Inside the London MBA

MBA TV - Episode twelve

The highlight of the admissions year, Admits Weekend is an opportunity for admitted MBA candidates to meet their future classmates, get a taste of School life and celebrate the start of a life changing experience.

In this episode Marie Lussier, a current MBA student, is your guide to Admits Weekend 2009 as we welcome over 200 Admits and their partners representing 38 nationalities to our campus for a weekend packed full of activities. 

Episode highlights include interviews with

-           MBA2011 Admits

-           Current MBA students

-           Club Representatives

-           MBA Events Manager, Zoe McLoughlin

Are you thinking of applying for an MBA starting 2010?

Find out more about the application process here:

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

It’s the end of term, but its business as usual for the Admissions team over the summer. To get bite size news and updates as they happen follow the MBA Admissions team on Twitter

Friday 22 May, Stage 3 admission decisions deadline

If you have submitted an application in Stage 3 for a place on the Full-time MBA programme, you can expect to receive your decision later today (UK time).

Admission decisions will be sent to all applicants by email.

Good luck!

The Admissions Office

Second stage application deadline for Full-time MBA beginning in August 2009

If you are considering applying for the autumn 2009 intake, the Stage 2 application deadline is Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17.00 (London time).  Please give yourself plenty of time to submit your application and try not to leave it to the last minute. In the hour or so before the deadline the server is extremely busy. Stage 2 candidates will receive notification of whether they have been selected for interview via email on 12 February, and Stage 2 interviewed candidates will receive their final admission decision on 31 March.

 

If you experience any difficulties in submitting your application please follow the Help links within the online application form, or contact our Information Office directly at apply.mba@london.edu or telephone +44 (0)20 7000 7500

 

Winter closure dates

Please note the MBA Information Office will be closed at 17.00 on Tuesday 23 December and reopen at 9.00 on Friday 2 January.

 

Common applications questions

 

Q. Do you require original copies of my transcripts?

 

Yes, but not yet. We only require copies of your academic transcripts at this application stage. If these documents are not in English then you should provide a translation (your own translation is acceptable at this stage). If you are extended an offer we will require an official paper transcript and a certified or notarised English translation if not in English. The Admissions Committee reserves the right to retract an offer of admission already made if there is any discrepancy between the transcript copy and the original.

We do not require transcripts for courses that did not contribute to a degree.

We prefer applicants to submit transcripts online. Full instructions can be found within the application form.

 

Q. Can you confirm receipt of my GMAT/English test score or other supplementary information?

 

Please do not contact the Admissions Office for confirmation that your references, university transcripts, GMAT or English test scores have arrived.  We receive hundreds if not thousands of items of post during the run up to the application deadline and to confirm the receipt of these would dramatically slow the admission and reviewing process for all candidates. Once all of the information has been opened and collated, should an application be missing any documents the candidate will be contacted by the Admissions team.

If you are curious as to the status of your references, this can be checked by logging into your online application account and viewing the Referee Status.

 

Q. My references / transcripts have been delayed and will not arrive until after the deadline. Will you still accept my application in this stage?

 

If you submit your application by the Stage 2 deadline, we will accept supplementary materials that arrive during the week following this deadline.  If an item is delayed by more than 1 week your application may be moved into the following Stage so that it can be reviewed with using the full information, but you will be contacted beforehand if this is the case. If you do not hear from the Admissions team you should assume that your application is proceeding in Stage 2.

 

Join us for an online chat with current students and members of the admissions team

On Monday 08 December we’re giving you the opportunity to put your questions to current students and members of the admissions team direct from the comfort of your desk during our online chat.

Event details:
•    Date: Monday 08 December
•    Time: 18:00 GMT – 19.30 GMT
•    Where: This event is hosted by Accepted.com

In addition to several members of the MBA Admissions team, our panel of guests includes two current MBA students.

If you are unable to log on for this particular online chat, you will be able to view the transcript online 5 – 7 days after the event.

