Calling all Applicants: INSEAD Jan 2020 Intake (Class of Dec 2020)

WELCOME! So excited you are joining us for this journey called applying for INSEAD.
I hope we can all support each other and make this an active thread.
Very open to ideas and suggestions on ways to add value to your experience here.
Wishing success for each of you.
Cheers,
Farrell

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Jan Intake 2020 (Class of Dec 2020) App Progress Tracker

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Round 1 applicants, I hope you have started brainstorming content for each of the 7 essays and 10 recommendation anecdotes to share. 10 weeks passes by very fast. This is definitely a marathon application, too.

I thought you might find this sample INSEAD set of essays helpful. My client has OK'ed me to share them but for your own benefit don't plagiarize, of course. I've removed all the unique identifiers.

With regards to his profile, plus points were that he was French (underrepresented..however less so at INSEAD of course), good grades, demonstrated impact at work and a strong "contribution" profile. Negatives were that he only had 2 years of work experience and a 650 GMAT.

He did not want to disclose his ambitions to his manager, so we did not submit any manager recommendations. His recommenders were a fellow board member and one internal client.

Invited to interview but withdrew when he was admitted to Wharton (specifically, Wharton-Lauder MBA/MA joint degree in International Affairs). His internship this summer was to work on the Facebook and https://gmatclub.com/chat merger in Ireland.
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Hi Farrell,

Thanks for starting this thread! Sorry about the ignorance but what do you mean with "10 recommendation anecdotes to share"? I consider myself familiar with the whole application process but that caught me off my guard.

Thanks!

Hi, tsuxinhah there are 5 recommendation questions. And you will need to have at least 2 recommenders. So that’s a total of 10 stories that you will need to come up with as talking points for each recommender. Maybe more if you would like to expand and give one more example.


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Hi all, I realize that many of you may be preparing for the TOEFL on a short timeline. One of my clients successfully went from a 98 to a 112 by following this approach. He prepared for 10 days while on vacation.

​​Hi Farrell,​​

First I used the official TOEFL IBT test material, I purchased 1 volume (I guess there are 2 volumes) each includes 5 mock tests.

It is a simulation of the real test (some retired questions from the real thing) and I made sure to do every test in the morning so my mind will get used to that (my exam was set in the morning ) since i am not a morning person.

For the speaking i relied on NoteFull from You Tube , it is a free resource and it is very helpful since it breaks down each of the 6 questions and provides the best strategy to answer any question in the TOEFL.

I made sure to do 1 mock test almost every day for one week, and that’s it.

One last advice, whenever she gets to the test center, let her make sure to come very early, so she can starts early as well and not get distracted by the noise ( for example , when I had the listening part last time , some people had the speaking and it is kind of very distracting )

I wish her the best luck.

Thanks
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MBAPrepCoach I see what you mean, thanks! I wasn't able to associate anecdotes with the letters, but I'm familiar with that. thank you!

JUST GOT MY INTERVIEW CALL!! WOOHOOOO! I WAS SO TENSE!!

Hi to all the awesome people on this thread!

When will the application for January 2020 intake be available online ? The website said two months before the R1 deadline, which would mean that the application should be available from today as the R1 deadline is February 20, 2019.

hi srinivasosuri !
I had a call with INSEAD recruiting a month ago and they said probably after Christmas, exact date not decided yet. I think definitely before January, let's keep an eye open.
cheers!

Jan 20 intake application is open now.
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Good luck to everyone applying INSEAD this season. We look forward to see introductions of applicants - It's always nice to know where's everyone from, their professional backgrounds, post MBA aspirations, and why INSEAD.
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Hi
one of the essay question in job description "Discuss your short and long term career aspirations with an MBA from INSEAD. (100 words maximum) * ". Really a challenging task to put everything in 100 words. Any ideas from the people in the group. Also wanted to know if it was similar for Sept 2019 intake or they had different word limit .

thanks

Was this for Round 2? This thread is for January batch but I am indeed very happy for you!

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chirkut1488 WOW! interesting. this is a big shift; usually they just put "short answer" but this is obviously vague and unenforceable. I am surprised; lately they seem to be putting the hammer down on word limits. Your motivation essays cannot be over by a single letter!

Here are a couple examples from clients who are willing to share, from HBS goals essay which requires 500 characters which is about 76 words. Keep in mind there is no real requirement to discuss INSEAD at all here; just what you would do once having that MBA. If you are clear on your goals, you should be able to do this. They want to make sure you can specify your objectives to employers in an interview situation succinctly without rambling on aimlessly.

Example 1:

In Albania, I met kids suffering physically and mentally after being abused by trafficking networks. This motivated me to establish a startup that powerfully combines data from public and private organizations to stop child trafficking in its tracks.

In order to prepare myself for this, post-MBA, I hope to work in Business Operations & Strategy at Palantir, a software company that applies data-driven strategies to help their clients solve tough social problems, such as child pornography rings.

Example 2:

I built India’s first remote diabetes care solution costing only $20/month, reaching 10K users. However, there are 50M more untreated diabetics who can’t afford this solution. I aspire to start a HealthTech venture that offers a solution that costs only $1/month, by using artificial intelligence.

As preparation to achieve this goal, post-MBA I will work as a Product Manager for Livongo or Glooko, both mid-stage US startups using artificial intelligence to manage diabetes for 400K Americans.


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Thanks for letting everyone know!

I hope you guys get to work on this app right away; it's very long and requires thought and introspection. The writing part is merely the manifestation of your thinking; if the quality of your research and thought is good the essays will be too.

Try to make some progress on your motivation essay 1 - speak with family, childhood friends and colleagues about some of your defining characteristics and consider what forces have shaped you into who you are.


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Would really encourage everyone to post this information about yourself, the more we know each other here the more we can help each other. Let's start with what Narenn suggested: where's everyone from, their professional backgrounds, post MBA aspirations, and why INSEAD


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Hi everyone, six weeks and 2 days away from R1 deadline. Have you started brainstorming for ideas on the essays? Don't try to sit and write a draft at this point - just consider what you might say for each motivation essay, and then sketch things out for the job essays. Brainstorm, outline, draft and edit.

Strongly encourage all Chinese and Indian applicants to apply R1 for best results. However everyone should apply in the first 2 rounds to have a crack at all the scholarship opportunities.

Here is the deadline table
Round 1

Deadline: February 20, 2019
Interview Decision Notification: March 22, 2019
Final Decision Notification: April 26, 2019

Round 2

Deadline: April 17, 2019
Interview Decision Notification: May 17, 2019
Final Decision Notification: June 21, 2019

Round 3

Deadline: June 5, 2019
Interview Decision Notification: July 5, 2019
Final Decision Notification: August 9, 2019

Round 4

Deadline: July 24, 2019
Interview Decision Notification: August 23, 2019
Final Decision Notification: September 27, 2019
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Is the "career aspirations" really requiring maximum 100 words?! There was no such low word limit in the previous application, but only a "short answer" indication.

Could you (or someone in this forum) please be so kind to post here which are the required essays for the Jan 2020 intake WITH the corresponding word limits?
I did not expect any change in essays/word limits from previous intake. I am afraid I will have to spend a lot of time redrafting again my essays if the word limits have changed so much...

Hola Amigos!

Have you started with your application? Ask questions when in doubt. Happy to help!

Shantanu Sharma
INSEAD Class of December 2017

I am trying to apply for thw fourth round may you please advice me about the deadline

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