Planning my visit I wrote to them, asking about a permission to attend a lecture. I waited for the answer for about a week. Since deadline was coming, I wrote to David Simpson (the only personal address I knew) and he replied the next day. I mentioned that I wanted to attend the lecture with Divine Miss N class and he assured me that it is no problem to come along with a student and take a sit.While I was at school, students asked me if I am acquainted with the Program Office and I said 'no'. So they showed me the direction and there I went. Mind you, only a student with a student card can get to MBA Program Office, but you know, students are always coming around when you need to open a door... ;)
It was late (about 5 p.m.) and there was just one girl there. I introduced myself and asked if I can talk to someone about my application ('I applied in R1 last week'). I was told that this is impossible, no one is going to discuss my application or give me any clues, or simply reassure me that all my documents have arrived. 'If we will need anything from you, we will contact you by e-mail'. OK, I just asked. It was silly coming all the way to school and not asking, right?
This reminds me of client experience, which, I'm sure, everyone had. When you are a potential client, the firm nurses you around: 'come to our conferences, look at our solutions, talk to our people' and so on. But when it turns you into a client, it forgets about you. Marketing to existing clients simply doesn't work. The policy is just something like that: 'you know some of our people. If you have a problem, contact them'.
I'm just summarizing, not complaining.
I like this 'poor marketing' thing about the school, because:
1) I've been subscribed to the school newsletter for 6 months. So far I received two. Both were really valuable: one told about GMAT limited summer test and the other about LBS infosessions (in Moscow there will be one at the end of November). *I received a third one yesterday - useless - I won't add it to the score :)*
2) when I was at the infosession, there was no presentation, no general information about school. There was a simple Q&A session. They were not trying to persuade us, but mainly listen to us and tell us the issues we were interested in. I like this way of 'selling', I don't like being forced.
Though I know people who have an opposite point of view and were much more impressed with attitude and commitance of adcoms in other schools.