About our student participants:

Vlad Gudov, MBA2010 student. Vlad is coming to the end of his first term at London Business School and is also an MBA student ambassador. He is originally from Romania where he studied Economics and International Business. Prior to starting the MBA, Vlad worked as a Marketing Research Manager with Ringier Romania. 

Daniela Gruebel, MBA2010 student. Daniela is also an MBA student ambassador who is about to complete the first term of her MBA. Daniela is from Germany where she studied International Business Administration in Wiesbaden. Prior to starting the MBA Daniela worked in the finance sector as Head of Marketing and Communications at LHI Leasing GmbH in Munich. 

Admissions Director David Simpson talks about the full-time MBA application process on clearadmit.com

Admissions Director David Simpson talks about the full-time MBA application process on clearadmit.com
 
Have you have submitted your application for the stage one deadline? Or are you in the process of applying for one of our other deadlines? Either way, if you want to know the insiders view on London Business School’s application process, read on to find out:

• What happens to your application when we get it?
• Advice on completing successful applications and essays
• What to expect at an interview
• Who is a ‘typical’ London Business School student?

Click here to read the full interview.

MBA TV, Episode two

The second episode in our new series of videos is available to view now. With the admissions process for 2009 entrance in full swing we bring you an inside view of the application process. This episode includes an interview with a member of the Admissions Committee on writing stand-out applications and views and advice from our current MBA students.

View the full interview with David Simpson from the MBA Admissions Committee.

We want MBA TV to give you a window into life at London Business School. Features will cover the School community, curriculum highlights, major campus events and club activities. We hope you enjoy our second instalment. If you have any comments or suggestions on content for future episodes, please post them here.

Comma Chameleon: Application Essays Revisited

Last week we were asked to bring a sample of our writing in preparation for a workshop titled “Writing with Impact”.  While I would like to think that I’m a decent writer, the truth is that I'm likely to get the most impact if I bundle up all my drafts and hurl the stack at someone.  I'll take all the help I can get.

My London Business School application essays were the easiest examples to find, so I opened up v11 (the final version) and selected an essay.  But if the purpose of this workshop was to examine our true writing skills, surely I wasn’t going to learn much about my writing from a sample that had been so carefully edited and agonized over.  I wondered if v1 wasn’t a better reflection of my true craft, so I opened up the dusty file – created exactly a year ago today. 

Oh the horrors!  The first essay was littered with run-on sentences, meaningless adjectives and terrible passive tenses.  My efforts to disguise real client examples were so good that even I didn’t know who or what I was talking about. I had stop after reading halfway through for fear of falling asleep. It’s not as though I didn’t make a genuine effort on this first draft. I spent countless hours at my favorite coffee shop (The Grove on Fillmore) carefully crafting my responses to “in what role do you see yourself immediately after graduation?” and the like. 

Fortunately I had lined up two readers to help mitigate these fatal flaws: my mother, a language arts teacher, and Sarah, a friend who is a talented writer with experience editing MBA applications. 

My mother had the first crack at reading my essays.   She was kind but firm with her criticism: “Were you ever taught any grammar at all?  You have sentences that last entire paragraphs.  And by the way - commas serve a purpose.  You can’t just sprinkle them on for decoration.”  Interesting and duly noted. 

Sarah’s feedback was constructive and devastating.  Application essays can turn into an intensely personal manifesto, particularly after you have spent so many hours on them.  To hear her say that my draft was “middle of the pack” in terms of quality made my heart sink even though I knew she was right.  However, she gave me two great suggestions that I want to pass on to this year’s applicants:

1.       Show, don’t tell.  Or, as Mark Twain said, "Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream!" If you say you're "different" or "interesting", that word alone proves nothing. In fact, it seems to disprove your point purely by being boring and typical. Illustrate with a story or example instead.

