Calling all Applicants: INSEAD January 2025 Intake

anyone have any idea what % of the class (if at all) at INSEAD is typically decided for Indians? according to the employment report, Indians made a very large portion of the class - which leads the question whether the quota for countries exists or doesn’t

Hi idliboba,

usually, each INSEAD intake has about 60-65 Indians in the class.

The 24D class that just started a few weeks ago has 70 Indians. So, a bit higher than usual.

Warm regards
Alex

prakashb2497 given the pool, it will be difficult. Your GRE is low and Q is not very favorable either. In case you do get a call please share more about your profile here.

Best wishes

Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD alum, former INSEAD admissions interviewer)
MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn |Read Testimonials on WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/ | Message: +91 9971200927| email- mbaguideconsulting@gmail.com

Dear INSEAD aspirants, In the last few years that I have been advising applicants, I have noticed how much people struggle with their failure/weakness essays. For those of you who also applied to ISB this cycle, you may have noticed that the essays on failures and weaknesses are quite similar to the staple INSEAD prompts. When comparing the two applications, I believe that the INSEAD essays necessitate a higher level of self-reflection and self-awareness due to the importance given by the adcom to the INSEAD 'fit' aspect, which is why applicants need to hit the mark here. If you are in the process of writing your INSEAD essays, I hope this post can help you if you are trying to find the right ideas.

How not to bomb the INSEAD failure essay

Confused what might be the best strategy for your business school applications? Reach out.

Best wishes
Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD alumna, former INSEAD admissions interviewer)
MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn |Read Testimonials on WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/ | Message: +91 9971200927(WA)| email- mbaguideconsulting@gmail.com

70 + 65 Indians corresponds is 13.5% of a class of 1000; not a quota which is a minimum but per country max percentage

Hi all, hope everyone’s having a great day. <This is the first time I’m messaging here - apologies in case of any misses!>

I’m currently preparing for GMAT focus and will be giving it on 19th Apr 2024. I’ve scored 690 on the old format mocks, twice, and am working on improving the score. I am a non-engineer from Lady Shri Ram college, DU, and am currently working at an MBB firm (Backend), with around 3.5 years of experience. I’ve been a high scorer at school and had a decent GPA in college. I haven’t had many opportunities to travel internationally from work; however, I’ve personally travelled to 2-3 countries.
INSEAD is my dream school. I’d love to know what I can work on to improve my profile and increase my chances of acceptance. Would appreciate all inputs!

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tavishi1901 - a few thoughts:

1. Your undergrad and the GPA (based on your mention) are good. GMAT mock score is a bit on the lower side. While there's no minimum cut-off for INSEAD, the school recommends (for GMAT Focus Edition) a 60th percentile on Verbal (80), and a 66th percentile on Quant (80) and Data Insights (77) sections in order to be competitive. I would suggest ideally aiming for some points above this to increase the odds, being part of a competitive demographic.

2. The MBB tag is a strong point. Would like to understand the nature of your work, projects, promotions (?), etc. to assess the strength of the professional arc better.

3. What are your post-MBA goals? If it's strategy consulting, I would suggest interacting more with client-facing/ consulting teams at your work i.e. doing more than BAU. This can help pick up more transferable skills and justify your motivations better. If your goal is not consulting, this point may not apply as much

4. A misconception many applicants have is that international experience only means physically working in another country. While that scenario is ideal, even interacting with teams abroad (virtually), traveling etc. count, as long as you can demonstrate interacting with diverse people/ cultures and what you learned from these. Similarly, highlighting some ExtraCurriculars that you're involved in, can help present a balanced profile. You could check here for some insights from our recent INSEAD admit

5. Which round/ intake are you aiming for? R2 deadline for the Jan 2025 intake would be a few days away from your planned GMAT date FYI. Allocating good quality time for essays would be crucial, as INSEAD has an extensive application.

Hope this helps a bit. If you'd like to have a deeper chat, feel free to reach out through the link(s) below.

