The London Business School 2010 thread

Part of the US Stafford loan amount is subsidized, which means that you do not accrue interest during your program (the federal government pays the interest instead). Additionally, the Stafford loan is a fixed rate program (as is the GradPLUS scheme, which LBS is now eligible for), whilst the HSBC loan is a variable rate (base rate plus 2.75%). So there may be some benefit to the Stafford/GradPLUS program if you believe the BoE rate will go up during the course of your repayments.

As a caveat, the US loan programs are disbursed in dollars, so you have to be careful on deciding how much to borrow (based on exchange rates).

Does Career Services start working with you as soon as the school year begins or are you expected to ask for help when needed?

They start about one month after the start. Then it is mandatory to attend most of their sessions and training that they provide. BTW sharshar did you apply in R1 ?

Nope, I changed my mind and decided to apply in R2! I quit my old job in August to focus on my little home-based business for a bit, and I started a new job in October. I'm waiting until Jan to submit my app because my new job's already given me some cool opportunities to help me build a stronger profile (I actually want your opinion on this, can I shoot you a short PM?)

Sure thing. pm me.

Has anyone scheduled the interview yet? Mine's most likely going to be next week, still awaiting confirmation though.

bsd/prashok/any alum, I had a couple of questions on the interviews:

1) Any tips on how we should prepare for the impromptu presentation?

2) The interviewer would have read our file, would (s)he be asking specifics? If (s)he asks about a leadership story, can we re-use the exact story written in the essays?

Thanks

Are you in London?
You are fast, I haven't got alumnus contact yet,.

I'm in London, and have no contact at all yet...

Anyone else within UK got a contact already?

Nope, I live in Philadelphia.

Folks dont get too anxious about the interview. LBS usually tries to find a background match with most of the interviewed candidates. The interviewer will have access to your files and essays. Some interviewers might be "by the book" and some might be more relaxed, so its a little bit about luck. I got nothing difficult - just a resume walkthrough and some questions about why I made certain decisions about my career and after that it became a chat. The impromptu presentation is all about you being quick on your feet and being structured in the ideas your present.

Is there a link to presentation subjects one can share?

I just received an e-mail with details about arranging the interview... I haven't contacted the alumni yet though.

what kind of presentation questions can we expect? does anyone have any ideas about this part of the interview?

any insights would be greatly appreciated

Agreed that the interview is more of a discussion than a formal interview. That said, my experience was probably more formal than others, as my interviewer was on the older side and was a senior-level executive with little time to spare. As a result, mine was probably more "by the book" than other candidates' experiences -- although still conversational.

Some of my ramblings from last year's thread:

Previous write-ups seemed to indicate many behavioral questions on teamwork and leadership, so I prepared very well in this area. I got a few of these, but my interviewer also drilled in more on my post-undergrad consulting experience. He asked questions like "Describe your typical workday in terms of the analytical work you do?" and "How do you deal with clients that may be difficult to work with or try to contradict you?" -- which was a bit different than what I expected. We also talked about the American auto industry loan package at the time (as automotive is one of my post-MBA target industries). In the end, I also got one or two open-ended questions like "What motivates you?"

Given the wide range of question types, I would be prepared for detailed questions on your work/resume, or current events as related to your current position or intended post-MBA path -- in addition to the usual "Why MBA? Why LBS?" type of questions. The proportion of questions in each topic area will probably vary depending on your interviewer, however.

Next is the presentation/case part of the interview. Don't worry too much about this -- there are so many broad topics for this, that there is no easy way to prepare for it. They don't expect you to have a consulting-style case structure ready anyway. In the end, just think through the question logically and use a pad of notes to organize your thoughts. They really just want to see the way you think. In this respect, it is very similar to the GMAT writing/essay component for analysis of an issue/argument. My question was something to the effect of "Would you choose to increase government regulations in certain industries, and how would you determine which industries to be targeted?"

Overall, definitely make sure you are prepared to talk about your resume/work experience, your motivations/goals for the LBS MBA, and some unique aspects of your own personal story. I did use elements of stories from my essays, but talked about other aspects of the story or details from the story that were not in the essays itself.

Good luck!

thanks prashok.. that was very useful.

A couple presentation topics can be found here (see bottom of post):
https://mbajourney2010.blogspot.com/2007 ... o-lbs.html
(blog I maintained while applying 2 years ago)

Good luck!

In the spirit of digging up the past, here's my interview write up :
lbs-r1-roll-call-54115-40.html#p404634

Just a quick note to say that i've also been contacted to set up an interview.

I'm based in London if that helps at all.

Just dropped the alumni a note so now have to wait and see.

Good luck to everybody ...

Quick one .. i was at LBS last thursday to meet an old friend who graduates this year.... we met up at Sundowners ... place was heaving and the atmosphere was great ... looking forward to evenings like that if all goes well !!