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Welcome everyone to INSEAD (Sept 2017 Intake) MBA discussion! Use this platform to know one another, build network, exchange ideas/information, discuss application strategies, share interview /school visit experiences, and boost one-another's morale to face the tough admission process.

Let's write the INSEAD story together!!
Good luck to all!!














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INSEAD September 2017 Intake Essay Tips

There are two sections of the INSEAD application that require answers in the form of an essay or short paragraph: the Motivation Essays section, which is what students typically think of as the MBA application essays, and the Job Description section, which offers applicants an opportunity to flesh out the highlights of their career path.

The recently released 2016-2017 INSEAD MBA application, for students seeking September 2017 entry, includes four motivation essays (one optional) and five short answer questions about your job description (one optional).

A new change this year at INSEAD is the introduction of a video. After submitting your application you will have an opportunity to “introduce” yourself to INSEAD via a video interview. This is an additional chance for applicants to make a positive impact on the admissions committee.

If you want to get admitted to INSEAD, here are some MBA essay tips to keep in mind:

Motivation Essays
1. Give a candid description of yourself (who are you as a person), stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary (approximately 500 words).

This is a relatively straightforward question about strengths and weaknesses. Be sure that you have a very solid understanding of your personal brand; the more specific examples you can offer to support the strengths you list, the more compelling your essay will be. Do your research about INSEAD’s brand and what they are looking for in admitted students. The goal is not to change what you say about yourself in order to match what they’re looking for, but to provide an honest assessment of yourself in a way that highlights why you think you will be a good fit for INSEAD.

2. Describe the achievement of which you are most proud and explain why. In addition, describe a situation where you failed. How did these experiences impact your relationships with others? Comment on what you learned (approximately 400 words).

This is a very personal essay, and it will be all the more powerful if you allow yourself to show some vulnerability. Note that you are not being asked to share your most impressive achievement, but the one you are most proud of – the achievement should reflect your values and goals.

By the same token, when you discuss a time that you failed, you want to avoid superficialities and choose something that was meaningful to you. There needs to be an impactful result, a clear way in which you learned from this failure. When you aim to accomplish big goals, failure is inevitable at some points along the road, and your essay should illustrate that you are able to fail without giving up or giving in.

There is a lot to pack into a very short amount of space with this essay – only 400 or so words – so this is one you will want to spend a lot of time brainstorming about and revising to make sure that it is concise, honest, and addresses all elements of the question (including how your achievements and failure impacted your relationships with others, either at the time or later in your career).

3. Describe all types of extra-professional activities in which you have been or are still involved for a significant amount of time (clubs, sports, music, arts, politics, etc). How are you enriched by these activities? (approximately 300 words)

Time is the one thing that we can never get more of. This question seeks to understand more about what you value by looking at how you spend your time. What do your hobbies say about what you will bring to the INSEAD student cohort? Are you someone who is accustomed to putting in long hours working with a group of like-minded individuals? What hobbies or interests have you had to give up as you’ve progressed in your career?

4. Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee? (optional; approximately 300 words)

Applicants often feel anxiety about whether they should provide an answer to optional essay prompts. It’s important to remember that these prompts are truly optional: if you feel like the existing essay questions (and INSEAD has plenty of them!) have fully covered your experience, then your time is far better spent making sure that your required essays are as strong as they can be.

However, if you do have a weakness or unusual aspect to your application, the optional essay gives you an excellent opportunity to address it head on and indicate your self-awareness, as well as the steps you are taking (or have taken) to mitigate any weaknesses. That might mean explaining why a poor undergraduate GPA doesn’t reflect your current potential, or owning up to a spotty job history and showing the steps you’ve taken to strengthen your resume. Don’t try to deflect blame; own up to your mistakes and show what concrete actions you’ve taken to make yourself a solid MBA candidate.

Job Description Questions
1. Briefly summarise your current (or most recent) job, including the nature of work, major responsibilities, and where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, clients/products and results achieved.

Make sure you keep this essay focused on your most recent job, and if you’ve been there a while, focus on the last year or so. If you do not supervise many (or any) employees, spend some time thinking about the experience you’ve gained in your current role that lends itself to supervisory experience. Keep this essay brief and focused on objective, measurable results whenever possible.

2. What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company?

This should be a relatively simple question to answer: what are your opportunities for growth and advancement within your current organization? Depending on your career goals, it may make sense to discuss how you are currently preparing to take on this next role, and whether you feel it is the direction you want to take your career in.

3. Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university. Describe your career path with the rationale behind your choices.