2.       Be memorable. Imagine that the admission essay reader is seven hours into an admissions-essay-reading day. You are application #112 and frankly, #1 through #111 were mind-numbingly boring and she is waiting desperately to go to dinner but just has to finish your application before she can go home. You want to be memorable and worth her time.

This advice made a lot of sense to me, but that doesn’t mean it was easy to incorporate. In fact it took me 10 more drafts to get a version I was comfortable with.  So other lessons from this experience are to give yourself plenty of time to complete your application and find readers who will give you honest and constructive feedback.  And be careful where you put commas. Good luck!

Online chat with current students and members of the admissions team – now available to view

If you missed the opportunity to take part in our online chat on 29 September, you can now take a look at the transcript here and see the questions that prospective candidates asked our panel of experts.

About our current MBA students who took part in the chat:

Vikram Dadlani

Before coming to London Business School, Vikram worked as a private banker with Morgan Stanley in India for five years. He is looking to move to sales and trading and has made successful steps towards this during his internship.

Matthew Shenkman

Matthew spent eight years in the US Military before embarking on his full-time MBA. This summer he completed an internship at an Investment Bank in New York and plans to continue his career finance.

About our staff who took part in the chat:

Graeme Harper, Senior Marketing Manager, MBA Programme

Graeme works on all aspects of the MBA marketing at London Business School and liaises with the MBA students who contribute to the “Inside the MBA”, London Business School blog.

Amy Hugo, MBA Marketing and Admissions Officer

Amy oversees marketing and admissions for candidates based in continental Europe and Latin America. 

Lisa Mortini, MBA Marketing and Admissions Officer

Lisa oversees marketing and admissions for candidates based in Canada and the US.

Louise Weir, Marketing Coordinator, Career Services

Claire Hewitson, Career Services 

First stage application deadline for Full-time MBA beginning in August 2009

If you are considering applying for the autumn 2009 intake, the Stage 1 application deadline is Tuesday 14 October at 17.00 (London time).  Please give yourself plenty of time to submit your application and try not to leave it to the last minute. In the hour or so before the deadline the server is extremely busy.

Stage 1 candidates will receive notification of whether they have been selected for interview via email on 12 November 2008, and Stage 1 interviewed candidates will receive their final admission decision on 18 December.

If you experience any difficulties in submitting your application please follow the Help links within the online application form, or contact our Information Office directly at apply.mba@london.edu or telephone +44 (0)20 7000 7500

Common applications questions

Q. Do you require original copies of my transcripts?

Yes, but not yet. We only require copies of your academic transcripts at this application stage. If these documents are not in English then you should provide a translation (your own translation is acceptable at this stage).

If you are extended an offer we will require an official paper transcript and a certified or notarised English translation if not in English.

The Admissions Committee reserves the right to retract an offer of admission already made if there is any discrepancy between the transcript copy and the original.

We do not require transcripts for courses that did not contribute to a degree.

We prefer applicants to submit transcripts online. Full instructions can be found within the application form.

Q. Can you confirm receipt of my GMAT/English test score or other supplementary information?

Please do not contact the Admissions Office for confirmation that your references, university transcripts, GMAT or English test scores have arrived.  We receive hundreds if not thousands of items of post during the run up to the application deadline and to confirm the receipt of these would dramatically slow the admission and reviewing process for all candidates.

Once all of the information has been opened and collated, should an application be missing any documents the candidate will be contacted by the Admissions team.

If you are curious as to the status of your references, this can be checked by logging into your online application account and viewing the Referee Status.

Q. My references / transcripts have been delayed and will not arrive until after the deadline. Will you still accept my application in this stage?

If you submit your application by the Stage 1 deadline, we will accept supplementary materials that arrive during the week following this deadline.  If an item is delayed by more than 1 week your application may be moved into the following Stage so that it can be reviewed with using the full information, but you will be contacted beforehand if this is the case. If you do not hear from the Admissions team you should assume that your application is proceeding in Stage 1.

