tax, liquidation and business advisory.
Post MBA:- Investment Banking

Chartered Accountant and member of Financial Institute of Australasia.

Decent EC and started own tax consultancy practice almost 1.5 years back and currently have client base of almost 100 clients.

How do you see my profile for LBS?

I got an interview invite as well... very happy!!!

how do you guys prepare the big day?? any thoughts?

hey ankurb - happy to tell you what I think, but please note I am certainly no expert in profile evaluations!

i saw you profile from your earlier posts already. i think you definitely have a very interesting profile. having set up your own firm is clearly a big USP. as others have said, it will all depend on your essays. if i were adcom, i would have three main questions about your profile:
- have you had much multi-cultural experiences? (i can see you moved to NZ from India, and you should really highlight any international business experiences you might have had)
- are you a good and experienced team worker, and have you got leadership experiences (lot of ppl have great WE, with quick promotions, but I think adcom will really look for evidence of working well in teams, and leading people. you need to crack that in your essays)
- also not sure what's your post-MBA goal, and how the school will help achieve that - this is key, obviously

just another note: why do you only want to apply in R3? again I'm no expert, but most people say your best chances are R1 and R2. Given you already have your GMAT, what's stopping you?

anyway good luck with the process!!

Hey lianbear -- LBS does send these supplemental emails to candidates, but they are infrequent and most certainly personalized to the individual situations. For example, in the past we've seen emails encouraging candidates with less work experience to re-apply in one to two years, or for candidates to retake the GMAT.

The MiF is indeed a prominent program here, so I wouldn't consider it less prestigious -- just more focused. Basically, if you were to undertake an MBA with a second-year concentration in finance, the classes and electives can be quite similar to the MiF program in nature -- although MiFs have the opportunity to study finance at a deeper level. Additionally, MiFs have access to the same career services resources, company presentations and clubs as the MBAs.

Because of this, I agree with the others -- it's going to depend on whether your post-career goals are still within the finance sector, although some MiFs do go into consulting or industry after the program as well. If you are set on finance after school, the MiF program would likely facilitate your career advancement just as well as (if not better than) the MBA. However, if you'd like to explore other career paths, the MBA could be a better environment to do so.