Time to start the Next INSEAD INTAKE. I will be applying R1, anyone else?

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INSEAD JANUARY 2011 INTAKE

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AppHappy

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04 Aug 2010, 01:12

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Just finished my first interview. My interviewer was a compliance officer for a German commercial bank who had previously been in computer science but then went into banking after INSEAD. She was very nice and laid back, and the tone was pretty casual. We met in a coffee shop and the whole thing lasted a little over an hour. I think overall, I feel pretty good about how it went. Questions she asked:

Why MBA?
What makes you unique?
How did you come to be working in China?
What do you plan on doing post-MBA?
Tell me about a time you were in a frustrating situation.

Through the course of the conversation, we touched on my background growing up, different facets of my job now and the team that I work in now, hobbies, and my time volunteering in a developing country. I think I was a bit tense in the beginning and loosened up more as we went along.

She then talked a lot about her experience (before I asked her about it), mentioning things like how lots of people can be very cocky and opinionated so it sometimes creates conflicts trying to work together. She also said not to focus solely on academics and to make sure to get more out of the experience than just an education. She also mentioned that the program was pretty intense. I was a little surprised at how much of the interview she spent giving me advice versus grilling me. Oh, and she did ask if I was applying anywhere else, but said that it wasn't a bad thing if I was, she was just curious.

After we finished, we ended up sharing a taxi and chatted more in the car. Conversation in the car was mostly small talk about Shanghai, Hong Kong, languages.

PoojaKhetan

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04 Aug 2010, 02:30

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I received my notification today as well

Considering I sent all my supporting docs on June 16th and my application on July 23rd, I thought I would have received it much sooner. But still, better late than never

As for my profile, I'm F/29/Singaporean/GMAT=700/7 years int'l exp in Asset Management/Last 4 yr been running my own company

Good luck to everyone!

ligett

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04 Aug 2010, 22:53

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psychicle

Pixie & ligett -- try PM'ing HankScorpio for access to his INSEAD January 2011 intake Google spreadsheet, which contains profiles and admission status for anyone who has asked to be included. It's a great resource!

Psychicle, thanks for the tip

I havent been able to get hold of Hankscorpio, tried to PM him - no answer.
Can anyone share the list with me please? Like send a link or an attachment maybe..

Thanks in advance

kelkim

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05 Aug 2010, 01:23

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Me too, I tried to PM Hankscorpio but received no reply from him. It would be good if someone can share the link. Many thanks!

AppHappy

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05 Aug 2010, 01:37

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kelkim

Me too, I tried to PM Hankscorpio but received no reply from him. It would be good if someone can share the link. Many thanks!

i believe no one else can send the link because it is a google document so Hankscorpio has to grant you access to it.

Applicant2011

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05 Aug 2010, 09:29

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I completed my first interview on 3rd and the second one today.

The first interview happened in the coffee shop of a luxury hotel and was a very relaxed affair while the second interview happened in the office of the interviewer and was a bit more formal and stressful.

Both my interviewers were writing down notes throughout the interview.

Apparently they have a form to fill up with around 10 questions on their opinion on the applicant's personality.

The long wait begins.................

AppHappy

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05 Aug 2010, 18:59

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Applicant2011

hi applicant2011, i just finished my second interview yesterday as well. for better or worse, i guess it's out of our hands now. good luck with coping with the agonizing suspense. fingers crossed we all get accepted!

here's a quick debrief of interview #2 for anyone who might be interested:

We met in the interviewer's office, but the tone was still very relaxed. We talked a lot about my job but more how private equity in china works at a high level instead of my role in the company or what exactly I do. We also spent a lot more time than my first interview chatting about more personal things. He has lived in both Malaysia and Vietnam so was really interested to hear about the times I'd traveled through there. I think we also managed to relate on the point of moving around a lot in childhood because I'd done it in my childhood and now his kids are going through a similar experience. I don't think we even got to Why MBA? until about halfway through the interview. Towards the end, he made an interesting comment that was something like, "you know, the interview is really just a small building block in the overall decision process." I guess he meant that he thought the interview was just to check the box and that if the rest of my application was strong, I should be ok. I guess that makes me feel better..? That was about it. I was definitely much more relaxed this time around then with the first interview.