And we’re off…

The entire class is here. Orientation week is over. But the fun has only just begun.

As a new student starting his MBA at London Business School, I could've hardly asked for a more exciting start to the program. As you can tell from the experiences of my fellow “20-ten’ers” below, we’ve all had an incredibly busy yet amazing two weeks. I obviously had heard about how diverse London Business School was before I got here, but what lay in store still managed to surprise. My study group, like those profiled in the other posts has seven people – all from different countries (India, Japan, Switzerland, France, United Kingdom, Turkey and Canada). If I can’t learn about global management and leadership in an environment like this, I don’t know where else I’d go. I could go on and on (and want to ☺ ) about the neat things from my brief time here, but my friends have done immense justice to that.

“I’ve waited 28 years for this” was what I told the steward at Lord’s. As a die-hard Indian cricket fan whose earliest memories of Indian cricketing glory was watching Kapil Dev hoist the world cup from the balcony at Lord’s, I always have wonderful memories of the ground. When we reached there on our first day of orientation, it was a special feeling. I guess Lord’s place in cricket is like that of Lambeau field in Football (the American kind) – a place that has been witness to remarkable legends and sporting history. Now that Lord’s is only a few minutes walk from school and home, I hope to enjoy some matches there (starting with a county game this coming weekend). More to come on that…

I’m sitting in a room now at school, working on my “Good Idea” for a competition run by the entrepreneurship club (and of course writing this blog) and I feel nervous – not the bad kind of nervousness, but rather that of excitement. The next two years have a lot in store for the 320 of us – classes and exams, interviews and jobs, parties and friendships, heartbreaks and successes. The thing in common though is the school and the fact that all of us will be in this together -- trying to cross the finish line, leaving no one behind and at the same time ensuring that we all enjoy every minute of this wonderful journey.

Finally

Wow, what can I say?  I'm finally here.  It's been 20 months since I first mailed my application to London Business School for the MBA Class of 2009.  I spent two months waiting for an interview decision, a month waiting for an admissions decision, five months on the waitlist, and then another month waiting for a deferred admissions decision.  Once I received an offer for the MBA Class of 2010, I had another eleven months to wait for classes to actually begin.  Those were perhaps the longest months of my life, during which time I tried to distract myself with a month-long trip backpacking though Indonesia and another month visiting friends and family back in the States. Needless to say, I had an incredible summer.

Now that I've arrived  in London, moved into my flat, met my classmates, and begun orientation, I'm finding it difficult to express everything I've been feeling lately.  I'm continuously amazed at the variety of my classmates; MBA2010 is represented by 60 different countries and 45 different languages. The level of achievement that some of my classmates have already accomplished is impressive, as well as the mix of different careers.   My classes are filled with surgeons, lawyers, helicopter pilots, bankers, theoretical nuclear physicists, ex-politicians, entrepreneurs, and a famous concert pianist.  I have truly never been surrounded by this many highly accomplished, successful people... and it feels great!

To say I've been busy would be an understatement;  even prior to orientation everyone was busy partying networking, usually in the form of housewarming parties, pub crawling in Marylebone, or clubbing in Piccadilly.  Now that orientation has started, we're spending our days at Lord's Cricket Ground (its like baseball... sorta... but it lasts days) listening to school administrators and alumni talk about what the next 21 months will hold in store for us, and our evenings doing more... erhm... networking.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I've had to find time to go food shopping (for your own sanity, do not do the dollar/pound conversion in your head if you ever come to London... and especially don't do the RMB/pound conversion); set up internet in my apartment flat; register myself with the 1,000 groups, clubs, and activities I'm interested in; and answer the 1.5 billions emails received each day from the school's Portal.  To say I've been busy would be a vast understatement, and I get the feeling that our level of activity now with pale in comparison to how busy we'll be once classes begin next week.

