Calling all HEC Paris Applicants: (January 2017 Intake) Class of 2018!

Thank you nikhil.jones.s for starting this discussion. We are making it official discussion thread for January 2017 intake applicants.

Welcome to all HEC Paris MBA applicants. Use this platform for getting to know fellow applicants, discuss application strategies, share admission updates with one-another.
Everyone is advised to add HEC MBA program to his/her forum profile and fill out required details so as to reflect your stats on tables showing admission stats in the first post. While adding HEC program, MAKE SURE you are setting it as 'Class of 2019'. I know it's actually a class of 2018 but our system counts program duration in whole years. i.e. 16 months will be considered 2 years. So take note of that.

Good luck to all applicants!!

Cool! In for round 2? Received any response yet?

Received an email this afternoon that I'm pre-selected. Anybody else in?

Hi everyone,

I just finished my interviews with the 2 alumni that were selected as my interviewers. Both my interviews were face to face and I believe my debrief here would be helpful for others (i know this place is almost dead, but to the viewers anyway!)

Interview 1:
This happened in a coffee shop that was close to the interviewer's office. He was a principal consultant working with PwC who had graduated very recently from HEC. I had expressed my ambition to become a Management Consultant in my application, this possibly influenced their decision to select the specific interviewer (refer Mr. A).
Mr. A was very warm and arrived a little late. He briefed me about the process and then we went straight into it.
The first 20 minutes was majorly on - Why MBA? Why HEC? Why now? During this process he also got a glimpse of my profile.
He then asked a few questions pertaining to my field of work. I was able to answer them swiftly. He stressed on trying to understand my line of thinking. This process took around 10-15 minutes.
After this, he questioned me on my strengths and weaknesses, what value would I add to the classroom and why should HEC chose me over somebody else with greater years of experience.
We then moved onto the presentation.
He left around 10 minutes for questions which i utilized to inquire about the GCP program, HEC football team's performance on the MBAT and the Fieldwork projects - their conversion rate to jobs etc.

Mr. A started by clarifying that my lower work experience would mean that I would be one of the youngest in the classroom and this could be disadvantageous. Yet, he kept stressing that "He is my advocate" - which i found very comforting.

Interview 2
This happened in a coffee parlor that was quite far from my workplace. The place was a little uncomfortable and the outdoor seating was not helping at all. It was not a very pleasant weather to have a grilling talk with an alum of over 20 years experience. :O My interviewer (refer Mr. B) was a Director with UBS and had graduated over 10 years ago from HEC.
While I was half an hour early to the venue, Mr. B was bang on time. He asked me to carry a hard copy of my resume and slides which we used during the interview. He briefly explained to me the layout of the interview and we dived into it.
He asked me to speak about myself - my family background - my siblings - my schooling etc. I spoke about things in detail and started to drift towards my professional experience at which point he interrupted me and asked a few questions.
After getting to know me, he asked me some questions from my resume - specifically those that were not immediately clear to him.
He then started off with Why MBA? Why Now?
He did not seem totally convinced and felt I am too young to pursue an MBA. He was fairly rooted to the fact that I haven't thought through my future.
Why HEC? Why NOT INSEAD? What Next?
No matter what I said, he didn't seem convinced on Why NOT INSEAD or Why HEC when I dont know French and dont have a British passport. He also asked me my GMAT score and what I expected out of HEC? He then asked about my finances and grilled me on how I expect to repay my loan. In general, he was testing if I have though about my alternatives and if I genuinely feel HEC is the answer for me or not. Most questions were introspective and could not be objectively answered. He was only looking at my clarity of thought, whether I have assessed my worst case scenarios and If i have enough information about the school, visa process and constraints etc.
He then asked me some questions on my strengths and weaknesses which I was able to answer alright.
After this, he came back to Why HEC? and How will i manage my finances if I dont get the coveted salary? I stressed on the importance of job function, job role, HEC's diversity that can broaden my outlook for consulting (at which he said you should I have said this earlier - i felt weird because i did say this before).
After this, Mr. B assumed a mentor's role and tried to explain me how I should take such decisions, I tried to convince him that I have put enough thought into this and that I am fine with the worst case scenarios as I know the roles and the network this opens me to is priceless. At this stage, I knew that I have lost it.
Nonetheless, I still asked a few questions on the Management Consulting Presence in HEC, the GCP program and the fieldwork assignments.
Mr. B kept stating that He is playing the Devil's advocate and there were some questions which he didn't let me answer. Also, there wasn't enough time devoted to the presentation - he went through 2 slides and also repeatedly questioned me if I have copied this from somewhere - I found this offending but at the end he took the slides and said I have some good material in them.

All in all, interview with Mr. A was a breeze, had a very happy ending while interview with Mr. B was disappointing. I have a strong feeling of getting waitlisted or rejected for this. Anyway, fingers crossed. Moving onto other good things in life.

Hey everyone.

I applied in round 1 for January 2017 intake and I'm in. I have already been through the whole process from interviews up to the confirmation of my place.

Congrats to everyone else who got admitted!

Hey! Congratulations on your admit. Can you share a debrief of your interviews?

Just got a mail that I have been admitted. Feels good! Anybody else?

Good news.. congrats Nikhil!
Did you made up your mind to go ? and did you receive any communication reg. scholarship or will that be done later?

I see that only 5-6 people have actually mentioned that they have applied. Anyone else got any response?

