The London Business School 2010 thread

In a nutshell you can choose 3 schools (in order of preference). 30% weighing to first term grades and 70% weighing on a 500 word essay. Selection is purely at LBS discretion. I will find out which of my 3 picks I get by 26th of March. After stating my preferences, I have committed to go to the one I get selected for. If I turn it down then I am not allowed to go on exchange any more.

There are 2 rounds to this process. I applied in first round because I really wanted the exchange. I have never studied or lived in the US and am very excited about the opportunity. Although bear in mind that the exchange is a risk. It costs 4 electives (out of 11). It occurs at either Autumn or Spring terms - which may be peak full time recruitment period.

People want different things from the exchange. AGSM is popular with many Americans because Australia is an exotic travel destination and you get to escape a cold winter for beautiful summer. Many folks choose China or Hong Kong for career reasons. Some people go to the European schools (IESE and HEC are quite popular).

You will NOT have an option to go over one page. They will get reviewed by career services midway through autumn term (before they go in the CV book) and if it is too long, you will be told to shorten it. Furthermore I'll say that it will look really BAD if it is over one page. It shows lack of clarity and succinctness. CV is not just a simple listing of all your accomplishments; it is also a story board of what makes you a strong candidate for a particular role. You will end up tailoring your CVs for different roles. You should be able to achieve this in one page. I have 9 years of work experience in 5 different industries. I have had to cut out accomplishments that I have been proud of - but are totally irrelevant.

We have a web based system for creating CVs where you type out roles one by one and the system generates a pdf document. While I am not a big fan of this, it ensures consistency of CVs for everyone at the school.

Join the rugby club, the ultimate frisbee, the football club or the running club. Regent's park is just behind the school for running. The library (Taunton centre), hosts a gym and a pool. Although small, these facilities are sufficient, accessible and free. Whether you are able to use them will depend on your time management and discipline, although I must warn you that it will be incredibly tough in the first term.

A few folks in the running club are training to run paris marathon.

great stuff!

getting anxious....

Hey all,

I just spent a couple hours browsing this thread, and found it very helpful.

Thinking of applying for R4, even though its a long shot, because the timing in my life would just be too perfect if I somehow got in. My experience is a little less than most, but also a little different, so I thought I would put it out there see if you have any advice

M/25/750/GPA3.5 Top Canadian School/Mechanical Engineer/Canadian

Spent first 2.5 years out of school working for an Environmental Contracting company. Designed a couple Water Treatment Plants, eventually got promoted and was the manager of a smaller group (managed 15 people, a few million dollars worth of equipment, my group had yearly revenue of about $5M)

Left my job when an opportunity arose to be a Professional Race Car driver with Factory support from Volkswagen. Have spent the last 12 months, working full time on racing, this includes raising sponsorship money each season (I need to find around 50K in sponsors per season), organizing events for sponsors, attending events on behalf of VW, managing and marketing my "brand" as an athlete, working as coach and instructor for young drivers. Anyway, its been a fabulous experience, I've got to meet some high up execs with VW, learned a lot about Marketing/Sponsorship/The Car Business which was all new to me. Hopefully LBS would view this experience favorably as well.

Unfortunately, the long term career prospects in car racing if you're not an F1 driver aren't very lucrative (and I am already too old at 25 to every be in F1).

Anyway, my deal with Volkswagen ends in August, and I am looking to do a career switcheroo (at this point, my 2.5 years experience as a Mech Engineer told me its not what I want to do, I am way more interested in the Management and Finance side of business). From Calgary, so ideally I would like to pursue a future in the Energy sector, I'm especially interested in Exploration and Exploitation in the Oil Business.

Any advice would be appreciated!

ok i've reached my conclusion; THIS wait is the hardest part of the entire LBS app..

seafm, congratulations on becoming a father / soon-to-be father!

I think bsd_lover, prashok and other current students will give you a better answer but from what I've learnt about the school and students:
1. The average age is higher (~28.5). While there is the inevitable frat partying (I'm not keen on this anymore - I'll be 29 soon), students on the whole seem more mature and focused and there's definitely a proportion of people less intent on drinking the night away.
2. Along with higher average age, I was told by current students that there were a few married students with their spouses (and some with children) - which should then give you a peer group as well. Anecdotes indicate that most people are accommodating to fit study group members' needs into the group schedules.

I know that's not very useful - let's wait for the current students' inputs.

Most of us have our profiles filled out on the left for everyone's convenience. You may like to follow suit to help others put your experience into perspective.

Reject for me as well.

ADMIT.

30/M/GMAT 690/Indonesian/government

Being a long time lurker, I want to thank everyone in this forum for their contributions. GMATclub is definitely the most supportive environment anyone with MBA dream can get.

I wish i had known gmatclub much earlier.

Kudos!!

Ding.
Nice way to greet the day.

Cheers,
Pranay

you are def not alone! will be crossing fingers for us all R3 applicants till April 9th!

and congratz to all R2 admits..

now that the fortunate admits deal with their hangovers and the disheartened dings/WL move to their other plans, i want to thank all the regular contributors to this thread - a great resource and record of our experiences for future applicants.

on a separate note, is there any London business School WL thread? (can't find any) - maybe i should search for "LBS purgatory" or "you're-excellent-but-not-TOOOOO-excellent-for-me" or "i'll-date-you-later-in-case-others-dump-me" threads.

jokes aside, congrats to all and good luck in your mba endeavor

octopus2010,

I disagree somewhat with the blanket recommendation to apply to U.S. schools for MBA aspirants from the United States looking to return there. I might agree that for certain, not all, roles in finance (where the importance of networking is dramatic!), and perhaps some in Industry as well (though, when it comes to Industry, I'm merely repeating what I've been told) U.S. schools might hold an advantage over London Business School. Other than this exception, the motivated U.S.-based MBA aspirant may freely attend London Business School and recruit successfully for U.S. jobs.

Thanks, BSD, I was actually a R1 admit, but no biggie either way.

As for your point about networking, certainly, there's always a better shot for what I guess I'd call "natural" networking in huge financial centers like NY or London, but really every huge company comes to Wharton to recruit, and spends a LOT of time there, so there's tons of networking opportunity. It's also quite common during peak recruiting time, after first round interviews, for us to hop on the Acela express trains to NYC to network with companies, etc, at the company's expense. And of course, most Wharton folks do their internships in NYC. The difference is that virtually no Wharton grads stay in Philly post-graduation. I, for one, am quite excited to get to network in a major city like London without the commuting!

As for finding a job in the US post-b-school, I was never really worried about it, as it relates to LBS. I'd like to return to the US long-term (though probably not right after b-school). I work for one of the big banks, and everyone I spoke to here seems to think I'll have no problem coming back to the States after I get some international experience. Although I am a US citizen, so not sure how difficult it would be if you're not a US resident.

If I'm not mistaken, isn't NYC LBS's second biggest alum hub after London?

so far it is...
mf1125a
octopus2010
bombaygirl
carol
kaushikb
oxmat
mbasearching
bbcxd
ramanathanblue