The London Business School 2011 Thread

Hi Everyone,

I am looking forward to apply in R2. My profile is as below:

1) A female / 28 .
2) Undergrad in Fashion Design from India ( from one of the most prestigious fashion schools)
3) Undergrad GPA- Good
4) Above average academic records
5) 6.5 years WE . 3 years in Design (India) and 3.5 years in supply chain management (London- UK)
6) GMAT- yet to take ( expecting 710/720 as per current prep)
7) EC - Below average.

Could anyone please evaluate my profile for LBS. I am very nervous since I feel LBS gives preference to profiles from Finance and related backgrounds. Can anyone please throw some light if LBS gives importance to the profiles from art/design background.

I am attending LBS's info session on 13th Sept. in London... anyone in for this?

Count me in for LBS R1.

Indian candidate
GMAT 700/ Toefl 112
B.Tech IIT Roorkee 8.38/10

Work exp 26 months (Unilever Sales & Marketing)
Work exp 12 months (Founder of a company)
Good Co-curricular - Sports/ PR rep of an NGO etc.

Worried about my international experience - have only 45 days (that also part of the training at Unilever)

will that affect my chances of cracking LBS?

bsd,

I'm really interested in doing my MBA at LBS, but don't necessarily want to stay international. I want to come back to NYC after b-school but it seems like very few people end up in the US. Trying to make broad assumptions based on the available data related to recruiting, job prospects, etc.

Topaz,

LBS definitely doesn't have a preference in terms of professional background. Each year, LBS admits plenty of students with atypical backgrounds (e.g. doctors, lawyers, military, engineers, etc.). I guess your post-MBA goal is important in your case (meaning it should be feasible).

Jimmyfunk,

You don't necessarily need international work experience to be admitted to LBS. However, you need to be able to demonstrate that you are capable of working in an international work setting (e.g. study group) and that you have an appreciation for diversity.

jbharris,

Honestly, if your goal is to work in the US post-MBA, then go for US b-schools. LBS (or any other EU b-school) will be great schools to land you a job everywhere around the globe, less so for the US though. It's not impossible, but you will have to network harder and put in a lot more effort. Also, if you mention in your career goals essay that you want to work in the US post-MBA I'm not sure if the AdCom at LBS would view this favorable.

BSD, let me know your thoughts.

Lastly, for those interested, a link of some MBA guru ranking LBS #1 outside of the US. I personally don't think this ranking has any value (he simply averages existing rankings). Thought I'd share this anyways .
https://poetsandquants.com/2010/07/30/to ... s-schools/

@tmino

Thanks very much for your comment. I will keep this point in mind.

jbharris - the fact that many people don't end up in the US is a product of three things :
1. The motivation of most LBS students (to stay / work in UK, EU, Asia and generally internationally)
2. The location disadvantage of LBS students (to compete head to head with US students for US jobs)
3. The visa issue - most LBS students do not have US work authorisation - this deters many US employers

Having said that, if you are really keen on working in the US and your post MBA goals are clear to you, there is no reason that you cannot make it from LBS. You just need to be focused in terms of your networking / recruitment efforts (already possessing US work authorisation will help immensely). I have seen personally friends from class of 2011 taking up incredible internship opportunities in the US (not co-incidentally they were all US citizens).

But as tmino said earlier - it may just be easier going to a US school surely ?

Hello everyone,
I am new to gmatclub and started preparing for admissions less a month back. I just accomplished my 1st milestone - took the GMATPrep Practice test 1 and scored a 730!
I must be one of the youngest to apply for admissions at LBS (I started work in June 2008, so that makes it just above 3 at the time of matriculation).

I ll be writing my GMAT in October (have to work on my AWAs ) and so plan to apply in R2.

I have some questions for the folks who have already joined LBS.
1) Do you find many people my age there (~3 years of experience)? I found out that LBS had a mid 80% work exp. of 2-14, which means there are youngsters, but how many?

2) Do they intentionally take younger people (because they bring/add 'something' to the group) or is it that the kids (:P) were just better than the experienced folks from the same pool?

The main reason why I decided to take an MBA is because I realized that my potential lies elsewhere and a MBA is the way to attain it. I do not plan to return to the IT field after school (atleast not as a developer) and so, apart from closing in on the avg. age of admits, I see no reason in waiting for 2 or more years. Although confident that I can convince the adcom that I have all the qualities for a good manager, I am fearful of my poor GPA. Yeah, I am aware of the optional essay, but
3) do they give alot of importance to the GPA of a younger applicant? Can a really good GMAT score (~750) and a good optional essay give them the confidence that I can cope with the tough curriculum?

