Study in the UK | The World’s Top 100 University Application Guide on Marketing Master and MBA programs: Imperial College London, LSE, King’s College London, The University Of Edinburgh, The University Of Manchester, University of Bristol, University of Glasgow, Durham University

16 min readMar 5, 2020

I have always wanted to live abroad, especially in Europe or the U.S., but visa and eligibility to stay in a foreign country have been the main issues to tackle when it comes to long-term relocation. It was not until 2017 have I figured studying could be an option since I was quite reluctant to do research and write a thesis at first.

My ultimate goal is to find a job to support myself to live abroad for a longer period, and instead of marrying someone (jk) or directly apply for a job without any foundation, I think studying is a more secure and manageable option. On top of that, to avoid too much theory in courses, all of the programs I applied for are more practical and career-oriented.

Without further ado, I would like to start by introducing my background a little bit to give a better idea of the WHO.

Obtained undergrad degree in a second-tier university in Taiwan
Double BA degree in Foreign Language and Literature AND Communication
GPA 3.94
2 internships：well-known Taiwanese tech company, Radio Station
2 part-time jobs：English tutor, the staff at a Cafe
2 full-time jobs：5 years experience(4 years when I started to apply for schools) in Taiwanese top manufacturer & Chinese Internet company as marketer and PR
2 side projects：half a year，digital/eCommerce marketing consultant
IELTS：L 8.5 / S 7.5 / R 8.5 / W 6 .5

Overall Result：

Received offer: 5
Imperial College London． MSc Strategic Marketing
University of Manchester．MSc Marketing
University of Bristol．MSc Management (Marketing)
University of Durham．MBA (15 months)
University of Durham．MSc Marketing
Reserved List: 1
LSE+USC．MSc Global Media and Communications
Rejected: 4
King’s College London． International Marketing MSc
University of Edinburgh．MBA
University of Edinburgh．MSc Marketing
University of Glasgow．MBA

However, before we dive into the HOW, I think the most important thing of all is to KNOW YOURSELF and the PROGRAMS that you are applying for. Take me as an example,

|Know Yourself|

Why do you need a master/MBA？

Increase Visibility：The university I attended in Taiwan is reckoned to be in tier 2, ranking #800-1000 worldwide. It was a decent educational background if I stay and work in Taiwan; however, I knew it wasn’t enough to be visible internationally. To make the best use of my time, interest and ability, I managed to double major in Foreign Language and Literature AND Communication. This decision was tough and time-consuming, but it helped when I started to seek my first job — it got me a higher salary base in the first place. Nevertheless, as time goes on, only when you unrelentingly strive for excellence and show unflinching perseverance can you stay competitive and be seen in this fast-moving world. So I decided to aim for the world’s top 100 reputable universities to increase my visibility.
Job Promotion：After working for 4 years, I started to feel like hitting the career ceiling. Instead of passively waiting for a change, I decided to be the change. I was working in MarTech since my internship 7 years ago, and I am confident of and familiar with execution. However, I learned everything along the way through trial and error. I feel like there was never an authentic marketing role model or a solid cornerstone that I can follow. Therefore, obtaining a higher education degree like a Master’s or MBA from top schools after working for a while could help break the bottlenecks in my opinion.
Overseas Working/Living Experience：Most of my close friends and colleagues went abroad right after graduating from college. I envy the fact that they have achieved their goals years ago and are happy with where they are now in terms of location and position. But I wasn’t financially sufficient enough to do so, and I didn't’ see the necessity back then. Sadly, after a few years of working in Taiwan, I didn’t see much improvement in the labor environment — long hours and low pay were quite disheartening. On the other hand, places that have better economics and working conditions like the UK and the U.S. are being rather protective of locals and hostile to foreign laborers in a sense. Hence, getting a working permit through an academic path sounds like a safer approach at the time.

Why are you eligible?

