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Like many business schools, London Business School (LBS) is receiving an increasing number of applications for the 2008-2009 school year. Applicants to LBS recognize the advantages of studying in London, a center of world finance and business, and many are interested in not only learning from a highly knowledgeable faculty, but also surrounding themselves with students who have significant professional experience. The LBS program lasts between 15 and 21 months, during which time the school offers a broad range of academic and professional opportunities.

For applicants to LBS, it is important to consider that LBS places a great deal of weight on work experience. Getting in to LBS without any significant work experience, e.g. straight from college, is quite unlikely. It seems from a recent chat on Business Week with David Simpson of the Admissions team at LBS that 2 years is almost a minimum for admitted students. One reason for this is that LBS is interested in business people who have not only worked for companies, but also led teams or managed projects. These students then have their own valuable experiences to share in the classroom so that they can learn from each other’s past successes and stumbles. Since gaining such insights takes time, LBS generally admits students with around five years of work experience. When they evaluate applicants, their number one interest is to develop an understanding of what the applicant has done professionally beyond academics and extracurricular activities. Therefore, those applying to LBS should have a solid base of professional experiences to drawn on and to delineate in their application.

However, work alone is not the only key to LBS admission. The school also seeks high GMAT scores, a median of 690, and strives for diverse international representation in each class.

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GMAT test takers in the Middle East make up approximately 2.7 % of GMAT test takers worldwide. This region manifests interesting trends in MBA education.

1. Excepting Israel, business schools in the Middle East are receiving increased percentages of applications from students living in the region, which is in line with the worldwide trend of more applicants seeking acceptance from schools located in the region in which the students live.
2. The percentage of students in the Middle East that chooses to apply to the United States for graduate management education is lower than in other world regions. Instead, Middle Eastern students tend to seek acceptance in countries like the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Does this say anything larger about the state of openness within and outside the region? Or does it rather suggest that the Middle East, like the rest of the world, is simply moving toward more regionally-based education? At the moment, we cannot be certain. Future statistics may shed more light on these questions.

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Though the United States remains the overall region most preferred by outsiders for business school study, one interesting trend has developed among applicants outside of the US – More and more of them are attending institutions within their region.

In 2007 the United States accounted for approximately 65% of GMAT test takers by residence. Only 1-2% of those test takers applied for schools outside of the US despite some small increases in application numbers. In other words, business schools outside of the US have not yet proven successful at attracting this large US-based applicant pool.

Globally business schools seem to be successfully attracting applicants from their own region. Europeans are attending European business schools. Asians are attending Asian business schools. As stated above, Americans are attending American business schools. Canadians are attending Canadian business schools, and the list goes on. In Europe, the United Kingdom, France and Spain have become increasingly attractive options for Europeans—leading some to stay in their region rather than apply, for example, to the United States.

The overall trend may be due, especially for Asian schools, to

1. the increased difficulty to attain student visas to countries such as the United States,
2. the cost, a leading consideration for MBA applicants,
3. the desire to stay closer to home,
4. more relevance between program content and local business environment and networks, and
5. the likely factor that institutions in all regions of the world are gaining prestige and international recognition as well as increasing in numbers.

One notable exception to this trend is Latin America, where applicants continue to prefer non-regionally located business schools for study.

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Another recent study conducted by GMAC examined the accuracy or validity of the GMAT as an indicator of success in PhD programs in management.

The need for such a study arises from the increased pressure to know whether or not standardized tests are useful indicators of success. Tests, such as the SAT, have recently been under a great deal of scrutiny. Accusations have been made by parents and the media that the SAT in particular privileges certain groups of students. The GMAT, not unlike other standardized tests, has recently been under pressure to demonstrate whether it is indeed a factor that should be granted so much weight in graduate management educational admissions decisions.

The recent study based on data provided by US PhD programs and PhD students themselves indicates overall that the GMAT is a useful predictor of first-year success in PhD programs. Data even suggests a greater correlation between first-year success and GMAT results than first-year success and undergraduate grade point average. The study of the performance of non-native English speakers on the GMAT, in particular, the Verbal and Writing Assessment sections of the test, display a clear association between scores and success in their programs.

These results are helpful in acknowledging the usefulness of the GMAT as an indicator of success to admissions committees. However, the results are not conclusive. Further inquiries into correlations between success and GMAT are necessary. As the GMAC maintains, these results in the study are relevant only to PhD students in management programs, a unique and small subgroup of GMAT test takers.

The above discussions are based on the GMAC research report written by Kara O. Siegert, “Predicting Success in Graduate Management Doctoral Programs,” as of 12 July 2007.

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