Regards,
Arvind
Founder, admitStreet
W: https://admitstreet.com | LinkedIn | E: consultingteam@admitstreet.com

tavishi1901 I would rather be honest. If there's one thing you would like to take away from my feedback here, please work hard on the GMAT and aim for the upper end of the GMAT spectrum for your demographic.
I hate to break this to you, but the backend consulting pool (think Bain capability) is overrepresented in the INSEAD applications among Indian applicants. With 3.5 years of experience in this domain, if you feel you have hit the ceiling but are committed to improving your profile for INSEAD, it's the ideal time for you to move out and look for an exciting opportunity, maybe even an international one where you can leverage your consulting skill set to help a company or startup grow strategically for the next 1-2 years. Your undergrad is top-notch, so congrats, but try to add something extra to your profile outside of the backend MBB. INSEAD is spoilt for choice, and a backend data analyst sort of role will not add much interest.

Confused what might be the best strategy for your business school applications? Reach out.

Best wishes
Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD alumna, former INSEAD admissions interviewer)
MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn |Read Testimonials on WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/ | Message: +91 9971200927(WA)| email- mbaguideconsulting@gmail.com

Have a question - does INSEAD have a rolling interview invite system? If yes, then typically how long after I submit my application for Jan 25 intake can I hear back regarding the decision? I am planning to apply in Feb itself so that i can maybe get an early reply as I have applied to R2 (2024 intake) of other schools

Hi aroraprern,

INSEAD does not have a rolling interview invite system. So, regardless of when you submit your app, you'll still hear back within the usual 2-week window prior to the deadline stated on INSEAD's website.

So, submitting early doesn't mean hearing back early.

Feel free to download from our website a PDF with the INSEAD MBA application process with milestones and timing. You can find a direct link below in my signature.

I hope this helps.

Warm regards
Alex

Thanks Alex for the reply!

What does this part mentioned in their website mean then?

“ While we operate a staged admissions process, with four deadlines for each intake, applications are reviewed on a rolling admissions process within each round. This means that the Interview and Final Decision deadlines you see below are the latest dates by which you would receive your decision.

Rest assured that releasing decisions earlier than the published deadlines does not affect our thorough application evaluation.”

Posted from my mobile device

Hi aroraprern,

unlike other schools, INSEAD does not release all decisions at the same time. Instead, they start releasing decisions, usually, around 2 weeks before the deadline stated on their website.

For example, in the case of Round 1 for the Jan 2025 intake, the interview notification deadline is April 12th (Friday). So, you can expect the first interview invites to be released around April 1st (Monday). And from them on, invites will be released everyday until the very April 12th. And the majority of rejections tend to be released more towards the deadline.

I hope this helps.

Warm regards
Alex

Ohh understood. Basically we'll start receiving invites anytime after the application deadline until the interview deadline date.

Also will be helpful if you/others can give some inputs on my chances at INSEAD. I am and Indian female with almost 6 years of experience across a hedge fund (financial analyst) and startup (program manager). 3.42 GPA, CFA Level 1 cleared and 700 GMAT. Worked with folks from other countries for 3.5 years but haven't travelled internationally for work.

aroraprern - a few q's to understand your profile better:

1. What was your undergrad specialization and institute's pedigree (e.g. India T-10)?

2. A bit more detail on your professional experience would be good, e.g. are the hedge-fund/ start-up well-known branded names, were there promotions, reasons for switch, etc.

3. What's the Q/ V split of your GMAT?

4. Any involvement in Extra Curricular activities, ideally post undergrad?

Regards,
arvind

Is INSEAD very particular about promotions? And are switches a red flag for them?

Posted from my mobile device

I would say 4 key factors determine the strength of your work-ex: branded employers, progression/ promotions, international exposure and tangible impact on the role (e.g. reduced costs by USD X, improved efficiency by Y% etc.). Ideally, you want to have all these, but not everyone can and schools understand that. The more of these dimensions you can showcase, the better from a work-ex perspective.

Switches aren't a red flag per se, as long as you can justify your reasons/ motivations and how you professionally grew. Multiple switches within short tenures isn't ideal though.

regards,
arvind