Financial Conditions Permits: Part of the reasons why I only started to have the idea to study abroad after 4 years of working was because I finally saved a sufficient amount of money that I can afford to study abroad. I think it is very important to realize my own dream with the money I made on my own. After all, the best investment is to invest in yourself.
Matching Background: Considering the background and working experience I had, my condition is meeting/a bit overqualified for regular masters, but only reaching the entry requirements for MBA. So, applying for masters involving “management” or “strategy” sounds more reasonable in this case. Moreover, I was still working when I applied for schools, and I don’t think I have the capacity to prepare for GRE or GMAT, so I filtered the world’s top 100 universities and their programs by making sure they admit IELTS or TOFEL as language tests, and that GRE or GMAT is not mandatory.

| Know Your School |

List out your expectations

World’s top 100, World-renowned: I would like to look for job opportunities internationally after graduation so a reputable school is very important to me. I made a list cross-referencing THE、QS、US NEWS rankings to decide my application priorities.
Internship and Work Replacement: My strategy was to get a job via internship or graduate scheme— it is said the conversion rate is quite high to become an official employee if you start from an intern. My top 3 choices thereby are ICL Strategic Marketing — work replacement in the last term, Edinburgh MBA — exchange with other famous universities, Durham MBA — 15 months including 3 months internship.
Less Of My Own Kind: Since I already decided to get out of my comfort zone, I should not stick to the group that speaks the same language as me. I really want to seize the opportunity to expose myself to English surroundings and to sharpen my English skills as much as possible. Even though it is quite inevitable to encounter a large number of Chinese studying abroad; at least I would like to apply for schools that are featured for its diversity, such as ICL.
Resource and Connection: Resouce is more of a location-based concern. Schools in London are naturally more connected and updated to the center of information and trends, even resources and opportunities. Normally top schools cooperate with top companies — this would matter when you start to look for internships or work placement.
Employment Rate: Every school will provide employment reports every year. You will be able to see how the alumni performed in different sectors, regions, and roles. The wider your alumni spread, and the higher your alumni accomplished will more likely to help you more on your network and career.

Making Choices

Now listing out a priority spreadsheet is of great importance. I made a comparison sheet in regard to the ranking, the tuition fee, the application deadline, the core modules, the features, and so on.

Imperial College London (ICL)． MSc Strategic Marketing

School: Ranked #3 in the UK in 2018, #8 worldwide. One of the members in the UK’s G5 university group. Focuses exclusively on science, engineering, medicine, and business. Located in South Kensington, surrounded by museums. 18 months visa.
Program: Ranked second in the world in the 2020 World University Rankings 2 years in a row. Focuses on digital, strategy, practice. Courses are very intensive. It kicks off in July with pre-study online modules, lectures start from September, core modules from October to June, and from June to September — either Marketing Consulting Project or Work Placement. The course emphasizes group work, the first two groups are allocated by the school but you are able to choose your group for the third time. Very international and diversify. However, the tuition fee is quite high. It is almost £8K more expensive than other marketing masters per year and raising.
Timeline: 6th of Feb sent out application>11th of Feb submitted referral letters>16th of Feb received interview invitation>need to finish the interview by 1st of March > finished on 25th of Feb >3rd May got the offer
Application Process:

Fill in the application (7 steps) including basic personal information (nationality, visa, contact info…), experience (educational background, relative/quantitive courses, professional certification…), additionals (financial status, grades, language ability…), future plans (what company, role, and location you would like to apply for after graduation, what criteria did you meet…)

2. Submit referral letters and pay the application fees. (You do not need to submit evidence of your English language proficiency when you make your application; however, you have not yet achieved the required grade, you will only receive a conditional offer)

3. If you pass the first phase, you will receive an online video interview invitation that will be taken place on a platform called Kira. There will be 5 pre-recorded questions basically covering the following 5 dimensions that I have concluded for you:

(1) How do you relieve stress or overcome adversity
(2) Teamwork
(3) Your personality and characteristics
(4) Situational writing
(5) Professional knowledge

You will be asked these questions one by one, given 1 min prep time, and 1 min to respond. All of the answers will be recorded, and there’s only one shot to when you give your answer. Kira also provides ‘Kira Prep’ function so you will be able to practice responding to general timed spoken and written questions, review your responses and unlock additional tips.

Here are the questions I encountered back then at the actual interview that might be helpful to you:

(1) What difficult situations have you handled and what inspired you to move forward?
(2) You are leading a team under huge pressure. How can you lead them to success?
(3) What is the most adventurous thing you have ever done? What did you learn from it?
(4) Writing- You received your second favorite internship offer. You want to wait for the result of your top choice, but you don’t want to lose the second offer at the same time. Please write a letter to the second-best company.
(5) What’s the difference between B2B and B2C?

