2013 LBS MiF Applicants welcome!

I would guess roughly 50% of the class will choose the 16-month programme, because 25% or so are company sponsored, while the rest may not benefit too much from an internship because they are older students with more established career paths. I think it's an excellent option for Asian students who can do an exchange close(r) to their home countries and find a job easier during the last 4 months of the course. I don't know how many percentage went to IB this year but I don't think that either MiFs or MBAs have specific advantage over each other. It really depends on the specific profile I think. There are MBA students with strong financial credentials and background. Anyway, all finance related internship opportunities are open for both MiFs and MBAs for sure.

Nottingham,

Just heard back from a client services officer who mentions that 'It is most likely that you will be notified of the interview decision on the 31st of May.' A bit disappointing frankly. I wonder if the answer is based on my application or if it's what every R5 should expect.

Best, HR

To HR: I think you are a bit too sensitive about the reply from this client service officer. Firstly, I dont think this 'client service officer' would access to your specific profile and give this deadline specifically to you based on your application; Secondly, I believe there will be still a lot of candidates who will get the invitation by 31/May as it is the publicized final interview invitation decision date.

So let's just be patient and finger crossed waiting for our invites. And I really hope we could be classmates in the near future:)

And thanks, Ibkova, for the information about the internship, and I do believe the exchange to some top Asian institutions would be good for the future job landing in these regions, especially for me who's from China:)

Agreed. It's simply that for professional, financial, and visa considerations I probably won't be able to wait until July to have a final answer (if I'm admitted). The reason why I thought that the client service officer might have looked at my profile is because my exchange came from an initial email from them congratulating me on my GMAT (I'm assuming they send that to everyone).

Indeed, would be great to be classmates in August!

Oh well, let's wait and see.

Cheers,

HR

Finally received notification that I had been shortlisted for an interview with an alumni. Oddly enough, yesterday I wrongfully got an email telling me that they were pleased that I had started my application and that there was still time to apply for the 2013 intake (!)... to which I replied that I already received an email confirming that my application was complete. Perhaps this accelerated my interview decision.

Cheers, HR

I'm an American who was accepted to LBS MIF. Although I really like the academic curriculum, I will be turning it down due to the weak career placement and recruiting. When I logged into the admit portal, I was able to see the list of firms that recruit on-camps and was very disappointed at the breadth of firms that came to campus. Furthermore, MIF and MBA students compete for the same jobs; there is no separate recruiting process for MIF. There is thus no structural advantage for MIF when they recruit for finance jobs. At a macro level, of course, the London finance job market is atrocious. And finally, for an American who may want to return to the states after LBS MIF, the degree has very little value here due to its weak name brand and scarcity of alums. For these reasons, I won't be attending.

Best of luck to everyone who will matriculate at LBS MIF.

Congratulations on your MiF offer! I think LBS MiF is a great program with no doubt. Obviously, it's the MiF specilization that determines the much narrower breadth of recruiters, which I think are only finance companies without too much presence of corporates or consulting firms, comparing to MBA recruiters. However, I know some MiF graduates beat MBA in some finance leadership program within some top typical MBA recruiting corporates, eg. GSK. I think LBS MiF would definitely can help you knock out the door and make you stand on the same level to compete with MBA, and whether or not you can get the offer ultimately depends on your own quality. I dont know too much about the LBS brand in US, but I do believe most bankers from bulge brackets have heard about LBS including the US market. I suggest you to do more concrete research on the US finance market, eg. talking to more US bankers (not only one or two) or LBS career service officers, etc.
I hope you could think again and do more research before rushing into turning down the offer. And I believe you got your reason for applying for LBS MiF initially, so why dont you reflect whether that reason still counts?
To HR: Really glad we both got the invitations for interview!Maby we can help each other on the interview practice! If you do, please drop me a line and I'll add you on skype:)

Is there anyone who hasn't received interview invite till now? I applied in R5, haven't got any reply yet..starting to get worried now. Do they send reject emails as well?

