The London Business School 2009 thread

Congratulations everyone! I'll be joining you at LBS in the fall as a MiF student.

Woohoo, congrats! Hope you are "getting outta" whereever you are at the moment and are coming to London...

Congrats to you as well milkrate!

WOW, its a cleanout. The GMATClub has arrived at LBS Many congrats to UTDub, AdamH, getmeouttahere and milkrate. We'll see you there at London.

Clubbers are in da LBS
Congratulation everyone accepted!
I am still battling with my GMAT - will apply for R3

R1 admits, I noticed there is a 1,500 Euro non-refundable commitment fee due on Jan 23rd if you want to accept your offer. A few questions:

1) Does that not seem quite soon/early to everyone?
2) Is there no Admit Weekend for LBS? Of all my schools, LBS is the one I'd most like/need to visit and meet the other students to see how I fit and what I like or don't like.

This seems odd to me, especially compared to other schools that 1) give until March/April until a Deposit is due and 2) offer an Admit weekend to help you decide.

Thoughts?

Yeah, this "commitment" deposit for January seems to be a bit different than the usual single deposit for other schools. The second "reservation" deposit due in June is the more likely equivalent. Not sure why the deposits are split into two stages, though.

As far as admit weekends go, I don't think the European schools typically have those. The most similar concept are the "Open Houses" that are usually announced as they are planned throughout the year -- but those are open to everyone, not just admits. I would try emailing/calling the office to see when the next one is, though I don't know if it will be before January 23rd. Conversely, the admissions staff has been pretty good about scheduling private visits as well.

I was accepted on Friday as well. Congrats to all and best of luck making a very significant decision in the next few weeks!

Wow! So many admits! Congratulations to everyone, and good luck to all the next rounds applicants!

Many congratulations sept09. Holy crap that means pretty much everyone with an interview got an admit in R1 !!!!! Smells like a record number of Gmat clubbers at LBS this year ...

What US school would you guys compare LBS to?

I'm thinking realistically speaking it's not H/S/W, but that it's on par with Chicago/Columbia/MIT and ahead of the Berkeley/Tuck/NYU/UCLA/Michigan crowd. What do you guys think?

Haha this always creeps up every now and then (leading to inevitable flame wars). My answer to this is always a somewhat diplomatic - "I dont know, it depends...". Depends on location and needs. In Australia, LBS has more recognition than Chicago, Columbia, MIT, Kellogg (more alumni here). This is probably similar to Europe - although I am not qualified to make that call.

On the other hand, within the US I don't think LBS considered higher than lower 4 M7s. But, I'd say LBS is most certainly at par with the lower 4 M7s in terms of the quality of education and selectivity - but I dont think that LBS has the same superb alumni base in US as Columbia, Kellogg, Chicago (300 mill whoa ..), MIT etc.

Having said all of that - if you were to collate a world top 10 MBAs on reputation alone - LBS "should" always feature in it.

The world top 10 would look something like INSEAD/LBS/H/S/W/Chi/Col/MIT/Kell<toss up between Haas, Tuck, NYU, Ross etc.> <-- this is in no particular order.

Awesome -- congrats Sept09!

Yeah, I'm with bsd_lover on this. Based on pure rankings, LBS is globally in the top ten in most sources. In the Financial Times rankings, it's in the top three, and I think it outranks H/S and the other M7 schools. In Europe, the holy trinity seems to be LBS, INSEAD and IMD. So, YMMV...

As I'm sure some of us discovered during interview and info sessions, reputation is still a challenge here in North America, though. It's a strong brand name of course, but against the M7, it's an uphill battle. So I would agree with what's been said -- that it's comparable with the lower M7, with the consideration that those US schools would still have stronger brands domestically.

Personally, I only applied to non-US schools because a post-MBA international career is very important to me (particularly Europe or Oceania). From that perspective outside of the United States, LBS/INSEAD are the next best after H/S/W, IMO. And I already knew I couldn't get into those three US schools...

So for me, LBS/INSEAD are my top choices (followed by IMD, Oxford, Cambridge, etc.).

Wow, Congrats to everyone! This might be a record number of admits gmatclub has ever seen!

I have this mixed feeling about LBS vs US schools. I am from Asia but did my undergrad in the US. So, my mind is a bit US centric and I would probably be more thrilled to have M7 name on my resume than LBS. Having said that, I've always loved London, especially its entertainment options and travelling opportunities. More importantly, I would like to work in the city where my b-school is located post-MBA, and it will be extremely difficult for me to secure a visa in the States. This alone is making me lean towards LBS. It's kind of like my heart is telling me to go to US schools whereas my mind is urging me to choose LBS (given I am admitted).

Getting back to the original question. I consider LBS to be a peer school with Chicago/ Columbia (all of them seem to be a bit more finance oriented). By the way, how is their recruiting going? Looking at LBS's career report, I always had this feeling that LBS is exceptional when placing students into finance, but not so much with other industries. Is this because students are more self-selecting (finance-minded students tend to choose LBS?) or LBS's presence lag in consulting or industries?

krispy

thanks for all the responses. i'm turning down Chicago and Northwestern for LBS. : ) hope to see you all there!

EUR 1,500?! Damn, I have to pay non-refundable deposit of GBP 3,300 for JBS! And I have to pay it no later than 16 January...

bsd_lover, I should have listened you and applied to LBS, what a moron I am...

Just kidding , I'll be fine on JBS, regardless of the deposit.