The goal here is to show intentionality in your career path – not just that you’ve jumped around at random, but that you’ve had a goal you’re working toward or have at the very least steadily increased your responsibilities and seniority. This is also your chance to explain any resume gaps, industry jumps, or otherwise seemingly unexpected portions of your resume.

4. Discuss your short and long term career aspirations with or without an MBA from INSEAD.

Many business schools have essay questions which address the idea of where you want your career to go, regardless of whether you’re admitted to their MBA program. Change happens, and you are not always in control of the direction it takes. In addition to the questions designed to get a better look at the intentionality of your career path, this question attempts to get a sense of how well you roll with the punches. Do you have contingency plans for how to shape your career in the event of market changes or disruptive innovation?

Your answer should illustrate that you have put significant thought into how you will move forward with your career, regardless of whether you’re admitted to the INSEAD MBA programme this year.

5. If you are currently not working or if you plan to leave your current employer more than 2 months before the programme starts, please explain your activities and occupations between leaving your job and the start of the programme. (optional)

The adcom is again looking for intentionality with this question: are you pursuing an MBA because you aren’t sure what to do next, or because you’re certain that it’s the right step for your career goals and aspirations? The specifics of what you are doing (volunteering, studying, traveling, etc.) are less important than how well you can show that your activities have a purpose and have been chosen to support your career goals.

No matter how many essays your target school requires, EXPARTUS is here to help. If you’d like guidance when it comes to developing your essay or strengthening your personal brand, feel free to contact us.

We decided to analyse our accumulated forum data of INSEAD applicants to determine admission trends and acceptance chances of applicants. We have tried to determine acceptance chances by GMAT score, Intakes, industry, etc. and compare performance of GMAT Club applicants with overall applicant pool. The data used for this analysis is self-reported, so it's advised to use findings of this analysis only to get idea of admission scenario at INSEAD. Don't presume that these findings will hold true all the time.

We would welcome any comments, opinions, suggestions or anything else that you might have to say about the findings of this analysis.

INSEAD vs GMATClub Applicant Pool: YoY Comparison
	2012 Intake		2013 Intake		2014 Intake		2015 Intake		2016 Intake
	School	GMAT Club	School	GMAT Club	School	GMAT Club	School	GMAT Club	School	GMAT Club
Acceptance Rate	N/A	37%	N/A	27%	N/A	26%	N/A	25%	N/A	18%
Average GMAT	N/A	724	N/A	710	701	710	700	708	700	709
Average GPA	N/A	3.45	N/A	3.49	N/A	3.46	N/A	3.5	N/A	3.46
Avg Work Experience	60 - 72	67	60 - 72	71	72	68	66	66	72	64
Average Age	29	29	29	29	29	28	29	28	29	28

January and September Intakes: Applicants and Acceptance Rates

• Both the acceptance rate and number of applicants are higher for Sept intake.
  
• R2 and R3 have highest probability of acceptance than other rounds.
  
• R1 is greatest round in terms of number of applicants.

Sample Size: 1907 Applicants

Acceptance Rate by GMAT Score

• As expected, acceptance chances increase with higher GMAT scores; however, this holds true only upto 730 level, after which we can see some decrease in the acceptance chances of applicants with GMAT scores 740 and 750. We observed similar trend during the analysis of ISB applicants as well.

Sample Size: 838 Applicants

Acceptance Rates of Different Age Groups GMAT Score

• Greatest portion of INSEAD's applicant pool is coming from 28-30 age group and this group also has highest chance of admission. This is not very surprising because average age of INSEAD's incoming class has always stayed around 28 - 29.

Sample Size: 358 Applicants

Acceptance rates by Countries

• For this analysis, we have considered only those countries that have relatively higher number of INSEAD applicants on forum. We have not chosen the countries with less than 15 applicants.
  
• We have also shown the difference between average GMAT of overall applicant pool of a specific country and average GMAT of admitted students of that country.

Sample Size: 610 Applicants

Acceptance rates of applicants from various industries

• The first chart - line chart - shows acceptance rates of applicants from various industries and the pie chart next to it shows industri-wise allocation of applicants.

Sample Size: 784 Applicants

Incoming Class of INSEAD

• Here we have done industry-wise classification of students admitted between 2012 and 2016 to see representation of various industries in an average INSEAD MBA class.

Sample Size: 784 Applicants



As I said earlier, we welcome your views, counter-views, suggestions, etc on the analysis. Thank you!

That's a lot of charts.

