INSEAD January 2015 Intake (Class of December 2015)

Job description 2
Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university. It should be written as if you were talking to
someone at a social gathering detailing your career path with the rationale behind your choices. Discuss your short and long term
career aspirations.

They why INSEAD I think should be almost all over the essay answers.

how lenient is INSEAD with GMAT scores? I'm applying with a 640 - i'm pretty confident about the other aspects of my profile - work achievements, leadership and extra curriculars but the GMAT really worries me. I might be able to take it again just in time for the deadline (25th March) ; other aspects - gpa above 3.3, will return to my original employer after finishing the mba

Hi Brobeedle, I don't think that somebody here is able to tell you for sure. I've heard about cases when people were admitted with low GMAT, sometimes admission committee even asked to retake GMAT. It always depends on particular case and you just can't evaluate whether your profile is so outstanding to cover your GMAT or not. Do you have enough time to work hard on GMAT during the following month in order to increase your score?

In my opinion, if you are weak in one aspect of your profile you should be fine as long as there are very few applicants with a similar profile to yours but with stronger GMAT. Having said this, I would encourage you to retake the exam. It would be better to apply in the second round with a stronger gmat score.

I am in a similar situation as you are, but decide to apply anyway while retaking the test around the application deadline - not sure whether its accepted by admission committee.

Have any of you been able to upload your essays?
When saved on my comp, the PDF says "you cannot save data on this form". Any one successfully completed this yet?

I am interested in applying to Round 2 of the Jan 2015 intake. I was wondering, how helpful is the admissions committee in relation to reviewing your profile and giving their feedback on the viability of applying?

Have not tried uploading myself but having problems with the Jobs essay PDF as the first question answer box does not do word count. Anyone else with the same problem?
It does let me save the file though

Hey guys,

I have been accepted to INSEAD class of 15J, and I will be starting at Singapore this August. Besides INSEAD, I was also accepted to two top-10 US MBA programs.

I know that many of us (including me) cannot afford to hire admissions consultants. So, if you guys need any help with your applications- I will be happy to help (for free!)

Send me a PM if you want to talk about your application strategy or want me to take a look at your essays.

Regards,
Akshat

brobeedle wrote:
how lenient is INSEAD with GMAT scores? I'm applying with a 640 - i'm pretty confident about the other aspects of my profile - work achievements, leadership and extra curriculars but the GMAT really worries me. I might be able to take it again just in time for the deadline (25th March) ; other aspects - gpa above 3.3, will return to my original employer after finishing the mba

brobeedle and sternfrank:

From what I know, INSEAD is more concerned about your splits on verbal and quant section, not your overall GMAT. If you are around 70th percentile (75th percentile is ideal) on both the sections, you are good to go. Now depending on how far your score is below this "benchmark", other factors will come into play.

Looks like you have a great profile; you should definitely go ahead and apply. Do take your GMAT again. Best of luck!

A higher gmat doesn't hurt, 640 is slightly on the lower end of their profile. Ofcourse I'm no expert but I would recommend taking the time to boost your score and apply in R2.

Thanks for your replies domrep and akshat! I am definitely applying, and in round 1. my re-take is set for April 10th. I have a question: should I email the adcom and tell them that i am planning to re-take the gmat on the 10th? or wait till the official interview notification deadline of the 25th? problem is that letting them of know of my intention to re-take might be a double edged sword. What if they were ok with the 640 and were going to call me anyway, but then I told them that i've got a re-take planned, so they decide to wait till my retake?

Sorry if this sounds confusing!

Assuming that you have already "reported" (or will report by the R-1 deadline) your GMAT score to INSEAD there can be two cases:-

1. You take the GMAT, get a lower/equal score and do not tell the admissions committee. You are not better off in any way.

2. You take the GMAT, get a higher score and then tell the admissions committee about your higher score. Now, the admissions committee has a reason to believe that you had every intent to game the process by doing what I stated in 1. So, despite getting a higher score, you might actually hurt your chances.

I do not think that the admissions committee will penalise you in any way if you are forthcoming with them.
I hope I am making sense

Hey Akshat,

yest hat does make sense thank you very much for your prompt response!

I am facing the same problem. When I enter the essays into the pdf, it does not save them. Any luck, anybody else?

I'm able to upload my essays but the word counter below each essay box doesn't work - don't know if I should be worried about that or not?

One more question - where on the app/in the essays can I mention that I have a Singapore PR? I want it to get noticed because it makes it a lot easier to get a job in Singapore. Any suggestions, anyone?