Essay questions for entry to MBA Programme starting August 2009

The application essay questions for admission to the next Full-time MBA class (MBA2011) beginning in August 2009 have now been confirmed.They are:

Question 1 (600 words)
In what role do you see yourself working immediately after graduation?  Why?  How will your past and present experiences help you achieve this?  How will the London Business School MBA Programme contribute to this goal? Why is this the right time for you to pursue an MBA? 

Question 2 (200 words)
Where do you see your career progressing five years after graduation and what is your longer term career vision?

Question 3 (500 words)
Please describe your experience of working in and leading teams, either in your professional or personal life.  Include any specific challenges you have faced. Given this experience, what role do you think you will play in your first year study group?

Question 4 (400 words)
Student involvement is an extremely important part of the London MBA experience and this is reflected in the character of students on campus. What type of student club or campus community event s will you be involved with and why? How will you contribute?

Question 5 (150 words)
Describe any significant experiences outside of your home country. What did you gain from these?

Question 6 (300 words) (This question is optional)
Is there any other information that you believe would help the MBA Admissions Committee when considering your application?

Question 7 (300 words) (This question is for re-applicants only)
How has your candidacy for the London Business School MBA improved since your last application?

The online application form will be made live during September, but for those of you that wish to make a start on the essays, the official template can be downloaded here. Download essay_template_mba2011.doc (Word doc 260Kb).

Hello London!

Hi everyone! I just want to share what I am / will be going through during the coming 2 years in the London Business School. I have benefited so much from the School’s MBA blog when I was trying to decide which MBA program to go for, to hear what the people on the ground, i.e. we the students have to say about the School. And of course, my friends out there...as promised, I will love to share with you about my life here!

1 month ago.....

Time flies since the day I received and accepted the offer from the London Business School MBA program. In less than a month, I will be becoming a student once again! Though looking forward towards the excitement lying ahead in the MBA program, I can’t help but to have a headache with the list of things to prepare (or have just managed to strike off my “To-Do” list) before the term starts. Let’s see…student loan application (a.k.a. lots of paper work), student visa application (a.k.a. another round of paper work), accommodation hunting, financial arrangement, buying things to bring along….If that does not sound demanding enough, how about the good face-off time with my boss about leaving my current job. Well, to be honest, my wife has played a big role on these. I have come up a “To-Do” list with a targeted accomplished time for each task. She is the one that has been “monitoring” my progress (I think she enjoys the process). I think that is fun and having her to be part of my MBA preparation just gives me the kind of emotional support that one needs when facing a big change ahead.

First week in London....

My wife and I reached London on 18th August night. The border check at the Heathrow airport took some time. I was initially asked to go to the airport's health checkpoint for taking a chest X-Ray. It was lucky that the past chest X-Ray report that I brought along was deemed to be adequate and I did not need to join the queue for that.

After I settled down at the College Hall (where I am going to stay for my first year), we set off to tackle the list of action items (yeah...literally a LONG list of action items waiting for us to accomplish).

Let’s see, we visited the London Business School the next day and have all the administrative stuff sorted out pretty quickly. We were too excited to wait for the daily 2PM tour and so we started to do a bit of exploration within and around the School. The place is really lovely, plenty of space to stretch yourself after a day of hard work and of course, when the weather is good.

Next we went to do some shopping for my hostel room. Though given what has been provided in my room, I do not really need to buy much. Anyhow, we managed to grab some good bargains at places like Woolworth (thanks to the School's Survival Guide).

Oh yah, did I mention that breakfast and dinner are included for my College hall stay? The meals are up to standard and from the health point of view, I am happy with that. Anyhow, I take that as a good bargain compared to the meals found outside.

The next few days are spent visiting doctor for NHS registration, HSBC for opening bank account, police for registration, and of course, do some sightseeing in London.

Next Tuesday will be the beginning of the orientation week and I am definitely excited about it and looking forward to meet my fellow course mates. Meanwhile, take care, and watch out for this space J

p.s. One can easily configure a Windows mobile device to retrieve emails from the School's exchange server (or yahoo, gmail etc) using the wireless network freely available in the School, without using the more expensive option like the GPRS/ 3G. Was thrilled when I managed to get it working less than 15 minutes.

