INSEAD January 2015 Intake (Class of December 2015)

FROM Insead Admissions Blog: The beginning of the best?

“Your year at INSEAD is going to be ‘the best’ or at the least ‘one of the best’ in you life.” I have heard this statement innumerable times from my interviewers, alums, and also close family of students. Did it feel forced? Something one just had to say? It felt like it. But now, in just a few short weeks, I am a firm believer: This year is going to be one of the best years of my life. I still remember when I received the phone call; I was just getting on the treadmill, when I received news of my acceptance. I just had to stop everything I was doing and ran home. The day was practically a blur. I just remember this feeling of sheer excitement and joy. That was end May. Yes, I was an R3 candidate, which meant that I had just about two months to change my life and pack…to come and start my year at INSEAD. Life begins in P1, actually before P1, on FB and Instagram, and so on. Your inbox could get flooded with mails—from INSEAD, from your interviewers, from others in the same intake as you. Its just so much information, but this is good training ground for all the information you’ll get once you’re actually here. SO, sitting at Fonty after close to three weeks, seems surreal. Has it actually been that long? And, have we actually done so much in such a short time? These two questions seem to contradict each other, but as any INSEADer will tell you, it makes perfect sense. The friends and mates, the lectures and tutorials, the wild parties and friendly BBQs, the rain and the sun—it just all seems to be here. So difficult to absorb and yet one just has to do it all. So, here I am, living one of the best years of my life.

Hello Everyone,

I've been asked to take the Language Proficiency Exam for Hindi and have some questions for those who've taken it before. I'm a native speaker of the language, but, haven't read or written in a while. I'm trying to ascertain the competence level of the exam to prepare accordingly.

Some questions:
1. What is the proficiency level of the exam? - I've been told it's a CEFR Level B1, but, was looking for an equivalent rating in the local dialect
2. Which of the two exams allowed by INSEAD is better to take - 1. The FL&C or 2. The Language Training Institute?
3. Is it better to take the exam on the computer or on paper? I'm told there's a vernacular keyboard, is that easy to use having never used one other than QWERTY?

Look forward to some help from you guys. Thanks a bunch!

Cheers

Hey, I thought no proof is required for the native language. I wonder why you have been asked for that.

Are your both the interviews done?

Sorry, don't have info on your questions.

So, both of my interviews are over, and I know I did everything I could do, and did my best.
I hope that the decisions come early - this waiting game is so cruel.
2 hard weeks ahead.

And not much activity on the forum. I remember lots of R3 applicants here in the end of July, surely over a dozen. Where are all these people now? Did they not get to the interview stage? Are they keeping silence because they are somewhere else? Applying to other schools? Chatting on some other board? May be they are accepted already?

Currently, we have:

tran13 (Germany)
johndoe84 (Germany)
RRK (India?)
JZ1728
htetzz
2150
myself (Russia)

I'm also a R3. Finished my interviews today. Guess people don't want to talk before knowing the final result.

Thanks merrywheather, great effort You're from Russia, aren't you?

Question to R3'lers: Do you guys have a plan on how to prepare for INSEAD in just 3 months? What about Apartment search? Any business fresh-up courses? Second language degree? What else?

Hi DDD2015, that info is actually helpful to probe a little further if I need to take the exam at all. Thank you

Yes, my interviews are done. They were both conversational and explored my life until now, from a really early age. Followed by "Why INSEAD?" and questions for the interviewer. Each about 90 mins.

Cheers

Hi merryweather, best of luck for the results!

Personally, I haven't been getting updates from this forum regularly and will probably start visiting more frequently as the deadline for the decision approaches. I have a feeling the majority might follow a similar pattern.

And yes, I am from India.

Cheers

Hey johndoe84,

Yep, I am from Russia. And I'm slightly worried about how the whole political situation may impact the thinking behind INSEAD admissions process.

As for the preparations I'm targeting Singapore, so intend to come there early (mid-December) to be able to do apartment search, and probably even Business Foundations course. Definitely not going to do the language

FROM Insead Admissions Blog: When you are unhappy with having just 24 hours a day

