Well i am a current student of ESCP, but i think the profile to get into any of the top ranked MiM schools is almost the same so ill give you my 2 cents:

1) Well the MiM is marketed as a degree for people with no or relatively little work experience, but from what i have experienced most of the international students who come for the degree have at least a year or more of work ex, this sometimes goes up to 3 years in some cases. What you have to understand is that once we do a MiM we do not plan to do an MBA, the course is almost the same and you get a pretty good push in your career.
So coming back to the question a little work experience is a plus, may it be internships or a full time job. If you have worked for big companies the brand name helps, if not then also fear not as it all depends on how you explain the job you did and how interesting you can make it.

2) Well a high GMAT score is absolutely essential. Most school including LBS have a median score of 710. But if you have a score of 680+ and a strong profile, that gives you a fighting chance.

3) Your academic background also matters, most schools want an ideal mix of engineers, economic, arts etc students so if you have a different background it helps, as it adds diversity to the whole school mix and scores good points on the international ranking scene. Here your nationality can also help, especially you are from one of those countries from which there are relatively lower number of foreign students studying abroad.

4) Your academics play a decent role, a high CGPA shows that you are a consistent performer, but i know many people who have lower CGPA's but still score an admit. So it depends on how you explain your marks and whether you have a viable alibi for it. Also colleges know how hard it is to score top grades in certain UG colleges of the world, so they accordingly scale the marks and evaluate you. So no worries about that.

5) Extra curricular, well this is something i believe really helped me gain an admit in many colleges, and is something schools are very favorable towards. They love people who are different and have done something which makes them stand out from the crowd. It may be related to sports( a national level archer), school associations ( president of some XYZ association), an interesting hobby (completed a course in handwriting analysis), Volunteering work etc. So i hope you get the point.
Well all these things have to be clearly explained to the school admission committee in your Resume and your Essays. Many people think that having a GMAT score is enough, but that's just the tip of the ice berg and is only one of the first screening techniques used by schools. An excellent, creative and well written essay or set of essays which showcase your multitude of talents is absolutely necessary!
Only by looking good on paper do you have a chance to be called for an interview and then actually explain all that you have already written about. You can check out @, for some pointers about how to write your essays.

A Letter of Recommendation is also very important as it acts as a 3rd person certification of your exploits and gives the admission panel a view of your character from the eyes of somebody else. A lot of people don't give the LOR due attention and send half a page, poorly written LORs, this can be a strong cause for the demise of their application. So a well written LOR clearly explaining your strengths and describing experiences is absolutely essential.

and yes of course you have to ace the interview too ;)

So a well knitted culmination of all these lands you an admit into LBS and any other top school for that matter.

Hope this helps.
Check us out at @ for more information about the Masters in Management degree and to get a personal profile evaluation and gauge your chances at LBS and beyond.

Source: www.quora.com