Many thanks in advance!
I am really grateful that you folks at LBS to find the time to reply to our queries.

As for the others, best of luck!
Jaidev.

I'm in a similar situation to you in the sense that I too have a low undergrad GPA. Thinking as an adcom, I would see a 750 and know you have the brains, but seeing a low undergrad GPA I might wonder about your level of discipline and endurance. Since your work experience is not yet long enough to show good career progression (discipline and endurance) then I would want to see a good reason for a low-undergrad GPA that is limited to undergrad and wont be with you going forward.

In my case I have a 7 year career progression with good forward movement, so I'm concerned about the opposite of you. I'm concerned they may be unconvinced of my brains aspect, so I took some graduate extension courses to augment my GMAT and GPA.

I think you'll need a good optional essay more than a 750 GMAT, though the 750 certainly wont hurt.

Hi srjaidev and bpenn,

To your questions:

1) Yes there are plenty of admits with 3-4 years of work ex. The average is around 5 years. LBS strongly recommends applicants to have at least 2 years of work ex.

2) LBS does not intentionally admit students with few years of work experience. It's all about the maturity of applicants. So someone with 3 years of work ex might show the same career progression and maturity as someone with 5 years of work ex. It's all about quality instead of quantity. At the same time, while some students have up to 10 years of work ex, there is also a variance in post-MBA employment. A young guy with 3 years of work ex prob won't have the same post-MBA goals and options like someone with 10 years of work ex (assuming both progress at the same pace in your career).

3) A good GMAT can definitely offset a low GPA. In fact, a higher GMAT is probably more favorable than a higher GPA.

Hi MBA Volunteers..

I have given my CV below. I know my gmat score is low but will the two professional qualifications help me.. Please share your thoughts and comments about my prospects of getting an Interview Call:


EDUCATION

GMAT 660 (Q 44 V 36)

Associate Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA) 56.60 (From Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), United Kingdom)

Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) 57.25 (From Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), India)

Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) 68.00 (From University of Madras, India)

Higher Secondary (Std XII) 97.00 (From State Board of Tamil Nadu, India)

EMPLOYMENT

1. Company : NCR Consultants Limited
Position : Management Consultant
Period : Oct 2008 – Till Date

• Successfully developed business plan and recommended an investment location for an overseas investment of INR 2000 Million for the establishment of a manufacturing unit in India.

• Assisted an overseas investor in takeover of a listed company for a value of INR 200 Million and prepared business valuation and due diligence reports which was used by the investors for the purpose of negotiation with the promoters.

• Valued companies spread across industries such as shipping, cement, steel and engineering for the purpose of acquisition and disinvestment.

• Structured business processes and implemented Management Information Systems (MIS) including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for companies spread across industries such as cement, poultry, chit funds, diary and engineering both in India and overseas.

• Carried out market research to estimate the market potential of a product with a market size of INR 30 Billion for new Indian market entrant and provided market entry strategy.

• Prepared project reports for raising debt funds and negotiated with the banks for rising of funds. Assisted in rising INR 500 Million for one of the clients.

2. Company: N.C.Rajagopal & Co, Chartered Accountants
Position : Article Trainee
Period : Sept 2005 – Sept 2008

• Carried out audits for a number of Public and Private Sector Companies across various Industries such as Banking, Construction, Mining, Manufacturing, Hospitality, Healthcare, and Distillery, in the capacity of Team Leader.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND INTERESTS

• KEC Food Court and Reshmi Industries [Jan 2010 to Till date] (Family Business)

Mentored family business and developed selling strategies leading to increase in revenues by nearly 20% of the total sales.

Helped in acquisition of a manufacturing company for a value of INR 5 Million by carrying out due diligence, valuing the business and participating in the negotiations.

Developed and implemented processes pertaining to procurement, sales, inventory accounting and MIS which helped the business transition from being Individual Driven to System Driven.


• Earned highest rank of "Petty Cadet Corp" in the National Cadet Corps and was awarded "Best Cadet" award among 500 cadets at a highly selective Naval NCC training camp.

• Was part of the “Citizen Journalist” programme by the BBC during the Indian General Election’09.

• Started a social welfare organization, Virutcham, in association with likeminded friends to provide monetary assistance to children who are economically and socially challenged. Sponsored 7 children within a year of commencement of the initiative.

• Completed basic level in learning Spanish.

Thank you, Thomas! You're group mbavolunteers(dot)org is of great help for people like me - I do not have any one in my family or friends circle who have had MBA(abroad) admissions experience.