Final application deadline for Full-time MBA beginning in August 2008

A quick note to remind those people still considering applying for the autumn 2008 intake, that the final application deadline (Stage 4) is Friday 02 May at 17.00 (London time). If you are planning to submit in Stage 4, our advice is not to leave it right up until the last minute to submit your application.  In the hour or so before the deadline the server is EXTREMELY busy!

Although this has been another extremely competitive year in terms of the number of applications received, there are still places available in Stage 4. In order to maintain our unique international and professional diversity, a number of places are reserved for our final stage. 

Stage 4 candidates will receive notification of whether they have been selected for interview via email on 04 June 2008, and Stage 4 interviewed candidates will receive their final admission decision on 04 July.

Confirmation of receipt of documents

Upon submission of your online application you will receive official confirmation via email. Please don’t contact the Programme Office asking for confirmation of receipt of GMAT, references or transcripts. Due to the large volumes of mail that we receive during this period we cannot offer this confirmation. We advise candidates to check with their courier company as to whether the documents have been delivered.

A quick note to remind those people still considering applying for the autumn 2008 intake, that the final application deadline (Stage 4) is Friday 02 May at 17.00 (London time). If you are planning to submit in Stage 4, our advice is not to leave it right up until the last minute to submit your application.  In the hour or so before the deadline the server is EXTREMELY busy!

Although this has been another extremely competitive year in terms of the number of applications received, there are still places available in Stage 4. In order to maintain our unique international and professional diversity, a number of places are reserved for our final stage. 

Stage 4 candidates will receive notification of whether they have been selected for interview via email on 04 June 2008, and Stage 4 interviewed candidates will receive their final admission decision on 04 July.

Confirmation of receipt of documents

Upon submission of your online application you will receive official confirmation via email. Please don’t contact the Programme Office asking for confirmation of receipt of GMAT, references or transcripts. Due to the large volumes of mail that we receive during this period we cannot offer this confirmation. We advise candidates to check with their courier company as to whether the documents have been delivered.

Stage 2 Application Deadline - 04 January 2008

Happy New Year to all of the prospective MBA2010's out there!  The MBA Programme Office has now re-opened following the School closure for Christmas and New Year and we are all preparing for this Friday's Stage 2 application deadline.

We have returned to a huge pile of envelopes and courier packages that have arrived over the holiday period, and an increasing number of online application submissions.  For anyone that has contacted the office with a query over their application, we will endeavour to get back to you ASAP, although there is a slight backlog with the office having been closed.  But rest assured that we will be prioritising the urgent questions that are related to the Stage 2 deadline. 

In the meantime, here are a few answers to some of the more common questions that get asked around application deadlines.

Q. Do you require original copies of my transcripts?

- Yes. Applicants must submit an official or certified original transcript of grades from all colleges, universities and professional schools attended. These must include a comprehensive record of completed courses, grades and class of degree received and, if possible, a class ranking. If the original is not in English then you must provide a certified or notarised English translation.

The Admission Committee will not make a final offer of a place on the MBA programme until they are in receipt of the original transcripts referred to in a candidates application.

Q. Can you confirm that the School has received my letter/package/GMAT score?

- Please do not contact the Admissions Office for confirmation that your references, university transcripts, GMAT report or other supplementary materials have arrived.  We receive hundreds if not thousands of items of post during the run up to the application deadline and to confirm the receipt of these would dramatically slow the admission and reviewing process.

Once all of the packages have been opened and collated, should an application be missing any documents the candidate will be contacted by the Admissions team.

If you are concerned about the whereabouts of these materials, please first contact your courier company. If they report that the item has been delivered we will have received the package.

If you are curious as to the status of your references, this can be checked by logging into your online application account and viewing the Referee Status.

