Hi Alex & Graham!

I'm considering applying to UK business schools for next year, with a focus on LBS. Here are some notes on my profile:

I did my undergraduate degree in quantitative economics and political sciences at a global top 50 university, and I supported myself through university with part-time jobs while being active in on-campus clubs and societies, which explains my under-achieving GPA.

I then joined PwC where I did operational management consulting for Australian (and some international) corporate clients, achieving a promotion to Senior Consultant ahead of the typical schedule.

I then moved to a large commercial airline, where I became an internal consultant getting involved in many different projects each with individual accountability and outcomes achieved. This led to four promotions in three years, with my latest promotion taking on multiple direct reports of junior internal consultants.

For extracurriculars, I'm involved in my university impact consulting club which I was a president of, and return often to mentor the new class each year.

I'm doing the MBA to pivot into MBB Consulting in the UK, where I want to develop my strategy and value-creation capability in a global setting with a long-term ambition of becoming a Chief Transformation Officer in the industrials / consumer goods sectors.

I'm relatively confident in my ability to get into the UK schools I mentioned, but the full sticker price of the MBA is still a shock. What would make my profile stand out for scholarships?

A higher GMAT? I feel I have left some points on the table here and intend to re-sit the exam before I submit my Round 2 application.

Do I create competitive tension by applying to more schools? Perhaps INSEAD or an M7 (say, Columbia or Kellogg).