What are the chances of someone getting a call if he or she applies for round 6 onwards?

Hi guys, have got an admit, look forward to interacting more members of the cohort!

Hi Apoorv, Congrats on your admit. Can you please share your profile?

I have 3 years of experience in a marketing profile at a state owned energy major. I thereafter worked for about 7 months in an american non-profit. Currently managing the business vertical for a friends startup in the logistics sector (secured series A of $5 million)

FROM HEC Paris Admissions Blog1: Message From The MBA Dean

Andrea Masini, HEC Paris MBA Associate Dean HEC Paris is Europe’s premier business school. With more alumni in CEO positions than any other continental business school, it is the alma mater of CEOs in Europe. The CEOs of L’Oreal, Kering, Lafarge, AXA and the Executive Vice President of Havas Worldwide, to name but a few, hail from HEC Paris. Our MBA students are at the forefront of business innovation, acting as ‘connectors’ for international businesses and implementing their global strategy locally around the globe. Our MBA student body, which is composed of over 200 high-potential participants from over 40 nationalities is a true testament to this international focus. As a testament of its quality, the HEC Paris MBA recently broke into the top fifteen MBA programs worldwide in the 2016 Financial Times Global MBA Rankings, while maintaining its number 1 place in Europe in The Economist full time MBA ranking. We aim to continue this journey and to further elevate the program by leveraging its core strengths: academic excellence, a talented and extremely diverse student body, personalized service with a hands-on approach to leadership, a forward-looking mindset, and an optimal program length. With a duration of 16 months, the HEC Paris MBA is shorter than many MBA programs, yet long enough to ensure that participants willing to switch careers are able to acquire the necessary skills to excel in a new field. Tomorrow’s global leaders not only need solid fundamentals in multiple disciplines. They also need to be able to develop a vision, sharpen their intuition, challenge conventional wisdom, and master communication skills. To develop those qualities, HEC Paris MBA participants receive the best possible training and benefit from extensive access to faculty, a personalised approach towards tutoring and mentoring, as well as exposure to real projects in the fields they have chosen. These activities are deployed during an intensive program in which 8 months are dedicated to fundamental courses, 4 months to elective courses or fieldwork projects and 4 months to specialized courses in a specific domain (strategy, marketing, finance, advanced management or entrepreneurship). The resulting 16-month program is a true transformational experience. It is also the best compromise between two needs: the need to maximize the return on investment, and the need to prove recruiters that candidates are high potentials who master all the fundamentals of management while at the same time possessing advanced competencies in the selected industries they target. These strengths are well reflected by the recruitment opportunities offered by the HEC Paris MBA. Supported by a Career Management Centre, 90% of the participants find a job within three months after graduation, with Amazon, Goldman Sachs and L’Oréal being amongst the top MBA recruiter for the program. In short, by capitalizing on these key strengths, we give participants the time and attention that they deserve and we equip them with the skills that they need to become responsible leaders, reflecting our conviction that the more you know, the more you dare. The post Message From The MBA Dean appeared first on HEC MBA Blog.

Hi guys, I´m new here. I´m very glad to tell you that I´m IN! I just got the email one hour ago. I´m looking forward to know you and start sharing information.

Best wishes to everyone who still in process.

Hi Gppar !

Congratulations ! Could you please share a debrief of your interviews?

Hi 1mfg, of course.

My first interview was in a conference room, at my interviewer´s work. It was a formal interview, so I wore a suit. At first, we talked about my profile, like a "walk me through your resume"; he asked me about how an economist, like me, was working in operational department of a mining company. He was very interested in my resume because I had many financial courses and researches, his specialty. So I truly recommend to study your resume, it is your presentation letter. Then we started to discuss about typical questions: why an mba? why HEC? what do I like the most about the programme?, and the last one, which other schools am I applying to, why, and is HEC my first option?. Later we talked about what I expected of this experience and he told me about his experiences (the seminar in St Cyr, and the network) and how it boosted his career. Finally, and what I think was very important, we discussed about how important is to speak a good french in order to get a job in France, which is one of my main goals, and in one of my preferred industries: luxury brands. Yeah, I know, I´m looking for a 180°change in my career, changing country and industry. One thing is that he didn´t ask me any behavioral question. This interview lasted 1 hour and 45 min, including the presentation.

My second interview was in a starbucks; it was very difficult to set up the meeting so it was more convenient for both of us. She asked me the same questions: why mba? why HEC? why France? Do I speak the language? etc. We couldn´t talk too much about the programme because we assisted more or less 10 years ago, and the programme has changed a lot. We discussed about my desire of living in France or Europe, and it was a helpful conversation because she did lived and worked in Belgium post mba. She gave me some recommendations about recruiting. By the way, she asked me about my plan to achieve this goal, should I just count on the Recruiting Center? should I go to events? head hunter? so I explained to her my whole plan. She also asked me some behavioral questions, such as "tell me one experience in which you had to influence other" or "tell me about one project in which you failed as leader". Moreover, "what are your main weaknesses". It lasted 1 hour and 20 min.

Both interviews were very fluid, and in both I had the presentations at the end, they were of 10 mins plus 10 more minutes of discussion.

I hope it helps! otherwise please let me know about other doubts, I would like to help anyone.

Hi Gppar,

Thank you very much for the detailed debrief ! Really appreciate it