109
Finance
Ops/Logistics
Sponsored
LBS
EMBA-P/T
Admission Experience
Matriculating school: London Business School (Part-time Executive MBA)
Professional background: Japanese financial institution, 8 years / company-sponsored study abroad
GMAT: 620
IELTS: 7.5
I was working overseas at a Japanese financial institution and, as a company-sponsored candidate, challenged myself to apply to a so-called part-time MBA program. A senior manager at my company who already held an MBA had also used Round One for his own studies and introduced me accordingly, and I received tremendous support from Mr. Round and his sister, Emma.
I passed my company’s internal selection process at the end of January, which meant that I had to complete applications and admissions processes by July at the latest in order to enroll in September—a very demanding six-month period. Thanks to the many words of encouragement from Mr. Round and Emma, as well as their timely and appropriate advice at each stage, I was ultimately able to gain admission to my first-choice school, London Business School.
My first counseling session with Mr. Round took place toward the end of February. Although the initial session lasted less than an hour, we discussed and confirmed my progress with English and GMAT preparation, the selection of recommenders and target schools, and how we would proceed with counseling going forward, all via Skype. What truly opened my eyes at this stage was the follow-up feedback from Mr. Round. In an email, he carefully documented everything we discussed during the session, along with additional explanations. Having all communications preserved in writing made it extremely convenient to review details later. In addition, with so many tasks at hand—English, GMAT, essays, and recommendation letters—his guidance on prioritization, allocation of study time, and even drafting emails to admissions offices was immensely helpful.
Essay counseling was handled by Emma. What struck me most during this process was her highly professional ability to refine my drafts into concise and compelling prose, as well as her remarkable speed in always producing clear outputs within very limited timeframes. Creating essays with strong persuasive power for MBA admissions is something I do not believe I could have achieved on my own. Each time I reread an essay that Emma had refined, I found myself repeatedly amazed by the expressions and structure—even though it was about my own story. Thanks to this, I was able to focus my own efforts on generating ideas for essays, while simultaneously pushing forward with GMAT preparation, enabling me to overcome an extremely tough period of parallel demands.
The aspect of interview training that left the strongest impression on me was the development of “killer questions” based on Mr. Round’s advice. During the actual interview, when I was able to respond exactly as prepared to follow-up questions from the interviewer on one of these killer questions, I felt both a sense of joy and deep admiration for Mr. Round’s interview expertise. Beyond this symbolic episode, another particularly valuable component was the exceptionally detailed and accurate feedback on mock interviews. For a roughly 30-minute mock interview, the feedback extended to approximately nine A4 pages, covering every part of what I said, as well as my demeanor and tone of voice during the interview. The level of detail and the clear direction for improvement were of extremely high quality and very satisfying.
As described above, every aspect of Round One’s services was of outstanding quality and deeply satisfying, and I firmly believe that this result would not have been possible without the dedicated support of these two counselors. Through this application journey, I was also deeply impressed by the positive and warm personalities of Mr. Round and Emma. Thanks to their many encouraging words, I was able to maintain my motivation throughout the entire six-month process, for which I am truly grateful.
I would like to conclude by wishing that MBA applicants who read this account will choose Round One as their partner and successfully gain admission to their target schools.