It lasted about 1hr 15mins.

jmontalvo

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06 Aug 2010, 05:53

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Hi everyone!

Had my 2nd interview today.

First one was last week in the offices of a Marketing Director. We had set up a time, but we had to reschedule (change wasn't comfortable at all for me, but I managed to be there on time

). The interview began in Spanish (I'm Argentinean based in Spain), and then we switched to English.
In this interview we talked about my career and what to expect at insead (of course, the typical questions: Why MBA, Why INSEAD, etc. appeared). I felt very comfortable with the result of this interview.

The second interviewer was a French Engineer (also based in Spain). We also started in Spanish, but very quickly switched to English (just when the though questions went through). I felt more "attacked" in this interview ("why not London?", "I don't see why do you need an MBA" and things like that), but it was very friendly, and we ended up talking more personal things, like what do I like, what motivates me, etc. The typical questions also appeared, but I feel he didn't got a picture about my work (I think he didn't care). For instance, a topic we talked about was Movies (because of one of my answers about interests).

In sum, I felt quite comfortable after both interviews. If I were to analyze everything I could get paranoid, I noticed some reluctances in both of my interviewers about why should I do an MBA, some faces I didn't like, and some questions that came up because of our talking that made me ask if I was doing well...

My recommendation for all the people who is going to have an interview is to try to relax and be yourself. Think deeply about the answers to the typical questions (no try to fix anything, just to believe in them. I investigated a little about my interviewers before (google, linkedin) and found out where they lived, studied and worked. I also searched a little about their companies (specially in the news), but in the end I didn't use any of these. However, if I had to do it again (hope not!

) I would certainly do it, as it gave me some sort of feeling of preparation for the interview.

I don't know, don't have magic recipes, don't know if I had done well or not, there's nothing else to do now, just wait...

BTW, I've been reading the posts during the RD1 final decision frenzy from Wednesday to Friday and I noticed that usually the admits were told by phone, and that WL (I don't know if there were dinged people after interviews) came by e-mail. I think it was not exactly like this for everyone, but at least the majority.
Any thoughts about it?

Well, fingers crossed, and relax for the next 4 weeks! (yay, lot of time remaining).

Also, I forgot, which deadline were you given to have the interviews? (mine was 9th of August, next Monday)

Regards!
j

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06 Aug 2010, 07:25

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I had my interviews a couple of weeks ago.

The first was at a coffee shop and went for a few hours. It started with a "walk through my CV" and then some questions about my background and business. Most of it though was a conversation about random things and points of common interest. It was a good meeting.

The second one was with a younger alum and your description about captures my experience. The only thing is that it was a bit edgier -as if the interviewer was trying to assess how I'd deal in an uncomfortably aggressive environment. In the end, this lasted for an hour and half and was by no means as good an interview as the first one.

I got the August 9 deadline request as well.

kelkim

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06 Aug 2010, 20:47

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For those admitted students for Jan 2011 intake, do you know when is the first day you need to report to school (e.g. matriculation day)? Just trying to do the planning ahead. Many thanks!

psychicle

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06 Aug 2010, 22:07

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ligett, kelkim and anyone else who is trying to reach HankScorpio for access to the Google doc, I just checked the notification rules and it appears that anyone who has "can edit" access to the document is also able to add access to new members.

For future reference, all one would need to do is:
1. access the document
2. click "Share" at the top
3. select "Sharing settings" from the drop down menu
4. enter new e-mail addresses into the "Add people" box at the bottom of the window that pops up.

This amongst millions of other reasons is why Google Docs is SO GOOD. MAN I love it. Hehe

Anyway, if anyone is looking for help you can PM me with your e-mail address and I can add you.

Applicant2011

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07 Aug 2010, 01:08

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I was given a deadline of Aug 20th to complete my interviews.