“24/7 – Just not enough” This thought has constantly come to me in the last 3 weeks at INSEAD. Throughout my 30 years (Yes, sadly hitting 30 soon), I have had my share of tight deadlines at school to all-nighters in college to high-pressure work. BUT it is definitely a first not wishing just to “get done with the work” rather than lamenting for more time to “savor each experience”. What do I mean by that? On one hand, I have had the most ridiculously productive 3 weeks of my life: Reached early morning classes everyday, which is an achievement for me, considering I am not a morning person and live an hour away. (I do fight for that seat on the train to catch my sleep.) Literally built a playground with my classmates, where I did a lot of wood drilling, of which I am extremely proud. Although I did break a drill bit. I have survived Microeconomics, reviewed my CV more times than I’ve ever done in my seven years of work, drafted a team contract for organizational behavior, and analyzed financial statements of Apple and ConAgra. I’m close to finishing a wine course, and I just passed my Singapore basic driving test Met a zillion people including entrepreneurs in residence for my venture; did the Ice bucket challenge; made great friends; had a house gathering, a beach outing, and of course, the BIG beach party. Planned my first INSEAD trip to Indonesia and did I mention—I drilled wood! But I feel strangely having underachieved. I often feel stupid in class, totally relative to the superbly intelligent people around me (Ah… My poor three decades of well-nurtured ego!). The course pace seems to leave me lagging behind always. I missed at least five weekend trips even if I only count the ones I know of with 10+ people I have lost count, but I’ve probably missed a dozen or more get-togethers/parties so far that I am probably in danger of not being on party lists anymore. I only know roughly 80% of my class section by name (usually people who sit in the rows in front of mine, with their name cards visible). Do mind that my section is only a third of all 15Js in Singapore now. Of course, Singapore itself only represents around 40% of all students in INSEAD 15J, if Fonty is included. Talk about the tip of the iceberg. And, of course, my personal friendships outside INSEAD and even husband time have gone for a complete toss. To tell the truth, it is difficult to explain this to the outside world. My friends and ex-colleagues joke that I no longer need to work and I’m free. Oh! They can’t be further from the truth. This acceptance that we will live in constant FOMO (fear of missing out) and won’t be able to do it all is probably a school secret that only INSEADers understand. At least I am making progress in some areas. Being an introvert, meeting people has always drained me and I can’t claim (yet) that INSEAD has cured that. Far from it actually, as I still manage to invent excuses to convince myself out of some gatherings. But, there is a difference: Meeting exciting people seems to lessen the extra effort I make to be energetic. At INSEAD, that has been a given as everyone has a story to be told and heard. In fact, I have this idea to start a “Humans of INSEAD” series inspired by HONY (Humans of New York) for the blog. Again, there is this tiny detail of finding more time in the 24-hour day to allow for that. Well, I think I need not worry as I have come to accept that the concept of a working day always stretches when it is for INSEAD!

Two weeks more guys. I am so nervous

Today was the last (official) day of interviews! Hopefully, the AdCom decides really soon...

Based on the communication in this forum, the decisions come out 2-3 days before the deadline. We shouldn't be expecting to hear anything before October 7-8.
But please shout out if you have any updates! This is extremely nerve-wracking.

You mean from round 1 and 2? I can understand that they want to be really disciplined about the deadline, so not to be unfair to any candidate. But I cling to the idea that in round 3, there is not much harm done if notifications go out quickly; especially, if there are only few (one) candidates per country. Remember how some candidates got their invite for interviews ~2 weeks before the interview notification deadline? Also, the longer they wait, the larger the risk of loosing a candidate to another school... Either way, good luck to all of us

Hi me too, R3 candidate finished 2 interviews last week. Born in China but live in Belgium now.
No news yet... When and how are they going to inform us if get admitted?

FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Building up the Tempo

The first month is over and I still cannot believe just how much water has already flown under the bridge! After a month at INSEAD I truly feel like a train wreck. Even without the hyperbole, life really moves at a frenetic pace. I have covered more subjects and learnt more in this one month than I had learnt in my entire career. That part isn’t true for everyone though, as many who come here already have some sort of experience in many of the subjects being taught in class. However, what is true is that most people find themselves making trade-offs many times a day, mostly with regard to the optimum utilization of their time. The month started off with some of us trying to be everywhere all the time, despite some good advice from the senior batch. We soon learnt though that it’s not necessarily the best utilization of our time to try and be everywhere, especially once the studies picked up some tempo. The trade-offs started getting more pronounced and the risks of some moves more evident and groups of like-minded people started finding themselves spending more time with one another. We had a lot of long career presentations and, in our fear of missing out on some good company presentations, we tried to attend every single one of them. We soon learnt though that most companies who come here to hire students, come with something specific in mind and many do not suit us as well as it suits some others. Hence, we started studying and figuring out a little more about the companies before signing up for the presentations and cocktails. Next up were the group activities, and some groups obviously fared far better than the others. However, the heartening thing to notice was that majority of the groups were really bonding well and enjoying the experience of working with equally talented and driven individuals, not allowing their competitive spirit to come in the way of forging strong relationships. This obviously highlights the high regard and mutual respect that members of the group have for each other and also the good camaraderie that exists among like-minded individuals. I can vouch for the fact that it does feel great to be a part of a high-performing group with great members, contrary to what I had feared initially from the experiences of some other MBAs. This month was also about getting to know the people whom we will be spending a lot of time with over the next few months—some of whom will hopefully go on to become lifelong friends. I know everyone keeps talking about leveraging the network of amazing talent that we have here at INSEAD to forward careers, but I like to see it from a different point of view. I believe that the legacy of our time here at INSEAD will be the people we interact with, and hopefully, they will someday have some good memories of our times together. We got a bit closer to a few people, identified some clear takeaways, and strove to achieve our goals together rather than on our own. The pleasure of achieving together, and the sheer bonhomie gives me a good feeling about the months to come.

Can someone post the breakdown of Singaporeans in both FBL and SGP campus for m/f?

Is there a breakdown by professional roles such as engineers, doctors, finance people, editors etc?

From what I know, 95% of the people will not hear any news till Oct 6 week.