Sunday's schedule very kindly kicked off with breakfast at a later start of 10.30am. This is a good thing given the really full on day we had Saturday. Ladies had the option of attending the regular breakfast or the Women In Business Club's breakfast. So I picked the WIB.
WIB brunch was sponsored by BCG and was a pretty lavish affair, complete with sparkling wine. I got to meet more fellow classmates as well as current members of the WIB club. It was a great opportunity to get further insight into what we could expect from the MBA. Plus the MBA2016 student I spoke to was very forthcoming with information. The key tip I picked up was "join the Rugby Club". It seems the Rugby Club is the most social club on campus and even if you don't play, join the club anyway.
Brunch was following by a Clubs and Moving to London fair. Only a small number of clubs were present though. Apparently the Admits Weekend coincided with several treks which was why there weren't that many available...or maybe it was the lack of space? Sadly, the Australian and NZ Club was one of those absent, although you could find reps from just about every other region. LBS corporate partners providing services like real estate agents and loan companies were present at the fair too, which was quite handy for finding out more about moving to London.
We also had the opportunity to take a tour of campus, which isn't very large but reminds me of a maze of corridors inside. I've a sneaky feeling that being directionally challenged, it'll take me a bit of time to learn the "maze". There are a few cafes within the school and lots of meeting rooms. LBS comprises of the main building and across the road there is another that houses the library, the gym and the pool. We heard from the dean as well on Saturday that the school recently acquired another building which is currently under renovation and expected to be ready come Jan 2017. The current students however generally don't concur. As with all major renovations, I probably would take that January deadline with a pinch of salt.
Anyway, gym bunnies would be happy to hear that gym and pool use is free. The gym is open 24/7 but the pool has more limited hours since a lifeguard has to be present. You need to d a gym induction before you can use the gym though. As for the library, according to the librarian it has computers with free Bloomberg access including a special keyboard.
All too soon we were called back to the lecture theatre for a presentation on entrepreneurship and how LBS caters for it. The highlight was a previous student who had started up his own business around inspiring children to write talked about his experience and journey down the entrepreneurship path. It was certainly eye-opening to hear first hand about the difficulties with entrepreneurship and the opportunities he had at LBS.
The last official event of the day was a British afternoon tea...with absolutely delicious chocolate eclairs. Of course, the fun didn't have to stop there for those of us who didn't have flights to catch yet. The rugby club, soccer club, LGBT club and French club organised social activities to round off the day.
All in all it was a tremendously fun and enlightening event. The best part was meeting my future classmates. Certainly all of us left feeling really excited for August. It's definitely worth flying halfway round the world for. So to anyone considering doing the MBA at LBS, do plan to fly in May for the Admits Weekend if you can!
Showing posts with label Welcome Weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Welcome Weekend. Show all posts
Friday, 3 June 2016
Monday, 30 May 2016
Day 1 of the Weekend | LBS Admits Weekend Part 2
The London Business School Admits Weekend officially kicked off on Saturday morning with registrations and breakfast. We received a carry bag, name tags, schedules and an MBA2018 tee at registration. Unusually, breakfast was provided in little brown paper bags which reminded me of old-school packed lunches. Naturally, breakfast was also a socialising affair and a chance to meet more new classmates, some of whom had only flown in the night before, skipping the optional Friday night reception I mentioned in my previous post.
Breakfast led to welcome speeches by several key personnel and introductions to the MBA admissions team and the student ambassadors. We were split into 2 groups with different schedules. My group started with a big Q & A session regarding the MBA Program where some key questions regarding the program were answered - a detailed write up on the various components is to come.
The session was followed by an interesting lecture on the psychology of ethical decision making by Assistant Professor Daniel Effron, who has just about had qualifications from every top ivy league school. The lecture covered his findings from various studies on the concept of good "credits", which then allow people to do the occasional "bad" thing without feeling bad about themselves. For example, allowing participants to show non-prejudice behaviour shortly before resulted in more responses that could be seen as prejudiced. Assistant Professor Daniel Effron is a lecturer for Operational Sciences and I can definitely see myself taking most of the operational science electives.
We then broke for a delicious lunch (my eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach there), which was followed by a speed networking session. The concept behind the speed networking session was great with interesting questions to discuss. However with the large number of people all talking simultaneously, I found myself having to yell my conversations. It was also luck that determined whether or not you ended up meeting people whom you'd already met before or not.
