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Location
Although Software Engineer was the most lucrative job at Cambridge, the top performing company at Cambridgeshire was the Pharma Giant -AstraZeneca PLC that relocated to the University town at the strategic Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC). The MedImmune wing of the company already employs over 2,000 clinicians and scientific team in the city, but with the relocation, the company seeks to utilize the rich scientific heritage of the university.
Recently, the city gained renewed interest with the influx of Tech Giants – Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, to host the next generation technologies – AI and Driverless cars. Along with the giants, smaller tech firms has pushed the total value of the cluster to over £2.1bn – a 30% year on year growth and employing over 30,000 people. Traditionally known for agriculture-related products and services, Cambridge is diversifying into Aerospace & Defense, Pharma, and Technology – reflecting the larger UK trends.
London, on the other hand, is the #1 Financial capital of the world. After four years of stagnant growth (0.9%), the Financial Services industry experienced an unprecedented 15.8% growth to reach export targets of £95.7bn. When the world was doubting UK's role in the Global Economy following Brexit, the FinTech investors was beyond optimistic in 2017 with the UK Financial Technology companies receiving over £1.8 billion in VC funds - a 153% year on year growth. 
The sub-sectors within FinTech to see the most traction was in Digital Banks, Foreign Exchange Providers, and Money Transfer operators that attracted 45% of all the investments. London was the focal point attracting 90% of the total investments in the sector.
Asset Management and FinTech were the two most promising career paths in London, both earning MBA candidates over £100,000 with performance and sign-on bonuses. Management Consultants serving the Technology and Financial services industry also crossed the £100k total compensation. However, when you list the top 10 companies originating from London, the spread of the industry is as diverse as banking, pharma, insurance, communication, petroleum, and mining.
For Complete Analysis of Top Industries in the UK, Download MBA in the UK (2018) - Industry Analysis (PDF)
Class Profile
London Business School MBA program offers the flexibility of three schedules – the 15-month/18 or the 21-month MBA program with the longer duration, offering internship opportunity. Those who would like to switch careers should consider the longer term while those who want to continue in the current industry but switch within it to niche sub-industries like FinTech, should choose the shorter duration.
The average years of experience and age are similar in the two MBA programs. However, Cambridge is chosen by candidates with relatively more experience.
Based on the international students in the class (91%) and the nationalities represented (63), London Business School has more diversity.
The entry criteria are stricter on the GMAT front at LBS with 708 while at Cambridge the mean is at 696. The GPA is more lenient at LBS although the average falls in the 3.4 to 3.6 range. Cambridge MBA team has not published the range, but we noticed that applicants with a greater shot at Scholarships at Cambridge MBA have a GPA of over 3.7
Class Size: LBS MBA > Cambridge MBA
Nationalities: LBS MBA > Cambridge MBA
Average GMAT: LBS MBA > Cambridge MBA
Female Candidates: Both the MBA programs have an equal percentage of female candidates at (39%) with Cambridge increasing the intake by 6% in just a year.
Note: Entry Criteria is the first roadblock that you have to consider for getting into Cambridge or LBS MBA, but if your GMAT score is above the class average by 30-50 points, admission chances depend on what relevant life stories you capture in the essay. Share your profile summary here and start a conversation with us. We will improve your admission chances for LBS or Cambridge MBA.
Pre-MBA Industry
Switching industries is extremely tough in shorter MBA program unless you can leverage all the opportunities offered in the curriculum (experiential learning and internships). That is one reason you see a large percentage from the Finance industry (26 to 27%) in both the program – a group that tends to be career enhancers.
Consulting is another industry that has experienced net positive migration.
Technologists and Software Engineers targeting London Business School MBA program should be aware of the low percentage from the industry. The program places 67% in Finance and Consulting – both requiring specialist skills and personality traits that are vital for success (analytical – Finance and probing & extroversion – Consulting). Candidates from Technology are stereotyped as introverts with limited cross-domain knowledge.
Note: Pre-MBA industry representation should have given you a realistic perspective on your admission chances. A low percentage (less than 10%) from your industry should not discourage you but help you develop a strategy to approach the admission process. We can help you. Start here
Pre-MBA Industry (Consulting): LBS MBA > Cambridge MBA
Pre-MBA Industry (Finance): Cambridge MBA > LBS MBA
Pre-MBA Industry (Public sector/Non-Profit): Cambridge MBA > LBS MBA
Cost
LBS MBA program is offered in 15-month, 18-month or 21-month duration. We have calculated the cost for the 15-month program for a Single person, for a scenario where the student opts for a single bedroom private apartment outside London City Centre at £1,180 per month.
The largest component of the expense apart from the tuition fee is the Lodging with the stay in the city center crossing £1600 per month. The tuition fee at London Business School is one of the highest in the world at £78,500 or $109,450 regardless of the program length you choose.
Although the tuition fee is the largest element of the cost, compared to London Business School, the fee is £25,000 lighter on the purse. The total cost for the 12-month Cambridge MBA can range from £66,550 to £77,500, depending on the family status.
The Cambridge MBA program provides in-college accommodation with shared facilities, helping candidates reduce their lodging cost by 1/3rd. For those who want privacy or have a family accommodation, the cost can go upwards of £9,500.
Total Cost: Cambridge MBA < LBS MBA
Lodging Cost: Cambridge MBA < LBS MBA
Tuition Fee: LBS MBA > Cambridge MBA
Note on Cost (London): Keep in mind that, excluding rent, the average expense per person is £9,072 in London and can run up to £32,604, for a family of four.
Reference
MBA in the UK (2018) - Industry Analysis, MBA Comparison and Funding (PDF)
Top 25 Companies Based in London
Top 100 companies in Cambridgeshire revealed
LBS MBA
Cambridge MBA
Business School
Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays
F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.
+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)
+ Top 15 MBA Programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Yale, Haas, Darden, INSEAD, LBS, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Ross)
+ The Art of Storytelling
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
Want to try the individual school Essay Guides before upgrading to the Winning MBA Essay Guide? Try below.
F1GMAT's Essay Guides
Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)- Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
- Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
- Darden MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
- NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
- LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
- MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
- Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
- Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
- Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
- Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
- Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
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