andygee wrote:
hi guys,
I received an offer from ESADE yesterday... I interviewed with them at their open-day on the 30st of October, the whole day was a great experience and I am very impressed. I had about the same interview questions, even though I also had to do a short case study. This was basically a text with a couple of questions like summarize it, would you invest in this business, how would you market and sell it, what is the target market... so quite easy stuff...
about my profile: I studied biology in switzerland, did my phd in roche (pharma) and am now working at kings college in research... I got 3 years work experience (as a scientist), but have got very clear plans why I want to do an MBA and so on. GMAT I scored 710 and my academics are quite strong; I speak german, english, french and some italian.
I also applied to LBS and got an invitation for an interview... however, I am running into a problem here: ESADE wants my decision (and 8000 euros deposit) until november 27th, whereas LBS will only communicate their decision on december 16th... so what can I do? ask ESADE about an extension (which they obviously not gonna like as they want to be 1st choice)? the thing is that I really like ESADE and its feel: the people are great, the admin officers amazing and I was impressed by the level of personal interaction between professors, students and career service... students seem to see each other not as competitors which is great. however, I haven't made my mind up what I would do if I would get an offer from LBS as well since it is one of the top schools worldwide... but keeping both options open would only be reasonable I think, but I don't know how to handle this timing/deadline issue... has anyone got a suggestion or has had similar experiences?
any thoughts welcome
thanks
hey andygee, welcome to the thread!
first of all: congratulations for your admit - that's fantastic!
it's really nice to hear you had a good feel for the school too at the open day.
second: that's a really tough call mate, and I definitely symphatise with you. I feel like I might be in your shoes pretty soon: I only applied with 2 schools, ESADE and LBS. I'd be really happy with either of those. I had an interview with ESADE this week, and got an invite from LBS. I don't want to get ahead of myself, as I'm far from being accepted anywhere yet, BUT - certainly crossed my mind what will I do if I get an offer and acceptance deadline is before LBS decision date....
I'd like to help you, but I am short of ideas myself. I guess you might have two options: either try to extend ESADE deadline, or try get an earlier decision from LBS after your interview. I don't know if that is possible at all, as they might want to make all decisions simultaneously. The advantage is that you could say 'you are my definite first choice, can you give me an early decision so I can turn down my second choice which already accepted me' rather than going to ESADE and say: 'well I'm happy with the offer but waiting for another one to come in, can you stick it out...?' But at the same time, ESADE obviously want you, and might be willing to extend for another 2 weeks?
I have a feeling this is a common problem for many, just with other schools involved - have you tried searching the forum for this topic? If not, I would post a new topic asking about decision deadlines specifically. There is so much great advice here, I'm sure you will learn somthing!
Other than that, it might be worth really thinking through what you want. Yes, LBS is a top school, but so is ESADE. You might be able to make a decision based on all your experiences in Barcelona? I see you're based in London - maybe go for a drop in, and see if you like the place as much as you did ESADE. You might be able to make up your mind without having to wait for their decision?
anyway, good luck with your decisions, and the LBS interview! it seems we might end up same place next year?