4. Last but not least, WAIT. The official timeline for releasing the result is 4–8 weeks, but I waited for 9 weeks. I’ve called and sent a follow-up email in the 8th week to the school to express my strong interest and ask for the releasing date.

Not gonna lie that I was almost paranoid before the result came out though. I was crazily checking my email box twice a day, expecting to see an email from Imperial so bad!

There are also forums like ChaseDream (Chinese) or The Student Room(English) you can take a look where the prospective students share their experiences and applying processes.

LSE+USC．MSc Global Media and Communications

School: Ranked #3 in the UK, #25 worldwide. One of the members in the UK’s G5 university group as well as the Russell Group, and is considered a part of the “Golden Triangle”. It has a strong presence in politics, economics, and finance.
Program: Most of the programs in LSE require GRE/GMAT, but this program is one of those that doesn’t make it a requirement. The fact that you will need to spend a year in London and another year in LA, and you will obtain two master's degrees sounds quite attractive to me.
Timeline: 20th of Feb sent out an application for LSE>23rd of Feb submitted referral letters>21st of March ent out an application for USC>2nd of May received Reserved List
Application Process: You will have to submit applications on both sides, and the decision will be made by both sides too.

And then, of course, you wait. The official timeline for releasing the result is 8 weeks. I’ve called and sent a follow-up email in the 8th week to the school to express my strong interest and ask for the releasing date too, just like what I did to Imperial. Their answer was the result will be released the following week, and it did. English language proficiency tests can be done/submitted after receiving a conditional offer.

King’s College London． MSc International Marketing

School: Ranked #23-#36 worldwide. One of the members in the UK’s G5 university group and the Russell Group.
Timeline: 13th of Feb sent out an application for KCL>16th of March result released
Application Process: I had my SOP, referral letters, certificate of degree and transcript ready, and asked an agency to help apply for the school.

University of Edinburgh．MBA & MSc Marketing

School: Ranked #23-#27 worldwide. It is located in Scottland. It is a member of both the Russell Group and the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 research universities in Europe
Program:
- MBA: 3 different programs —Full-time MBA, full-time MBA with international exchange 2–3 months, part-time MBA. Required at least 3 years of working experience; IELTS requires an overall of 7.0/no elements below 6.0.
- MSc Marketing: IELTS requires an average of 7.0/no elements below 6.0.
Timeline: 21st of March sent out an application>MBA 29th of March received results from MBA, MKT 13th of April. The timeline is clear — you can track your result releasing time according to your submission date.
Application Process: I had my SOP, referral letters, certificate of degree and transcript ready, and asked an agency to help apply for the school.

University of Manchester．MSc Marketing

School: Ranked #54 worldwide. One of the six red brick universities.
Program: Manchester’s marketing program is quite well-known internationally. It requires IELTS overall 7.0/writing and speaking no lower than 6.5/6.0. Dissertation of 15,000–25,000 words.
Timeline: 19th of Feb sent out the application >4th of May received the result (The timeline is clear — you can track your result releasing time according to your submission date)
Application Process: I had my SOP, referral letters, certificate of degree and transcript ready, and asked an agency to help apply for the school.

University of Bristol．MSc Management (Marketing)

School: Ranked around #70 worldwide, top 10 in the UK. It is a red brick research university, also a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities.
Program: I was debating between MSc Marketing, MSc Marketing (Digital), MSc Marketing (Strategy and Business Development), MSc Marketing, and MSc Management (Marketing), and I chose management at the end because I’d like to learn how to see marketing in a bigger picture with managerial thoughts. IELTS requires overall 7.0/writing 7.0/others 6.5.
Timeline: 10th of Feb submitted the application >21st of Feb received result. (This was the first offer I received, and it also offered a scholarship as an incentive)
Application Process: I had my SOP, referral letters, certificate of degree and transcript ready, and asked an agency to help apply for the school.

University of Glasgow．MBA

School: Ranked #65 worldwide, top 10 in the UK. It is located in Scottland, the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland’s four ancient universities.
Program: Requires over 3 years of working experience and leadership experience with more than 3 team members.
Timeline: 14th of Feb sent out the application >24th of March received the result
Application Process: To be honest this is my bottom choice just in case I didn’t get any offer, so I applied very last minute without doing much research on the program. I also had my SOP, referral letters, certificate of degree and transcript ready, and asked an agency to help apply for the school.

