Re: Calling all INSEAD MBA Applicants: (January 2018 Intake) Class of 2018
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07 Apr 2017, 22:24
Ok, guys, yesterday I visited the Fonty campus (MBA In-House Event) and I would like to share my impressions. So, brace yourselves, a long post is coming...
First, my general impression was very good and that the visit was definitely worth it. I'd recommend it to anyone who is considering INSEAD and can afford to visit.
Volunteer students were taking visitors in groups of 5 for a campus tour, and it seemed they were having interesting discussions and offering some insight on the business school life. I, however, got unlucky and did not get a current student. I was taken by one of the staff for the tour, which was fine, but much less personal (kind of "this is meeting rooms, this is the gym, this is X, etc.).
Honestly, all the information about the program overview, career development and admissions criteria was not really helpful since I had already done a massive amount of research and have my application almost ready. I can see however that for many people who are just in the beginning of the process how it could make things more clear.
The masterclass was fine. We had a French professor teaching a Organizational Behavior class, more specifically Power and Politics in the workplace. The course is usually taught in 24 hours but, for the event, it was condensed in a 1 hour masterclass. You guys can guess that we only scratched the surface and did not into any real depth on the subject. Of course it was not the professor's fault in any way and I can imagine the full course to be valuable to one's career.
I learned one "bad" thing, though: tuition fees are now at 80.8k euros for the class graduating in December 2018. Just 2 years ago (class graduating in December 2016) the fees were at 66k! I guess that's the collateral of being #1 at FT's ranking two years in a row...
And here is the best part of the visit: the current students panel and the cocktail with current students. We heard the experience from 4 17'J who are in P4, now. There was a French guy who knew he wanted to go to a tech startup from the beginning of his MBA. There was an Indian banker (who was super fun, politically incorrect, very frank) who changed his mind during the MBA and now he wants to go to tech (not necessarily a startup, though). A Polish girl with amazing international experience who joined the program as an explorer, and now also wants to work in tech (I know, it seems to be the trend!). And finally, a Danish former corporate lawyer, who used to be in the top 10 competition bike racers in Denmark, and is also looking for a change of industry and role.
Overall, I must say that all of them looked super interesting and smart, and I would love to work with them in groups or just have a drink at the bar.
The last part was the cocktail, which started at 18:15 and went until 20:00. I must say that before going to the event I thought that it would be super hard to network with people for almost 2 hours. In the end, time really flew by, and luckily I checked my watch 10 minutes before the time my cab was scheduled, otherwise I would have missed my train to Paris. I talked to both prospective and current students, and found a very interesting mix.
I came out of the event convinced that INSEAD is a great choice, and I am now even more excited about the program.