The headline answer is easy: the flagship LBS MBA can be completed in 15, 18 or 21 months.
The more interesting answer is that students seem to use the flexibility inside the MBA too. Recent accounts include early graduation, international exchange, part-time startup work, multiple internships and schedules built around career experimentation.
The formal part: 15, 18 or 21 months
LBS’s current program information allows three exit points. Students leaving early still need to complete the program requirements, and LBS warns that an early exit can reduce the electives available. International Exchange is not compatible with the 15-month exit.
So “15 months” is not a different degree. It is a compressed version of the flagship MBA with real tradeoffs.
Neeshtha Bholah (MBA2025) gives us one concrete example. Her Athens Global Experience came at the end of her MBA because she planned to take the 15-month exit. That shows required experiential learning can fit into the shorter path, but her account does not tell us what she may have given up in electives, exchange or extra recruiting time.
Staying longer can create room for exchange
Students on the longer paths describe using the extra time for concentrations, exchange and additional internships. Shristi Maurya (MBA2025) is one example, completing concentrations in Entrepreneurship and Private Capital alongside a term abroad. How exchange actually works is covered separately.
The tradeoff is the whole point. Finishing earlier reduces time away from the workforce; staying longer buys room for exchange, electives, internships, and for changing your mind.
Flexibility is also a scheduling tool
Several recent students describe rearranging their timetable rather than just choosing an exit date. Some use it to fit part-time work around teaching (more on that in the LBS internships discussion).
Others use it to shape what they study. In LBS’s MBA2027 student feature, Bas Borgers describes building a curriculum around what he actually wanted to learn instead of following a mostly predetermined program, and Shivani Vartak cites the freedom to design her own timetable as a reason she chose the longer European MBA.
The flexibility is valuable because you don’t have to know everything on day one
Put those accounts together and the three graduation dates matter less than the options they create.
A student who arrives completely certain about their path can compress the program. Someone making a harder career switch can use more time for internships and experimentation. Someone who wants another international school can build in exchange. Someone whose goals change after six months has more room to respond than the headline “15/18/21 months” suggests, within the limits that course scheduling, recruiting, visa rules and exchange availability all impose.
Which exit did you choose, and why?
LBS doesn’t publish how many students choose each exit point or when people have to commit. If you’re a current student or recent graduate, reply below with your own version:
- Which exit did you choose, and what decided it?
- When did you have to commit, and could you change your mind?
- If you took the 15-month exit, what did you give up?
- If you took 18 months, how hard was it to fit in exchange?
- If you stayed 21 months, did the extra time help a career switch?
- Did you rearrange your schedule for term-time work?
Your reasoning is often as useful to applicants as the choice itself.