University of Durham．MBA．MSc Marketing

School: Ranked around #90 worldwide. It was the first recognized university to open in England for more than 600 years, after Oxford and Cambridge and is thus one of the institutions to be described as the third-oldest university in England.
Program:

MBA: 15 months including internship. A video interview is required. Durham business and MBA are quite famous in the real-world. They also offer me scholarship as an incentive. IELTS has to mee overall 7.0/no elements below 6.0.

MSc Marketing: It is said that their Marketing is also well-known in Asia, so I apply for it just in case. IELTS has to mee overall 7.0/no elements below 6.0.

Timeline:

MBA: 8th of Feb sent out the application, but the agency said there’s error so they resubmit again on 17th of Feb >19th of Feb got the interview invitation>23rd of March took the interview>27th of March received the result

Marketing: 8th of Feb sent out the application>21st of Feb received the result

Application Process: I had my SOP, referral letters, certificate of degree and transcript ready, and asked an agency to help apply for the school. However, the MBA requires a video interview with a real person. I have sent an email and asked who would be the interviewer, and did some research on his background — even though they changed the interviewer at short notice, the new interviewer seemed very nice. I had a great talk with her, no tricky questions, basically just to get to know you more as well as your motivations through a pleasant talk. In the end, she even showed me her dog upon seeing my profile picture on Skype.

After my lengthy application explanation and your self-exploration, I believe you are ready to apply! I highly recommend you to make a comparison list of the schools/programs you are interested in and a time table of the schools/programs you apply to keep track of the process.

Here I have come up with some possible FAQ, hope it helps!

| Application |

When should I start? Is it too late?

Most of the schools in the UK are based on Rolling Admission, but they will have deadlines. Good schools are with no doubt more competitive, so I would suggest you to apply ASAP. Normally the application peak is year-end for the next year’s Autumn programs. However, I also know a friend of mine applied in June for the same year enrollment and still got the place though.

What do I need to prepare?

2–3 Referrals (2 professors or 1 professor 1 supervisor) I asked 2 of my professors in uni who I am close to and knows me well for the referral. One of them graduated from a school in the UK — I thought it would more or less help. I prepared a draft or say highlights of me for them to know better what to write about and to ease their burden. I prepared 3 referrals in total and submit upon the schools’ requirement.
SOP (Statement Of Purpose) You should tailor every SOP to what each school asks for, in terms of its length, format, and content.
CV Try to include everything in 1 page, A4
Transcript Usually the good schools required academic performance to be above GPA 3.8/4, average 85/100, or 2:1
Diploma
Language Requirements I only took IELTS as I only have the bandwidth to prepare IELTS while working at the same time. That’s also why all of the schools I applied only require IELTS or TOFEL but not necessarily GRE or GMAT. In some cases, as long as you had your undergrad degree in English speaking countries, or you are English speaker, you don’t need to take English proficiency tests. Please check each school individually.

How long do I have to wait? When can I know the result?

It depends. Normally 4–8 weeks. Usually, the expected time will be put on their official websites.

| Final Decision|

I chose Imperial College London(ICL) in the end due to the following reasons:

1. Reputation: it is ranked #2 worldwide for marketing masters, #8/top 100 uni in the world; I believe it helps to increase visibility when finding a job in the future, also to prove my ability to attend one of the world’s top schools.

2. Diversity: I really want to step out of my comfort zone and meet intelligent people from all over the world. Imperial Business School is known for its diversity in regard to the student’s backgrounds and nationalities. They have a lot of group works and the groups are allocated by school for the first two terms — you will get a chance to really experience a lot of intercultural sparkles.

3. Practicality: All of the courses are designed to be very practical and up-to-date; what’s more, students have to take an internship or work placement or consulting project in the last term to really put their feet down and start to work.

4. Connection and resources: the alumni network is strong and the school has offered a lot of career fairs, 1 on 1 consulting appointment as well as employers drop-ins regularly.

However, I had a chance to relocate to Beijing HQ in 2018, so I decided to defer 1 year and started the program in 2019.

Last but not least, I ‘d like to share this quote to encourage you —

“Just when you are about to give up, try to recall what kept you going this far.”

Cheers!

Please send some claps for me if you find my article helpful 👏 xx