Q. My references / transcripts have been delayed and will not arrive until after the Stage 2 deadline. Will you still accept my application in Stage 2?

- If you submit your application by the Stage 2 deadline, we will accept supplementary materials that arrive during the week following this deadline.  If an item is delayed by more than 1 week your application may be moved into the following Stage so that it can be reviewed with using the full information, but you will be contacted beforehand if this is the case. If you do not hear from the Admissions team you should assume that your application is proceeding in Stage 2.

Q. What are London Business School's GMAT and TOEFL insitution codes for use when reporting my score?

GMAT = Z11-J7-50
TOEFL = 0898

Finally, if you are planning on applying for the Stage 2 application deadline please give yourself plenty of time to submit your application and try not to leave it to the last minute. Stage 2 is traditionally the largest of the 4 stages, and several hundred applicants will be working on and submitting applications in the hours and days leading up to the deadline, which can result in the server congestion. 

If you experience any difficulties in submitting your application please follow the Help links within the online application form, or contact our Information Office directly at apply.mba@london.edu or telephone +44 (0)20 7000 7500 

Good luck!

Happy New Year to all of the prospective MBA2010's out there!  The MBA Programme Office has now re-opened following the School closure for Christmas and New Year and we are all preparing for this Friday's Stage 2 application deadline.

We have returned to a huge pile of envelopes and courier packages that have arrived over the holiday period, and an increasing number of online application submissions.  For anyone that has contacted the office with a query over their application, we will endeavour to get back to you ASAP, although there is a slight backlog with the office having been closed.  But rest assured that we will be prioritising the urgent questions that are related to the Stage 2 deadline. 

In the meantime, here are a few answers to some of the more common questions that get asked around application deadlines.

Q. Do you require original copies of my transcripts?

- Yes. Applicants must submit an official or certified original transcript of grades from all colleges, universities and professional schools attended. These must include a comprehensive record of completed courses, grades and class of degree received and, if possible, a class ranking. If the original is not in English then you must provide a certified or notarised English translation.

The Admission Committee will not make a final offer of a place on the MBA programme until they are in receipt of the original transcripts referred to in a candidates application.

Q. Can you confirm that the School has received my letter/package/GMAT score?

- Please do not contact the Admissions Office for confirmation that your references, university transcripts, GMAT report or other supplementary materials have arrived.  We receive hundreds if not thousands of items of post during the run up to the application deadline and to confirm the receipt of these would dramatically slow the admission and reviewing process.

Once all of the packages have been opened and collated, should an application be missing any documents the candidate will be contacted by the Admissions team.

If you are concerned about the whereabouts of these materials, please first contact your courier company. If they report that the item has been delivered we will have received the package.

If you are curious as to the status of your references, this can be checked by logging into your online application account and viewing the Referee Status.

Q. My references / transcripts have been delayed and will not arrive until after the Stage 2 deadline. Will you still accept my application in Stage 2?

- If you submit your application by the Stage 2 deadline, we will accept supplementary materials that arrive during the week following this deadline.  If an item is delayed by more than 1 week your application may be moved into the following Stage so that it can be reviewed with using the full information, but you will be contacted beforehand if this is the case. If you do not hear from the Admissions team you should assume that your application is proceeding in Stage 2.

Q. What are London Business School's GMAT and TOEFL insitution codes for use when reporting my score?

GMAT = Z11-J7-50
TOEFL = 0898

Finally, if you are planning on applying for the Stage 2 application deadline please give yourself plenty of time to submit your application and try not to leave it to the last minute. Stage 2 is traditionally the largest of the 4 stages, and several hundred applicants will be working on and submitting applications in the hours and days leading up to the deadline, which can result in the server congestion. 

If you experience any difficulties in submitting your application please follow the Help links within the online application form, or contact our Information Office directly at apply.mba@london.edu or telephone +44 (0)20 7000 7500 

Good luck!