Oxford is one of the world's most revered and historic universities, conjuring images of ancient cloisters and medieval colleges. Its business school, Saïd, may claim a less illustrious history, having only been established in 1996, but despite being late to the game it is a school with a burgeoning reputation. Here, the school's dean for development and external relations, Roy Westbrook, talks us through what it takes to get a seat on Saïd's MBA programme. Courtesy: Which MBA?

How many applications do you have to deal with each year at Saïd?

Application numbers this year were around 842. Of those we interviewed 581 and made offers to 389. 225 students accepted.

So what distinguishes the successful applications? 

Well there's some basics, such as having the intellectual candle power to cope with an intensive one-year course. One-year full-time MBAs are tougher in terms of the volume of the material that you have to cover. [Dealing with that] is partly down to intellect and partly to stamina—a commitment to keep at it. Then there's broader things like having a career plan into which the MBA fits. These things tend to be linked. If you've got a career plan to which the MBA is critical then you're probably going to be committed.

Also there's the benefit that we get having you in the class. Do you have interesting work experience? And that can be in different sectors, different countries. It doesn't even have to be business experience. It might be public sector, not-for-profit or military for example, as long as you've been successful in your career.

Then there's a certain amount of independence: can you work alone? Equally, there's also collaboration: can you work together with other people? There's elements where you just have to be a self-starter and get on and do things and others where you have to work together. You need to know when to be independent and when you must collaborate.

How important is it that students can demonstrate their internationalism?

One thing we like—it's not a requirement, but something we like to see—is people who have worked outside their country of origin. This tends to develop a cultural sensitivity; you realise that there isn't only one way of doing business in the world. There's more than the Anglo-American model.

And there's things like maturity and tolerance, especially cultural tolerance. The programme has 40 to 50 nationalities represented. That implies that there may not be one cultural norm. When you look at case studies, people will have different perspectives depending on what part of the world they've come from. Their national culture and business culture will affect their perspective and you have to be prepared to have some give and take in that kind of thing.

What are the common mistakes that applicants make?

Actually there aren't any things that are absolute no-nos. People tend not to say things like: "I thought I would apply to Oxford because I didn't think I was clever enough to get into Cambridge!" But apart from that kind of silly example, one looks at an application, frankly, not to exclude people but to see if this is a person we'd like to meet, we'd like to offer an interview to.

Having said that, one of the things that's quite difficult is that applications often don't vary that much. People defining themselves as a person interested in an MBA, likely to want to get into a well-ranked school to do a one-year programme, are going to have certain things to in common. In that sense there's a generic candidate almost. The difficult thing often is to appear a bit more individual, which is one of the reasons we ask them to write essays and so on.

How much emphasis do you put on the numbers, such GMAT score or undergraduate degree?

Quite a bit, because that's a basic measure of the intellectual things I talked about earlier. If the GMAT begins with a six we just look for other things. If it doesn't, then we're probably looking for a much better degree, some other evidence that you're academically capable and that [you have the] kind of intellectual curiosity that gets you through.

But if the GMAT began with a seven would you overlook other aspects of their personality?

Absolutely not. In fact [in recent intakes] the GMAT of those that didn't get offers is not that different from those who did. There were certainly some over 700 who didn't get an offer. Quite often they have references suggesting they may have difficulty working with other people. Very bright people can be very impatient with the rest of us sometimes. That doesn't make you very good in groups. So we are looking at the whole piece and the GMAT is just part of it.

What exactly do you look for in a student's work experience?

A degree of responsibility within their particular context. Have they actually had responsibility for a team or a budget, however small. Have they been promoted, have they been given opportunities to work abroad, set up new activities by launching a product, open an office in a different territory. These kinds of things suggest that someone who knows this person well had some faith in them to achieve.

Could someone have too much work experience?

If you've got a CV that suggests you move jobs every nine months over a five-year period, then that can set alarm bells ringing.

Do you ever consider students without work experience?

Very rarely. We have had one or two like that, but they've done things like been a White House intern and spent every holiday campaigning for political office. They're committed people and we interview them and make sure they have got sufficient maturity to cope with a class with an average age in the high twenties. But it's pretty rare.

In order to maintain such a diverse class, do you have quotas—be they formal or informal—on things such as the number of female students, the number of foreign students or students from different geographical areas?

We don't have them at all, neither formal nor informal. We like the diversity but we don't engineer it. It happens just because of the wide recognition of the Oxford brand around the world. [Often applications mirror the] global economy, so that if we go back three years, we had lots of Chinese applicants. This year and last year many more from India and that may well change again in due course. That just happens, we don't engineer that. We just try and get in the best.