Hi LastChanceMBA,

Thanks for sharing your thought process. Would you mind sharing with us a bit more info on your background so that we can put your answer in perspective. I get your point that as American LBS might make less sense. I'm Canadian so I have the same concern - although there are some great alumni who did the program in my country (CEO of a PE shop, VP M&A of a $2.5 bln publicly-listed company, director at a hedge fund, etc.).

Given new UKBA rules from 2012 I don't expect to be working in London after a MiF at LBS and even though I will ask for support from the career centre I expect to have a lot of work to do on my own to get what I want in Canada. The upside with LBS is that the brand will likely get good attention when I knock on doors.

Can you also share a bit more about what you saw in the admit portal? If not the MiF @ LBS, we'd be interested in knowing which program you selected.

Thanks, HR

I have actually done extensive research on this, despite your claim to the contrary. After being admitted, I was able to log into the portal and see the list of firms that recruit for both internship and full-time, see profiles of other admits, student database, etc. I also reached out to multiple current students and alums as well as Eugenia and Peter Johnson from the admissions office and Peter (forgot his last name) from career services who's in charge of buyside recruiting. The alums themselves told me in no uncertain terms that career placement is tough and that if one is interested in working in the U.S. it is not the right program. As for the list of firms that recruit, it's actually pretty weak compared to top U.S. MBA programs, and I arrived at the conclusion that it's not worth the huge monetary cost.

I'm thus going to stay in my current job and apply to top U.S. MBA programs, which will give me access to more top firms, better name brand and prestige, and a much higher caliber of students.

Best of luck to everyone.

Sure. So my background without getting overly specific is ivy league undergrad, masters at another top U.S. school, trading experience, and work in several startups. My "ideal" job is macro investment research/strategy at a major buyside firm such as pimco, wellington, fidelity, aqr, etc. I'm open to bulge bracket trading in fixed income or currency but prefer to stay away from trading. I'm also looking at certain aspects of consulting as well. In terms of location, I'm reasonably flexible: nyc, London, hong kong, will all do the trick. However, the problem with LBS is that if I want to return to the U.S. there is very little campus recruiting support, and I will be forced to do everything on my own. I don't have a problem working hard, but I expect to get strong recruiting given the price tag and commitment. My alumni interviewer recently graduated from LBS MIF, and she came back to the U.S. after scrambling hard just to get interviews. Basically the program itself provided very little help. And even for London finance jobs, LBS students (both mba and mif) get their butts kicked by top U.S. MBA students from the likes of Harvard/Wharton/booth/Columbia.

As for the admit portal, I was able to see the profiles of the other MIF admits and was very disappointed by the caliber of admits. Almost all of them went to no-name colleges, worked in seemingly back or middle-office roles, and just did not stand out. I want to be at a school where I will be blown away by my classmates, learn from them, and have a transformational experience. I just don't think I will get that at LBS. Thus, I will be applying to top U.S. MBA programs this upcoming year.

If you have any more specific questions, feel free to shoot me a PM since I don't want to hijack this thread.

https://lastchancemba.blogspot.com

Thanks, good comments, I'll PM you.

I officially turned down the LBS MIF offer today. Hopefully this will free up a spot for waitlisted applicants and round 5 applicants.

Best of luck to everybody!

https://lastchancemba.blogspot.com

@Last Chance MBA - Didn't they defer it?

They did give me a deferral, but I would also need to pay down a deposit of close to $5000 ($1800 by june 4th and another $3000 by November) to secure my spot. And after deciding that I don't want to go, there's no way I'm gonna pay that amount. So I turned it down and told admissions to give my spot to a waitlisted applicant who actually wants to attend.

Adcom asked me to complete a survey detailing the reasons why I turned them down, which was quite awkward. I was honest though in my assessment. My top 3 reasons in descending order of importance were career placement, caliber of the student body, and prestige/name brand.

https://lastchancemba.blogspot.com

After completion of interview do we receive any email which mentions whether LBS has received the interview report. I had my interview on 22-05-2013, but there has been no further correspondence since then. How long does it take before the final results?

Regards

Hello,

Actually, it was my interviewer who sent me an email that she had sent the interview report to LBS. I received my decision roughly 3 weeks after the interview. So you should wait 2 more weeks I guess.