London Business School's application is the worst. First, there are TWO ways you can apply online and from the boards it seems like one of them has the option for an optional essay and the other doesn't ! And the third way is to send all materials by snail mail.

ALL recommendations are to be typed/written and mailed to them. One of my recommenders was willing to give me one at short notice but gave me the look when I told him it was a paper one. Now, you'd think a school with TWO online applications for the same program could squeeze online recommendations into at least one system. Nope. I think it might not be because they won't, maybe it's because they can't. It's a matter of using technology, you see.

There are passing references to transcripts - they are required but how do we get it to them ? The web page says official transcripts are required. The application does not talk about them at all and lists only a couple of documents that need to be mailed in. I could not find a mailing address anyplace for the transcripts.

So, I assumed they can be mailed along with the recos. Finding a mailing address for those was such a pain too. I downloaded the entire paper application, now if that has to be mailed there should be a mailing address in there right. No Siree Bob. Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I shouldn't need a magnifying glass to do so. I finally found one somewhere in the online app. But that looks a little suspect - MBA Marketing and Admissions Team. If the marketing dudes are also doing admissions ...

Oh, and one more thing. No mention of what time the application is due, only a date. Don't they realize that the PowerYogis of the world operate at a much finer granularity :-)

Sorry, London. Despite what I say here, I really really love you very much. Read my essays.