The Lowdown on London Business School

LBS representatives recently participated in an online chat about diversity, admissions, work experience expectations, and other issues

David Simpson
London Business School

Manish Gajria

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London Business School offers one of the top MBA programs in Europe. If you're thinking of going to graduate school outside of the U.S., it might be at the top of your list of possibilities. Recently potential applicants signed on to a live chat event with David Simpson (DavidLBS), acting associate dean for the full-time MBA program at LBS, and LBS student Manish Gajria (ManishLBS). The session was moderated by BusinessWeek reporter Francesca Di Meglio (FrancescaBW). Here is an edited transcript of the event:

FrancescaBW: Many of our readers wrote in with questions prior to today's event. Here's one of them. Could you please share the percentage of students from India and with work experience in IT?

DavidLBS: It's not really valuable to give percentages of students from any particular background because the class diversity changes every year. Like most schools, [London] has seen an increase in applications from Indian IT professionals, but that is representative of global employment trends.

ManishLBS: As someone with a background in engineering, I must admit that "IT" is a very loosely used term. As an applicant, I think it is best not to focus too much on the generic background and bring out specific elements of your educational and professional experience that will help your application.

FrancescaBW: Here's another question from an audience member who couldn't attend today's chat: I'm currently pursuing my fourth year of [school] in a well-known engineering college in India, and I am willing to take the GMAT in August, 2008. I'm planning to work for two years after graduation and then do an MBA. Will LBS consider my 2008 GMAT score as a valid score in 2011? Or do I need to take the test again?

DavidLBS: I'm glad to see that you are planning to apply in a few years when you have some significant relevant work experience. Your GMAT is valid for five years, so you should be fine.

Let me add that there is no official minimum requirement [for work experience], but we expect a lot from every individual in the program. Can you really contribute enough if you have little to refer back to? By experience we mean your professional experience gained after undergraduate level, but we also take time to read about any internships you might have undertaken. People develop the attributes we're looking for at different paces, often depending on how much room they have to grow in their roles.

Certain roles with particular companies will give you a greater depth and variety of experience in three years than seven years elsewhere might offer. Our current class average is around five years, and the full range two to 13 years. If you are at the lower end of the scale, you need to prove to us that you can offer value to your peers who joined the London Business School MBA knowing that much of the learning comes from each other.

FrancescaBW: In the meantime, here is another question—Are there any health-care related courses available in the LBS curriculum?

DavidLBS: While we do not have an academic specialization in health-care management, I think it's far more important to give you a more rounded education and set of experiences that you can use across sectors. Most people do not remain in any one industry for their whole career these days. Manish, I'll leave it to you to talk about your classmates from that sector and all the amazing club activity that takes place on campus.

ManishLBS: The school has an active health-care club, which organizes plenty of events through the year related to the industry. I have quite a few doctors and health-care consultants in my class. I also know that a sizeable number of students have chosen to work in the health-care industry (consulting, biotech, pharmaceutical) post-MBA and as summer interns.