After this we had a presentation by the student ambassadors, giving us more insight into the life of an MBA student. The key points I got from the presentation was then I should expect to have a really full calendar, and not to over-commit and take on too much. The fact that you really had to prioritise was emphasized over and over. Definitely good advice as the current students did say that whatever you want to do, the MBA provides opportunities in abundance.
Following this presentation, we broke up into 4 career groups - consulting, finance, entrepreneurship and other, and tech & media. The groups we were assigned to depended on what we'd selected on the registration form for the Admits Weekend. For me this was consulting and entrepreneurship. Unfortunately we only were allowed to attend 2 sessions. The sessions were also run as a Q&A rather than a presentation. It did mean though that the information gathered depended upon your questions and those of your group members. It would have been nice to have this as a combined session so we could have found out what other groups had asked - after all, you don't know what you don't know. Also it would have been nice to be able to attend all 4 sessions. In any case, I'm pretty sure we'll hear lots from career services over the next year.
The career session marked the end of the "information" part of the day - phew! We then headed to The Windsor for more socialising and to use the 2 free drink coupons we were given in the morning. A delicious BBQ in the picturesque LBS lawn was put on for dinner (more socialising and meeting new people). Then it was into the Nash Lounge for the famed Sundowners - free beer, cider and wine. Sundowners happens every Thursday and across all programs - a good chance to...yep, meet more new people :)
The day ended at 11pm, but of course there was an after party - after all, why not prolong the great fun we were having? So I found myself back in The Windsor for more socialising (yelling conversations). I did leave at a very respectable quarter past midnight though since there was still Day 2 to come.
Breakfast led to welcome speeches by several key personnel and introductions to the MBA admissions team and the student ambassadors. We were split into 2 groups with different schedules. My group started with a big Q & A session regarding the MBA Program where some key questions regarding the program were answered - a detailed write up on the various components is to come.
The session was followed by an interesting lecture on the psychology of ethical decision making by Assistant Professor Daniel Effron, who has just about had qualifications from every top ivy league school. The lecture covered his findings from various studies on the concept of good "credits", which then allow people to do the occasional "bad" thing without feeling bad about themselves. For example, allowing participants to show non-prejudice behaviour shortly before resulted in more responses that could be seen as prejudiced. Assistant Professor Daniel Effron is a lecturer for Operational Sciences and I can definitely see myself taking most of the operational science electives.
We then broke for a delicious lunch (my eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach there), which was followed by a speed networking session. The concept behind the speed networking session was great with interesting questions to discuss. However with the large number of people all talking simultaneously, I found myself having to yell my conversations. It was also luck that determined whether or not you ended up meeting people whom you'd already met before or not.
After this we had a presentation by the student ambassadors, giving us more insight into the life of an MBA student. The key points I got from the presentation was then I should expect to have a really full calendar, and not to over-commit and take on too much. The fact that you really had to prioritise was emphasized over and over. Definitely good advice as the current students did say that whatever you want to do, the MBA provides opportunities in abundance.
Following this presentation, we broke up into 4 career groups - consulting, finance, entrepreneurship and other, and tech & media. The groups we were assigned to depended on what we'd selected on the registration form for the Admits Weekend. For me this was consulting and entrepreneurship. Unfortunately we only were allowed to attend 2 sessions. The sessions were also run as a Q&A rather than a presentation. It did mean though that the information gathered depended upon your questions and those of your group members. It would have been nice to have this as a combined session so we could have found out what other groups had asked - after all, you don't know what you don't know. Also it would have been nice to be able to attend all 4 sessions. In any case, I'm pretty sure we'll hear lots from career services over the next year.
The career session marked the end of the "information" part of the day - phew! We then headed to The Windsor for more socialising and to use the 2 free drink coupons we were given in the morning. A delicious BBQ in the picturesque LBS lawn was put on for dinner (more socialising and meeting new people). Then it was into the Nash Lounge for the famed Sundowners - free beer, cider and wine. Sundowners happens every Thursday and across all programs - a good chance to...yep, meet more new people :)
The day ended at 11pm, but of course there was an after party - after all, why not prolong the great fun we were having? So I found myself back in The Windsor for more socialising (yelling conversations). I did leave at a very respectable quarter past midnight though since there was still Day 2 to come.