Does this mean anything or is it just for staggering the interviews basis the interviewers' availability?

jmontalvo

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07 Aug 2010, 02:49

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In my case I think I was given the invitation to interviews very early (got the confirmation in July 1st, and then I was given the interviewers info on the 6th). But in my case I think it was because I am based in Spain, and summer holidays shut the country off, as many people take from 2 to 3 weeks (or even 4!) during August.
Well, at least that's what I guess...

Applicant2011

I was given a deadline of Aug 20th to complete my interviews.

Does this mean anything or is it just for staggering the interviews basis the interviewers' availability?

f4d

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09 Aug 2010, 15:59

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I just had my first interview which was very informal. I wrote a thank you note. But didn't receive a response. Should I take this as a negative sign? Anyone received a reponse after a thank you email?

Posted from my mobile device

careerchange

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09 Aug 2010, 16:03

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To the R2 applicants - how long after the deadline did you start hearing back from the adcom about dings/waitlist/interview?

Scholar

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10 Aug 2010, 06:44

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careerchange

To the R2 applicants - how long after the deadline did you start hearing back from the adcom about dings/waitlist/interview?

The first interview notifications came out a couple of weeks before the published deadline. I'm not aware of any WL's pre-interview. From the RD1 part of this thread it seems that WLs come out at the final decision stage. Dings and most interview notifications come out within two or three days of the published deadline.

Applicant2011

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10 Aug 2010, 10:32

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I was going through the posts during R1 final admission deadline on this forum and I noticed that there was not even one ding post. There were either W/L or admit. It can mean either of 3 things:
1) people who got dings post-interview did not post on this forum or were not on this forum at all. 2) Insead interview shortlists are actually short lists and if you get an interview call then you either get an admit or a W/L.
3) Insead would not want to ding people in R1 but wanted to compare some applicant profiles with those in R2 and so chose to put them on a W/L. Hence there was a big movement on W/L just after the R2 interview notifications +R1 deposit payment.

Can any of the R1 admits or others shed some insights on these observations.

I guess I would be pouring over such useless statistics over the next 3 weeks trying to find a method to the madness. Got to kill time.

AppHappy

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10 Aug 2010, 17:50

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f4d

i received responses to both of my thank you notes but i think it really just depends on your interviewer. wouldn't read into it too much.

HankScorpio

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14 Aug 2010, 19:21

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psychicle

Apologies for the non-responsiveness - I was tending to some personal matters. For those of you still in the process, good luck, and thanks psychicle for volunteering to add to the list.

Cheers

bhatiagp

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15 Aug 2010, 03:55

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Applicant2011

I am a R1 admit to INSEAD, and also didnt see any rejections to applicants on GMATCLUB in R1, after they were selected for interview. Few were WL though. So far I havent come across any rejections to any of the WL candidates, although many have WL candidates are now accepted.

Again I'm unsure on why there were no outright rejections we came across after R1 admits were declared. Maybe those rejected didnt write back onm the forum, or perhaps GMATCLUB members are well accomplished and were able to research INSEAD well and write good essays and hence most got accepted. Or maybe there will be a few rejections sent alongside R2 or R3 results.

After I saw the R1 results, I had a doubt if INSEAD was an easy school to get into, and if GMAT was their decisive criterion , but after I saw the class profile, I must agree that it is an amazing class, and many with high GMAT scores were WL. Yes most candidates who have secured acceptance have a reasonaly good GMAT score ( From HankScorpios sheet); but the pool is very diverse and all candidates are well accomplished.

I also met a few INSEAD'ers recently and I must agree that they are a wonderful bunch of people. All of those who I met have worked or lived outside their country for a siginficant time and were a smart group of people.
I also met a few Sr consultants ( Non-INSEADER's ) and they also gave me a thumbs up for my admit to INSEAD. The school definetely has a good repute specifically in the consulting sector even amongst those from other top schools, and I have been told that an INSEAD MBA definitely does open doors with all the top MBA Consulting firms, and amongst R1 admits almost 30 are currently from these firms. ( Mck/ Booz/ Bain/ BCG/ Deloitte).