How to apply

You may apply at any of the application deadlines indicated in the admissions calendar. Your admissions journey is staged, but the Admissions Committee reserves the right to communicate decisions outside of these application deadlines with you. Our calendar indicates when you will receive a review decision from us, and the period we will be conducting interviews; as well as the final decision date.

If you apply between August 1st to September 30th, your application will be processed on an Early Application, rolling basis in advance of the first deadline. Our initial decision will be communicated within four weeks of receiving a complete application, and in most cases, you will receive a final decision within six to eight weeks of submitting your final application. This process also applies outside of our final deadline, from May 1st 2019, where you will be considered on a Late Application, rolling basis.

The same selection criteria are applied throughout the admissions cycle, but competition is often intense in the final months and we recommend you apply as early as possible as places are filled on a first come, first serve basis. Priority for Scholarships will be given to those who apply by the March deadline.

The deadlines for the 2019 intake (MiM2020 class) are:

The Admissions Team will be conducting several interview trips to China in December 2018 and February 2019, we strongly encourage applicants in the region to submit their applications for the advertised deadlines in November and January, in order to be considered for the interview trips.

* Anticipated travel dates for the first China trip are: Wednesday 5th December - Thursday 13th December

** Anticipated travel dates for the second China trip are: Friday 22nd February - Friday 1st March

Late applications may be considered but are not guaranteed, and you are advised to have completed an application as soon as possible after our final deadline.

Priority will be given to candidates who have applied on or before the March deadline for Scholarship consideration.

The application form is designed to be completed over several sessions. You can save your work as you go and submit the completed form at any time ahead of the final admissions deadline.

Application essays are your opportunity to tell us more about yourself and detail your interests, values and goals. We are interested in what motivates you, evidence of leadership and team work, why you are looking to pursue a Masters in Management and what you will bring to the LBS community.

Essays are a vital part of your application and we recommend that you spend a significant amount of time in their preparation. They must be specific to the current application and personal statements will not be accepted in lieu of the essays.

Take a look at our admissions blog on tips for submitting strong essays.

Candidates must take either the GMAT or GRE prior to submitting an application. If you have not received your official score report when submitting your application we do accept the unofficial score report as evidence of your GMAT/GRE. While we do not require a minimum score, we recommend candidates to apply with a GMAT score of 600 or above.

Practice the GMAT test with London Business School's GMAT simulator and prepare yourself for the test.

Our institution codes are:

GMAT = Z11-J7-40

GRE = 3805

We do offer GMAT/GRE waivers to exceptional candidates. For eligibility requirements please check the FAQs.

Why take GMAT / GRE?

The GMAT / GRE test are important tools allowing the Admissions Committee to assess a candidate’s aptitude for graduate management study. With candidates coming from different undergraduate study disciplines and education systems from around the world, these tests give the Committee an indication of a candidate’s potential to succeed academically.

We recommend that you use our CV template however you can submit a CV of your own formatting. Follow the instructions within the online application form to attach the document to your application.

You will be required to submit the names and details of two referees - Preferably one academic and one professional - in the online system. Ensure that you select individuals who know you well and who can provide specific feedback on their interactions with you either inside of the classroom or in the workplace.

If English is not your native language, or if you have not been studying fully in English or living in an English-speaking country for at least two years, please submit your IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge CPE, CAE or PTE Academic score. Other tests will not be accepted.We do not require a hard copy of your score report at the application stage and will verify your test score during the admissions process. Please make London Business School the score recipient to your test score so we are able to verify your scores electronically.

Download proving your English language ability (PDF, 100 KB) for guidance on accepted scores.

A (non-refundable) £95 for the programme beginning August 2019. Payable online by credit card upon submission of your application. Your application will remain incomplete and will not be reviewed until the correct fee is received. An application fee waiver is available to graduates of the University of London upon production of your degree transcript.

Transcripts should include a comprehensive record of completed courses, grades and class of degree received and, if possible, class ranking. If your transcript is not in English you must provide a certified or notarised English translation.

If you have not yet completed your degree you will need to request a transcript that is current at the time of applying. Admitted students will be required to provide original copies prior to the programme starting.

• You must submit all required documents, including essays, GMAT/GRE, references, transcript(s) and application fee before the Admissions Committee can consider your application. If anything is missing from your application you may be notified by the Admissions Team and given a deadline to submit this information. If this deadline is not met, the Committee will review your application, and the decision to take your application to the next stage will be made on the basis of the information submitted.
• Please note your application submission date is determined by when your application is complete and your application should be complete for the relevant stage deadline. The Admissions Committee reserves the right to make a decision on any submitted application; it is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure their application is complete at the time of submission.
• Once you have submitted your application you will receive via email an auto response confirming receipt of your application. The auto response will include important information about next steps, including paying the application fee, submitting additional documentation, as well as further details of the interviewing process, please do ensure you read this carefully.
• We will also contact you should you have completed, or be completing a similar overlapping Masters Programme, as we will not accept candidates with the same Masters Degree study background as the programme that you are applying for at LBS. We will explore alternatives in our portfolio with you if you are ineligible.

• All decisions are communicated via email. We are not able to discuss a candidate's decision over the phone, or with anyone other than the applicant. We will contact you directly should any document or information be missing. Please note all decisions are final.

A decision will be made to invite you to interview based on your initial application review. If you are located in the UK, you will be asked to travel to London Business School to conduct an interview with a member of our Admissions Team or alumni community.

Please note that if you are located in Europe, you should indicate your top three nearest/preferred interview cities and we will endeavour to connect you with alumni in your region, if this is not possible you may be asked to travel to London or offered Skype as an alternative interview method.

In cases where candidates are unable to travel to London, interviews will be conducted by members of our alumni community. Please note interviews conducted by alumni may take longer to coordinate, and the scheduling of your interview will not affect your application. 

In some cases a Skype interview may be conducted when a face-to-face meeting is not possible, however, the majority of interviews will be conducted in person on or off campus, with alumni or staff.

Please note both the Admissions Team and alumni utilise the same interview process, and the Admissions Committee will employ the same assessment regardless of the interviewer (staff or alumni) or location. Who you interview with and where will not have any impact on the outcome of your application.

We operate a waitlist system and waitlisted applicants are invited to engage with us via Kira, a video interview platform, to further assess your candidacy.

Each year a number of waitlist candidates are successful in getting a place on the programme, and we will set regular updates to evaluate your candidacy.