MBA Student Profile: Ion Lupu, Vlerick Leuven Gent

<p>Romanian student Ion Lupu speaks with <em>TopMBA.com</em> about <strong>life as an MBA student</strong> at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. Lopu&nbsp;feels young but he’s now wishing there were more than 24 hours in a day.</p><p>For Lupu, choosing to do an MBA was all about change: change of career, change of markets, changing the place he lives in, making new friends, learning new business skills and facing new challenges.&nbsp;</p><p>The Romanian born Moldova resident started the ball rolling towards his MBA in 2001 after graduating from university. “I had the idea of getting a PhD or another graduate degree from a foreign country. I made some money, improved my English and got enough experience to start an MBA course.”</p><p>He initially wanted to study in the UK but after attending the <a href="/events"><strong>QS World MBA Tour</strong></a> in St Petersburg his ideas changed. “I was heading for British Schools only (Cambridge, Oxford, Aston) because of two main reasons: I lived in the UK for two years and wanted to come back; and these schools have a good reputation. At the QS World MBA World Tour in St. Petersburg I met the representatives of the local campus of Vlerick who convinced me that their school was no worse than a UK one. I’ve been studying for two months at Vlerick and I can tell you that this school is the one I was searching for.”</p><p>Some of the <strong>world’s top business schools</strong> will be attending the fair including those that Lupu applied for. “I applied to three schools: Vlerick (Belgium campus), a French school and a British one. The representatives of the Vlerick campus in St. Petersburg told me after my admission test that they were impressed by the results I got. After a few weeks I received my letter of acceptance and decided to go for it for many reasons: class size, friendly studying environment, return on investment (ROI), high-quality faculty, and the high-class school staff.”</p><p>In preparation for the world of business school Lupu took two months off work to prepare for the <a href="https://www.gmat.org" target="_blank">GMAT</a>. Vlerick doesn’t require their students to sit the GMAT as the school has it’s own admissions test which Lupu said is “even harder”.</p><p>“You have to answer 32 questions in 30 minutes for the Vlerick admissions test but I think that the <strong>GMAT preparation</strong> helped me a lot to pass.”</p><p>Lupu is financing his MBA studies with “his own sweet money” but recommends other students apply for scholarships or sponsorship to fund their MBA studies.</p><p>“Try as hard as possible to get a scholarship,” he says. “You have nothing to lose. If that doesn’t work, aim for sponsorship by your company or pay with your own money. Make your final option a loan – I would recommend starting to search for a job from the very first day you start your MBA.”</p><p>Lupu believes that with an MBA degree he’ll get a well-paid job at one of the multinational companies in Moldova or Romania, but for now he’s just enjoying the best and the worst of business school.</p><p>“You make new friends and meet interesting people, you learn a lot from your courses and colleagues and as a student you feel younger again. But you have to work hard, maybe harder than you think now and you want to have more than 24 hours in a day. I also wish I’d known more foreign languages and more about investment banking, private equity and consulting before I started.”</p><p>So how does he balance the demands of study and personal life?</p><p>“Sometimes it is very hard do manage both. We need to cut a bit of our sleeping hours in order to manage everything well but we work hard and we play hard.”</p><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;" align="center"><a href="/institution/vlerick-business-school" style="background-color: #ffb515; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25); border-radius: 5px 5px 5px 5px; box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); color: #006399; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; padding: 8px 20px; position: relative; <br ></a> text-decoration: none;">Learn more about Vlerick Business School &gt;</a></div>