Hi guys,

Thank you! I have been waiting for this thread!
Do you experts have any take on this new video thing? It worries me a little.

Thank you again!
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Good to see the acceptance rate for Chinese is 63%! And the GMAT is 730!!!


Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Just came across the following blog post. Following suit with Kellogg and Yale, INSEAD has introduced this new component in the application process. What do prospective applicants think about the new video interview? Will it help in providing deeper insights into your background?

Yes I stumbled upon that too yesterday. There is still no way to get a hint on what potential questions they would be asking. And that is worrisome.
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Awesome piece of info..Thanks

FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Sponsored student? INSEAD is almost a no-brainer!

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Internships & Summer Holidays at INSEAD

When describing the curriculum of my MBA program to my friends and family, many were surprised to learn that the program itself is actually ten months, with a two-month summer break for the classes with January starts (July graduates do not have an... Continue Reading →

Hello Everyone,

I'm an Indian male applicant to INSEAD sep-2017 intake. Its very ambitious of me to think of applying to INSEAD given my financial background.
My profile goes as follows:
GMAT: 720 (Q49/V40)
I am yet to take language test(s).
Work-Exp: 60 months till July-2016
Sector: Electrical Design Engineering - heavy electricals manufacturing and power sector (54 months at BHEL - a manufacturing sector PSU in India)
Extra-curriculars are good but community service is poor.
Have been part of theatre groups and social cause performances - acting and direction.
Leadership roles are ample within and beyond my profession.
Acads: High School - 91%
12th std - 93%
B. Tech. (Electrical Engineering) - 73.4% (but 4th in class)

Firstly, I'm not even sure how strong my profile is for INSEAD. So please enlighten me in this domain.

Secondly, my major concern is finance. In India, max. loan amount without collateral etc. is INR 30 lacs (approx EUR 40,000).
I have next to nil collateral property.
I'll be able to personally manage not more than approx EUR-15,000. So how am I supposed to fund my studies if I'm not awarded any scholarship. Saying that, may I know the probability of getting a scholarship and if yes, about how much, based on my profile.

Please oblige me with your advice as I really want to apply to INSEAD but for an average Indian with low financial background, it is next to impossible investing that much even if you deserve it. (If I do).

Thanks for reading.

Abhishek

Hi,

I am an Indian applicant.Good profile and lots of Extracurricular, working in world's best Entertainment company. But I am not from IIT and never went abroad for work (so no International exposure) and most imp GMAT 670.

My chances with Insead seems pretty SLim. Need opinion.

Thanks in advance,
abrakadabra

Dear you know WHO,

As you say you have a good profile and a brilliant EC. I would encourage you to still apply. And apply in R1.

So far, what I have understood is that these points like IIT and GMAT score are just very small additives. Sure if you had a GMAT 700-710 chances would have been better. But you can take the test Again. IIT I wouldn't even worry about it.

As for international exposure. the main point that they are looking for is how easily you adapt to a different cultural situation. so you can find some examples from your experience with the entertainment company or if you are a north Indian and working in South India you can site that. (not sure how strong that essay would be, but definitely something to think about)

Make the application. All the best.

hi, i am an indian applicant trying to get to intake of july 2017 in insead.
my profile reads -
b.tech - IT-BHU -8.19
gmat -760
very good at sports activities and little community service during the college time.
i m little struggling with my communication skills.

plz tell me what are my chances. And i have few more questions
a) i did my undergraduate in English. It is mentioned in INSEAD form that we have to submit a proof stating that the language of instruction
was English. I don't know where to find the proof.
b) is the video interview is final or will they take some other interview after this. If yes, how much time they give for the preparation of interview

Hello Praveen,

First off, It's IITV. now. use that.

Your chances depend majorly on your work experience, international exposure... and so on.
1. no proof needed.
2. the video interview is a new addition to the process, so not much info is out there. from what I have understood, this is the step 1.

The answer to your question a) is this link www.iitbhu.ac.in/institute/notification ... uction.pdf. How do I know this? Because I graduated from the same college boy I miss those days
b) It's not a video interview but more like a video essay. I do not have much info about that but your interviews will definitely be separate from the video.

Having said that, communication skills will be key to your application and with addition of the video component, it will be critical. So focus on improving that in the next couple of months before the deadline and that should help. Get your essays reviewed by peers and friends as a different perspective is always helpful.

Let me know if you have any other questions - I'll be happy to help as much as I can.

It's IITBHU, not IITV

Oh Sorry, I thought it was IIT Varanasi, Anyway point being:- if the IIT name gives 0.01% better probability .. use it.