Tip #2: Authenticity Beats Extremity
When you spend time with Laidlaw scholars, you realise there isn’t an obvious mold. Their stories are interesting, they hold up, and authenticity is obvious when it’s real.
When I talk to candidates about Laidlaw, I see one pattern more than any other. People try to reverse engineer the ideal candidate. And even when they do not lie, they still start turning up the volume on certain parts of themselves because they think that’s what the process wants.
You can sometimes get away with that in an application. But the gaps will show up in an interview, when you have to explain yourself and stay consistent.
You Don’t Need to Be a 9/10 on Everything
I tell candidates this early, because it changes how they write and how they show up. You do not need to be a 9/10 on every value Laidlaw cares about. You need to be honest about which values actually drive how you operate.
Gender equality is a good example, because it is visible in Laidlaw’s framing and easy to overplay. In my own work, it mattered, but it was not the central axis of everything I did. If I scored it honestly, it was a 3/10. It showed up, but it did not define my work. In my application, I did not try to position myself as a gender equality candidate. I briefly described what it was like to operate in a male-dominated F&B and agritech space, what that demanded from me, and what I chose to do anyway. That was enough.
Here's an excerpt from Shwe Yee Win's (Oxford MBA, Laidlaw Scholar) application:
“Initially, relatives discouraged me to study abroad to avoid putting financial burden on the family… However, as I was determined to study abroad, I applied for a 3-year government bond, study grant and tuition loan to finance the education. While studying, I also worked part time to support myself as well.”
What I like about her application is how little it tries to impress you. She doesn’t dramatize the constraint or turn it into a value statement. She states what existed, and then what she did. This is the standard I want you to hold yourself to.
The Test I Use With Candidates
When candidates come to me and we discuss their narratives, I do not let them inflate values or build an identity around something we cannot clearly support. Instead, I make them get specific about what is true.
These are the questions I make candidates run through:
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Where does this value actually show up in decisions you have already made?
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Would someone who worked closely with you describe you this way without prompting?
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Can you point to a real trade-off you made because of this value?
If you cannot answer those, it does not mean the value is irrelevant. It usually means it is not central. And that is okay. Just do not pretend otherwise.
What Builds Trust in This Process
In a process like this, what you are really trying to earn is trust. In the application, and then in the interview, people are trying to understand who feels real and whose story holds together without effort.
Coherence and consistency are the path to that trust.
And if you take one thing from this, let it be this: do not build your case on a version of yourself you cannot sustain. It is a losing battle.
New to the series? This is Part 2 of a six-part Laidlaw application journey. You can read Part 1: The Network Test here. Part 3: Merit Is Not Enough: How Laidlaw Makes Decisions will be published on 21 January 2026.
About Me
Hi, I’m Shruti Jain. I graduated from Oxford Saïd in 2023 as a Laidlaw and Skoll Scholar.
As an MBA applicant between 2019-2021, I faced multiple rejections, deferred my Oxford admit twice, and eventually rebuilt my application approach from scratch. That experience shaped how I think about merit, narrative, and what competitive processes actually reward.
Today, I work with MBA and scholarship applicants using that same playbook, and I’m also the co-founder of MBA Copilot, a product designed to help applicants craft strong MBA and scholarship applications using AI.
If you’re a Laidlaw applicant looking for thoughtful support, reach out. If you’ve been shortlisted for interview and want to prepare, download my Laidlaw interview prep guide.