What Top 1% Applicants Do Differently: M7, LBS & INSEAD

The applicants who get into M7, LBS, and INSEAD share something that isn’t visible on a résumé. It’s not a higher test score or a more impressive title — the credentials in these pools are largely comparable across the board. What top 1% candidates do differently is foundational, and it shows up in how their entire candidacy is built, not just in how well they write.

Most candidates in these pools are executing well. Strong essays, clean narratives, careful school research. What separates the applicants who get in is that their story holds together at a level most people don’t reach — goals that connect specifically to their background, positioning that holds up under scrutiny, and an application that could survive an interview on every claim it makes.

This gets more nuanced because M7, LBS, and INSEAD aren’t selecting for the same profile. They read the same background differently, value different things in the application, and respond to different positioning. What works at one school doesn’t automatically translate to another, and the candidates who understand that build their applications accordingly.

In this session on GMAT Club’s platform, Sia Admissions Founder Susan Berishaj will walk through:

• What top 1% candidates understand about the through-line of their application that most applicants in the same pool don’t, and where that gap shows up
• What admissions committees are actually evaluating, and why execution alone doesn’t clear the bar at these programs
• How M7, LBS, and INSEAD differ in what they’re selecting for, and what that means when positioning the same background across multiple schools

The session includes live Q&A.

If you’re ready to work together, book a consultation. If you’d like feedback on where your profile stands first, request a written profile evaluation.