Re: INSEAD September 2013 - Calling All Applicants
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13 Jan 2013, 17:02
I found this interesting information from 2011 posts. It will help R2 and R3 candidates:
Ok, here's my coles notes version of my current journey for you R2 applicants. Good luck!
What my former boss (and insead interviewer) said the interviewers would be looking for:
Can you articulate the INSEAD value proposition?
What is your story to date and what is the going forward picture? How does INSEAD/the MBA fit in?
What do you bring to the table? Is it industry knowledge? International outlook? Etc.
Do you have poise and confidence in your communication?
Based on the interview, your interviewer needs to be able to answer these four questions. The fourth one mainly comes through when you turn it into a conversation and not have it a one way interview.
Information session/Campus visit:
I visited both the fonty campus and went to two of the information sessions in Canada. Basically, the same information was presented at all three, except the campus visit was good to get a feel for Fontainbleau itself and get a feel for how international the class was really likely to be. They all talked about how international their alumni network is, and how they were seeing trends of ppl going into industry instead of the traditional consulting and banking fields. They displayed a list of their most prominent recruiters. Showed one student life video – an insead dash in s’pore (you can search youtube for this)
Application Pointers:
The most important part for ppl applying is their explanation of how profiles are scored. 25% academics, 25% leadership potential, 25% international outlook, 25% ability to contribute. Academics are almost exclusively focused on GMAT. Not so focused on the total GMAT score, more focused on the verbal & quant percentiles. 70-75 percentile is the general minimum across V and Q, but exceptional strengths in other areas of your app may compensate. Leadership potential may include teams you actually lead, displaying leadership styles, and your ability to move up relative to your industry/peers/country (e.g. a Japanese accountant might move up a lot more slowly than a North American consultant working for IBM – key is you’re getting promoted in time or ahead of your peers relative to your profile). International outlook can be stuff like how many passports you have, how much you’ve lived/worked/studied in other countries, how many languages you speak, etc. Ability to contribute is somewhat linked to your diversity profile, but not the same thing. Things you contribute might be your knowledge of diff business functions, industries, or general backgrounds. Extremes of ability to contribute might be indian engineer who has never worked with international clients or stepped outside the country vs a top ivy undergrad turned international concert pianist that ran her own brand as a business and was active in its management. Overall, if you can weave the 3 non-academic areas together throughout your essays as much as possible, you have the possibility for a very strong app. The reason why I say possibility is because it comes down to your actual experiences, your writing style, and the experiences you choose to put in. It's possible that your actual experiences could get you in, but the latter two could hold you back and you may get dinged before your interview invite.