INSEAD January 2015 Intake (Class of December 2015)

Hi atlb and bizwiz cud ull please help us with ur profile (no. Of years of experience) and especially the international experience

since all my profile had was 4 years of Work ex with 4 countries traveled (including 2 for short business meetings) and experience of dealing/handling international clients throughout my MC amd research experience. ..but I guess this wasn't sufficient

so I'm trying to figure out what exactly cud I add

P.s.: anyone with 4 - 5 years of experience selected?

I got dinged as well. I have 7 years of of work ex, 4 of which is international (in US). I also have 2 years of academic exposure in US as well (Masters). So I am guessing I got dinged for some other reasons

Did any of the admitted/invited folks comment if they got help from consultants / alumni for writing the essays and if it helped? That would help much in the future applications!

I have 9 years of experience. No international experience apart from just one short travel long time back. Typical Indian IT male. Working with international teams though. With a product based financial services company.

I believe the essays matter a lot as they are the only way to make these adcom members believe that you have it in you. My extra curriculars with above average. Age probably on the higher side. So I think I should have worked better on my essays. You know...not trying to find my way in kind of essays..rather...in your face kind of essays.

Anyway, these are my thoughts and I hope the rejects can relate to them. I will be applying to more January entry programs...so if anyone wants to connect please pm me

Hi,

I'll have 6 years WE by matriculation. As stated above, less than 1 year internationally (working, not living).
I don't think it's about the number of countries you visited/worked/lived. Again, I think it's about the quality of your experiences and interactions.
And that's only one part of your app. There are quite a few aspects to be considered when evaluating a profile, so it might have had nothing to do with your professional / international experience. Maybe it had something to do with goals, stats, even the competition among your demographic group. It's really hard to pinpoint what went wrong. I think the best you can do is have a few people who are familiar with the process (maybe even a consultant) read your application and essays and try to get a candid feedback on your candidacy.
Hope this helps you other applications.

Best of luck,

bizwiz

My email from SH ,mentions that I have been "selected to interview". Is it the same with everyone? I was under the impression that the AO preferred to use the term "preselected".

I have a different kind of problem...
I got a pre selection e-mail in the last hour on the last day (yesterday). I was elated . But then I found it has been addressed to someone else, and not me. The location matches with mine thought, and it has been forwarded to both of my e-mail ids that I provided in my App.

And to add to my nerves, INSEAD in on weekend off. I have to wait till Monday morning to clarify my status!!!
By God...no one can understand the extreme nervous break down that I am somehow defeating every moment since yesterday

Anyways, is there anyone named Luis, who applied from Abu dhabi, on this group?!

I cannot imagine what you're feeling right now! It made me go back to my email and check the name.
Not to offend you or anything but are you sure you wrote your name right?

Haha!!! Not offended at all my friend.
Yes, I did write my name very correctly. (I could have written it as Abhishake or Asbhiek or something like that....but LUIS?! no ways!!! . My original name is Abhishek)

I would have to say that you seem to have the advantage. I am sure that the ad com has a provision to email each applicant from their dashboard. Maybe she just forgot to change the name in your case. The Admissions council would probably be evaluating you application as a whole and you would probably be handled as a ref number instead of a name.

Yes Abhinandm, that is what i am betting on. She probably forgot to change the name while copy pasting the e-mail to me.
But this wait till Monday morning, is killing me every minute...an official confirmation is the only thing that can gratify my soul

I think I am only one of my kind. No one else experienced this yet. (or LUIS, if you got an e-mail addressed to Abhishek, please tell me if it was ding or pre-selection e-mail )

My advice is use the weekend to change your name to Luis, this way you can be sure to have been preselected!

Lolz! Brilliant advice. And offices are open on Sunday too in Abu Dhabi.

I don't think 4 years puts you at a disadvantage. 31% of the 14J + 14D classes had 3-5 years of WE, surpassed only by those with 5-7 years (38%). INSEAD presumably looks at 4 things in a candidate: 1) ability to contribute to INSEAD experience, 2) Academic capacity (GMAT, GPA, etc.), 3) International motivation and 4) Leadership potential and professional experience. They say you can be weak in one category in order to be considered but not in two (here boundaries blur). I think you can be below average in one category and above in others and more or less keep yourself within average. The problem lies, I think, in the candidates' pool. If there are too many profiles similar to yours, it will get tough.

Good morning everyone! Hopefully today will be the day we receive interviewer details. Looking at the discussion on the reqd number of years of work ex, international focus etc etc; I wanted to throw in my 2cents as well.

I think the essays are really, really important. I am from an over-represented applicant pool, and don't even have a stellar GMAT score - but I took the chance with my essays and made them really personal. Some people who read them dismissed them as "not what they want to hear" or "irrelevant" ; but I took the time to really reflect on the questions, and went through 8 iterations of each essay - that's 7 essays times 8 : 56 times!! Don't write what you think they want to hear. Write what you want to communicate and what you want them to know. For example, they have an essay that asks you to write your greatest accomplishment - I can tell you that mine was NOTHING related to work/non-profit/extra curricular. It was a story of a very, very personal victory in my life, and even though I was very skeptical about using it, my consultant cum gmat tutor cum awesome friend convinced me that it was good enough, and he was right! PM me if you want more details on who's help I took.

International focus is obviously very important when applying to a school like INSEAD - i'm fluent in 3 languages, have worked in 2 countries, and as of the end of this year, would have traveled to 21 different countries in a span of less than 4 years. This does help, but if you don't have this and are looking to use INSEAD to jump into an internationally focused career; you should show them this in your ESSAYS!

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Hi everyone,

Have those who have been pre-selected been able to register for the Scholarships application portal? I'm talking about this website: https://mba.insead.edu/schlmgmt/index.cf ... _list_schl
I've tried to register but I get a message saying "we will send your registration details after confirming with Admissions" and then...nothing

Thanks

I tried registering on Friday and it didn't work then. The website allowed me to register this Afternoon, but after filling up a huge form with work ex details etc, refused to save the data. 30 mins of work down the drain