Best business schools: How the dean of LBS assesses MBA candidates

Francois
Ortalo-Magne, pictured, values curiosity.
Courtesy of Francois Ortalo Magne

• One of the best business
  schools in the world is London Business School.
• Dean François Ortalo-Magné said he values curiosity and
  humility in prospective students. So he pays special attention
  to students’ willingness to ask questions.
• Other MBA admissions executives say they also want to
  see a student who is confident but still humble.

“There are people who have answers,” said François Ortalo-Magné,
“and there are people who have questions.”

Guess which type of person he prefers?

Ortalo-Magné is the dean of London Business School, which,
according to education specialists
QS Quacquarelli Symonds, is the
No. 4 business school in the world. He told Business Insider
that, when speaking with prospective students, he pays special
attention to their willingness to ask questions.

“The more curious people don’t have so many answers,”
Ortalo-Magné said. On the other hand, less curious people “know
what they want. So they meet the dean and they are really keen to
convey what is it that they know.”

There’s nothing inherently wrong with prospective students who
flaunt how much they know. “I respect that,” he said. “It’s just
we are a much better community for people who come with
curiosity.”

Ortalo-Magné said there are a few traits he values in applicants
(though he noted that he doesn’t read applications) and wants to
cultivate in students: humility, generosity, openness, and
curiosity.

He is hardly the only business-school leader to prize these
traits — especially humility.

“Humility is the magic word,” Dee Leopold, then the director of
admissions at Harvard Business School, told
Forbes in 2011. “It is a quality that is not diametrically
opposed to confidence.” Leopold said that, in their written
applications, applicants should be honest and clear above all.

Stephanie Fujii, then the director of admissions at
Berkeley-Haas,
told Forbes, “A candidate who can express his or her
achievements and potential without being boastful, and can
reflect on both successes and failures with humility and
awareness is more likely to be admitted and more likely to thrive
in our program.”

Meanwhile, Kari Graham, the former director of graduate
admissions at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of
Business (she’s currently the director of graduate student
services), told
US News & World Report in 2017 that some of the most
memorable interviews she’s held are those in which applicants
described what they learned from their mistakes.

If you want to go to a top business school, you have to be
willing to learn.