Forgive me for asking, but are you an active member in this forum? I planned on doing my essays (and the necessary read up on LBS) only from October, once I am done with my GMAT/IELTS. If you won't be available in October, might as well ask all my doubts this month itself .

It was after talks with some cousins of mine and friends who just graduated from Indian Business Schools that I found out about MBA and how it could help me. London Business School was the 1st school that I looked up (mostly because its London, I have always been fascinated by UK) and is still my dream school.
I was initially overwhelmed by articles and posts on the amount of effort people put into MBA Admissions and by tons of super-profiles that I saw, but now I decided that the best way to go is to stick to one forum where I can have current-students/alumni for advice and information, and peers for progress-checks.

Brad, I guess Thomas's reply must have brought a sigh of relief in you too .
How is your preparation going on? I see that you have started really early. Here is something I read from your 1st post in this topic -

So which all books did you read? and is this spreadsheet something you found from one of your books or your own creation? Would you please share it

Here is how my preparation is going on:
1. Read Kaplan Verbal foundations
2. Did most of the questions from OG quantitative review, Verbal review and GMAT review.
3. Took the GMATPrep Practice test 1 (yesterday) - scored 730 [Q49 V41] - and I thought I was good in Quant , I am hoping to improve on that score.

I found that I am poor in AWA. I plan on spending avg. 2 hours on it till I am comfortable (mostly trying out the issues and arguments in OG or MBA(dot)com).

I will do a progress check in the 2nd weekend of September and decide on my GMAT date and future plans, and start working on my essays then.
I haven't decided on the other schools I will be applying to, mostly because I am looking for a 2 year MBA course and Europe has only so many - not that US doesn't excite me, I have always wanted to travel around Europe and what better (and inexpensive) way to do so than as students, , will we get the time? :O. European schools also seem to have a better international mix.


Oh yeah, my profile -

24 M Indian
Work Experience - 3-4 years at matriculation in software development.
International experience - no 'live in' working experience (Does being brought up in Dubai count? )
GMAT - Yet to write
GPA - low
Application round - 2

Application deadlines for Fall 2011 are out :

https://www.london.edu/programmes/mba/applying.html

I'm a little concerned, it seems that the application form shall become available towards the end of September, and R1 deadline is the first week of October? That gives my recommenders less than 2 weeks to write LORs...

I have a book from Stacy Blackman and one from Avi Gordon. No, the excel spreadsheet is just a database of thoughts on different things. I've been keeping a log of my ideas for the different essays since Spring so I have a pool of topics to draw upon. I find that while I am trying to fall asleep my brain will occasionally produce a great idea for the essays, so I go sit down and hammer the idea onto the spreadsheet for later on. One time I was on a roll and ended up writing the whole essay that night and came back to bed at 2:30am. I'm not really a night owl, but something must be happening in my brain at night.

They just changed it to read "late September". That concerns me too. Not much lead time for rec's. Other than that I don't have a problem with 2-3 weeks to input my info and essays.

Hot off the press Class of 2012 profile:
Age - range from 23-39 with an average age of 28
Work experience - 2138 years in total, ranging from 2 - 14 years with an average of 5 years
GMAT - range from 600 - 780 with an average of 701
Females - 27.7% (increased from 27%)
Primary nationalities - 62 (increased from 59)

A quick question -
I plan to apply to colleges in round 2 (deadlines around end of dec or beg of Jan). I ll be most probably applying to 4-5.
I will be writing my GMAT only in October. Initially I was planning on working on the essays after that, but now I am a little confused because it seems there is alot of self-evaluation and recollection of past ex involved.

So my question is - is 2 months sufficient to write the essays or is it better if I start doing college research and essay drafting now itself?

Hi srjaidev, to your question, I check GMATclub a few times a week, so not the most active user here probably. But do let us know if you have questions about LBS! Will gladly answer as much as I can. Great to also have BSD around to help as well.

vspradeep2002,

You are right that your academics may be your weak spot in your application. With no offense, but the majority of successful Indian applicants probably score above 700 on the GMAT. Many also come from IIT or were close to the top of their class. Your accounting degrees may help offset this, though I'm not familiar with their scoring. Another weakness may be during your work ex from 2005-2008, where it appears that you may not have progressed that much (at least from what you write in your post).

Having said that, please don't be discouraged at all from applying. Your work ex in the past 2 years is very solid and you also have good extracurricular activities! Great that you founded Virutcham, sounds like an interesting organisation!