In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast, host Harold Simansky and Gatehouse Founder Liza Weale speak with Clyde Anderson, CEO of GrowthFactor and an MIT Sloan alumnus, about what the Sloan experience can offer applicants who want to build, explore, and learn by doing. After four years in the finance world, Clyde decided to revive his interest in business school. Although he had an interest in entrepreneurship, he had no fixed startup plan. Liza encouraged him to apply to MIT Sloan because she saw that he was eager to learn and ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work.
As you consider the next application season, what kind of strategy do you have in mind? More than a few candidates, having likely read about the supposed advantages of applying in Round 1 on various Web sites and discussion boards, plan to submit all their applications in that first round—with the idea that if no acceptances are forthcoming, they will just submit another set of applications in Round 2. If this is your plan, we would like to explain why it is probably not your best course of action.
If you are interested in attending a top MBA program in Europe, you have likely identified the top two programs that are consistently considered the region’s most prestigious—and most selective: London Business School (LBS) and INSEAD.
So how do these programs compare to one another? And what factors should you consider if you are researching these two schools?
In this post, we will take a deep dive into the similarities and differences between LBS and INSEAD.
As you get ready to tackle your business school applications, you might be wondering, What is the best way for me to research my target MBA programs? For schools that are in your city or within a relatively short distance, you should plan to attend in-person info sessions, class tours, and campus visits. Conducting this sort of research is essential to delivering a strong application. Just think about all those “Why our program?” essays. Perhaps even more importantly, visiting a school and seeing it firsthand can help you determine whether it is right for you.
Yale School of Management (SOM) is one of the few top MBA programs that give candidates just one required application essay with which to make an impression on the admissions committee. The school offers applicants a choice of three topics to, as the committee states, “ensure that you’re able to write about something important to you.” Applicants can expound on a meaningful commitment they have made and its underlying impetus and meaning, discuss a particularly significant community involvement, or describe a major challenge they have faced. The essay has a 500-word maximum, so you need to be clear, direct, and rather succinct in your response, without much preamble or extraneous text. If you feel your primary essay does not allow you to share an aspect of your profile that you believe is particularly important or compelling, or if you have an issue in your candidacy that would benefit from further explication, you can use the “optional information” space to fill in the blanks. Our full analysis of the school’s essay prompts for 2026–2027 follows.
A first-of-its-kind, on-demand MBA application experience that delivers a personalized curriculum for you and leverages interactive tools to guide you through the entire MBA application process.