Tuesday, 24 May 2016
Overview | LBS Admits Weekend Part 1
I recently returned from attending the London Business School Admits Weekend held last week. Let me just say upfront - for those who are planning to apply for the MBA programme at LBS in future, you really don't want to miss the May Admits Weekend! It's part of the whole amazing MBA experience at LBS and is worth every penny and km of travel...at least that's how I felt. So I'm really glad I flew halfway around the world to attend it as I would have been kicking myself otherwise :)
I'll be doing a bit of a series regarding the event, including all the very useful information about the MBA programme itself that I can recall from the event - answers by the program team & current students. It should hopefully provide some helpful information for anyone researching the LBS MBA program and current admits who missed the event.
A bit of a run down on what I did in London last week leading up to the event:
Sunday
Next up is a detailed post on the first official day of the Admits Weekend :)
I'll be doing a bit of a series regarding the event, including all the very useful information about the MBA programme itself that I can recall from the event - answers by the program team & current students. It should hopefully provide some helpful information for anyone researching the LBS MBA program and current admits who missed the event.
A bit of a run down on what I did in London last week leading up to the event:
Sunday
- Arrived in London mid afternoon completely exhausted from over 14 hours of flying from Singapore. Couldn't sleep a wink on the flights so I'd gone almost 48 hours without sleep due to the time difference.
- Managed to last till 8.30pm London time before I fell asleep mid conversation with the mate kindly hosting me. I tried very hard to stay up to a decent hour to minimise jet lag.
- Woke up at 7.30am London time ~ yay not really jet lagged!
- Planned to get a UK SIM so I could get data connection rather than using auto roaming - made sense to just get one now since I'd be moving to London later anyway. As I was staying in East London not far from Stratford, I headed out to explore Stratford and the huge Westfield Mall there that was developed for the London Olympics. I'm also a Westfield stockholder so I figured it would be nice to see one of my investments in person ;)
- Spent the day wandering about Stratford, visited 4 different supermarkets and picked up my SIM before heading back for dinner with my mates.
- Woke up early too but felt kinda lazy and tired. Considered going to town briefly but didn't feel up to it.
- Spent the day instead exploring Canning Town and er...the supermarket >.<
- Headed back earlier for another night of good home cooked dinner and interesting conversation spanning risk management, London real estate, Michelin star restaurants and politics.
- Woke up early again and the weather was pretty lousy. Had a mid-morning nap while waiting for the rain to stop so I could go out :p
- Headed to central London to check out the Museum of London. I love how most of London's museums are free. Interesting fact: in excavating to build the Crossrail line, they discovered a tradition Maori weapon artefact. Seems NZ has followed me to London ;)
- Headed to the National Portrait Gallery to escape the rain. The Tudor gallery is highly recommended!
- Met an old schoolmate for dinner in Covent Garden
- Met up with another MBA admit for lunch and to wander around Paddington/Little Venice in the afternoon. We'd arranged it via WhatsApp.
- Around 40 of us who were already in London then met up at a rooftop bar (very pretty views and highly popular with the professionals) for some pre-Admits Weekend socialising. This was followed by taking over another bar (much cheaper drinks) and then splitting up to have a very late dinner. Met amazing people and marvelled over the background diversity.
- Some of the group headed out clubbing afterwards. Was getting late and felt bad if I got back really late and woke my kind hosts up, so headed home with people going in the same direction to arrive at midnight.
- Met up with new friends from last night for drinks in afternoon...and met a few more new people
- Wandered around the area before heading to a pub near the LBS welcome reception venue in Shoreditch.
- Met more new people at the very packed pub and had very loud conversations over the din. Did not make time to have dinner - big mistake
- Headed to the LBS welcome reception starving. Good thing there were nibbles but unfortunately they were nibbles.
- It was a massive turnout with current student ambassadors. Met even more new amazing people and had more very loud conversations over everyone else's very loud conversations. Repeated where I was from, what I did, what I wanted to do over and over and over...you get used to it.
- Had an amazing time but passed on the post event clubbing/partying as I wanted to be awake for the full on Admits Weekend day.
Next up is a detailed post on the first official day of the Admits Weekend :)
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