With considerable work experience and strong financial background I applied to Cass MBA in 2012 along with other reputable schools (Oxford MBA, Cambrdige, Imperial MBA and also MSc courses at LBS, LSE and Cranfield) and got to the interview stage for all of them.
I went to the Cass open days and contacted some current MBA students as well as alumnies, who were of the opinion that I can easily get in if I can afford the tuition fees, furthermore one candidate stated that he had not done the GMAT, contradicting with the members of the admission team who clearly stated that every candidate had to do the GMAT test to be considered for enrollment.
I was invited for an interview at Cass in February 2012 and met with Dr. Giantvito Lanzolla, who is the Dubai EMBA Course Director. His office was very unorganized (like a students room during the exam season) and he had to look for my CV for about a minute after I had arrived (I offered him a copy as I had one with me). He did not read my essay, was not interested in my occupation as a finance professional in London or why i want to do the MBA, but kept asking questions about my online shop, which was just about to start. I had at least 5 questions regarding that, from the marketing plan to the customers I was targeting.
Then he went on to GMAT where I got a good Quant (92% percentile) and a low Verbal score, due to the fact that English is my 3rd language. He asked how is it possible that I stated I am a hard worker but did not increased my verbal score. I answered that I did GMAT 4 times and I took part in a Veritas GMAT preparation course and got an IELTS score of 7.5, hence my GMAT verbal score did not improved. Dr. Giantvito Lanzolla confirmed that he is fine with my final GMAT score but still not convinced that I am a hard worker due to my inability to increase my verbal score.
Then he picked up a phone call in the middle of my interview, chatting in Italian and checking his emails. Did not seem like an important call, nor did he apologized for interrupting my interview. The whole interview was very unprofessional from his side and at the end of the interview he asked me for my feedback: I just mentioned that he should switch off his phone the next time. Feedback should always be anonymous as practiced by professional institutions.
Not surprisingly got rejected from Cass but had offers from much better schools for the MBA as well as MSc courses.
I requested feedback and was left with no response, not even a simple we don't provide feedback!
Would NOT recommend Cass to any serious candidate!
