Here’s How You Can Submit A Stronger Application To London Business School

As the MBA application season is in full swing, the prestigious London Business School hosted a webinar yesterday on ‘How to Submit a Strong Application‘ for their MBA program. The webinar, which lasted for an hour, touched upon topics including the application process, essays, interviews as well as fielding questions from prospective candidates.

Below we take a look at the major points of discussion during the webinar.

Application Process

The application process for London Business School’s MBA program consists of four application deadlines each year. With a great focus on students who want to become a part of the global mindset that is fostered at the school, London Business School prides itself on being community oriented, boasting of students from 66 different nationalities who share a collaborative, global mindset.

Once you submit your applications, the admissions committee will review your entire application and they will make the decision whether you progress through to the interview or not. If you are selected for the interview, then you will have an in-person interview with one of the school’s alumni in your current location. You can also arrange your interviews pretty much around all the major cities in the world, in case you’re traveling. Once you’ve completed your interview, the interviewer will send the admissions committee an interview feedback form, which will then be re-reviewed by the committee and then they will make the final admissions decision on your application.

This process usually takes between 9-12 weeks to complete depending on which round of admissions you’re applying in. You can check out the application calendar for more details regarding.

What LBS looks for in candidates

LBS has a standard profile of the candidates they recruit, but they do look for specific characteristics in all of their students. In particular they look for students who are passionate, ambitious, committed, curious, open-minded, open to being challenged by their faculty and classmates, and should be open to changing their mind when needed. Students that want to become part of a global community and a global mindset are always welcome, as well as students who are happy to work in a diverse environment and are collaborative and community oriented, because a lot of work that happens at LBS is a part of the community.

List of documents to be submitted with the applications.

The application process can be completed by submitting the following set of documents:

– Online application form
– 1 page resume
– 2 recommendations
– 1 essay
– GMAT/GRE score
– Original transcript from the university

Resume

The website recommends keeping the resume to 1 page. Your CV shouldn’t be a copy of your job description. The school wants to understand or have a summary of your CV, your responsibilities, main achievements, extra curricular activities, and hobbies.

Pro tip: The application form at LBS is quite long, so do not underestimate how long it takes to complete it. Make sure you’re clear on what you want to write so the admissions committee understands what your responsibilities at your current job are for example, or what do you do in your spare time as part of your hobbies.

In terms of GMAT and GRE, both are accepted equally. For GMAT, their range goes from 600 to 790 at the moment, with an average of 701. The application process is very selective and competitive, so a strong GMAT or GRE can make the difference in some cases.

Essays

Essays are an important part of the application. They enable the admission committee to gain a better understanding of you as a professional as well as a person can provide them a glimpse of your candidate’s personality. You can also elaborate your motivations, your aspirations, your research on LBS and put everything together, since all of that cannot be summarized in your CV or application form. Remember to show your research. There are many different ways in which you can do your research and make sure you elaborate your ability to show why LBS will be a good fit for you and vice versa.

References

Choose your referees carefully, as the content is more important than the position held by the applicant. Sometimes the school does receive references from very senior executives like CEOs and CFOs, but in many cases this might not work because the content wasn’t what they were looking for.

Make sure whoever you choose can be your best champion. Make sure this person can tell the committee your strengths and weaknesses and why your potential is suited for LBS. Take them out for dinner/coffee and explain why you want to do your MBA from LBS so they can understand your reasons and put them in your reference.

If you don’t want to disclose to your line manager that you’re applying, you can instead ask a past supervisor or a client with whom you’ve worked closely.

Interviews

If you are selected for an interview, you will be invited for an in person interview with one of their interviewers all around the world. The admissions committee at LBS don’t do interviews for the MBA program. The alumni for the school carry out the interviews for them. The interviews usually last between 1.5 to 2 hours, and the first half of the interview is a formal conversation and the second half is an informal conversation where the candidate can ask the interviewer about LBS, the program and the whole experience at LBS.

Funding

Funding is one of the options candidates many times overlook when they do their research. It is very important to look at and research all your funding options before applying, because you wouldn’t want to go through the whole application process, maybe receive an offer and have to decline the offer because of funding.

LBS works with Prodigy Finance to provide loans to international students. They also offer a good range of scholarships, by nationality, sector of employment, gender and other criteria. You can check out the list of scholarships available for their full time programs here.

A majority of scholarships are awarded on merit and therefore all MBA candidates, who receive an offer, will automatically be eligible for a merit-based scholarship.

For more information regarding the full time MBA program at London Business School, you can head over to their website.