Hi guys - I'm a current student at INSEAD and wanted to share a couple of things with you (I had always told myself I would do this one day, seeing how much I've used this forum throughout the whole admissions process). I know these are stressful times, and that you probably have 1000 questions that you want exact answers to
. I'll try and answer a couple here regarding the first stage of the application; if the feedback is positive, I'll try and add to this list (especially regarding the interview process):
1) It does not matter who your coordinator is. Whether it's Valerie, Caroline or anyone else...they are all super friendly. Who you get depends on your location / profile.
2) It is not them (or at least not them only) who make the decision as to whether you are accepted or not. To my knowledge, coordinators receive your application and make sure that all is in order (ie. all transcripts are included, all essays have been included, official GMAT scores have been sent...etc). See it as a sanity check. They are an extremely important part of the process, seeing the extremely high number of application INSEAD receives. If anything is wrong with your application (ie. there is a document missing), chances are they WILL get in touch to try and resolve the issue (provided it's an honest mistake of course).
3) Interview notifications (and rejection emails) are usually sent out in the final week of the process (right before the dreaded "interview notification deadline"). It is very common to receive a positive email on the actual day of the deadline. No need to refresh your Inbox every minute of every day - you're better off preparing for those interviews
4) Confirmation emails notifying you that your application has been received are usually sent out a couple of days after you've submitted it (especially if you've submitted it last minute). At this stage, no need to do more than simply acknowledge that email with a simple "Thank you".
Cheers,
Matt
PS: check out mbaconnected!