INSEAD SEPTEMBER 2011 Intake

congratulations coffeebean, by ur score, did u have more than 70%ile in both verbal n quant. sorry, thats one of my biggest worries at the moment so asking
and congrats anjali1d

I scored 680 with less than 70% on the quants and I was still selected for interview, so by no means is the GMAT the be-all-end-all. Good luck.

@akp - My quant was a tad lower than the 70%ile requirement. Aside from the GMAT, I'm sure the AdCom puts equal importance to other aspects of your application. So don't worry too much.

thanks @warumnicht and @CoffeeBean - its 63 for me but thanks for the encouraging words. good luck with the interviews...

Hey all,

Just had my first interview so thought I would update those interested.

The interviewer was the co-founder of a financial services company, graduated 10 years ago. After a brief email exchange, he invited me to his office for the interview during lunch hour.

The interviewer was very polite, courteous, and friendly overall - no aggression at any point. Interestingly, he focused almost entirely on my cv during the interview (i presented him with copies of the application and my cv at the interview although I had emailed him copies previously). The interview started with an informal discussion about my job, life in general and every now and then he would throw in some questions that I had been preparing for:

1. Why MBA
2. Why now (my response to this question also kinda answers the "why INSEAD" question, but before I could go there, the interviewer just chuckled and said dont worry about the why insead, I can imagine the reasons - GREAT!)
3. He went through my resume and asked me specific questions about my education in philosophy and economics. This was interesting, his question on this was "whats helped you more in life, philosophy or economics?" - he also asked me to take my time to think about the response
4. Another interesting question he asked was how my learning from philosophy had helped me in conflict resolution in my professional life, asked for an example
5. Again, from my cv, he asked me specific questions about my responsibilities at my company - here he asked many specifics but it came across more as curiosity rather than as an assessment of my fit with the program. He could obviously have been gauging my communications skills and leadership managerial / leadership abilities
6. What others schools have I applied to

Following this discussion, he spoke at length about his personal experience at INSEAD and his professional experience before and after INSEAD, etc.

6. After an hour-long discussion, his final question was whether i would consider moving firms if i did not get into INSEAD, or if I would try hard to get into another school, and this was followed by a Q&A session where I may have asked too many but he was happy to answer them all.

I asked him for feedback following the interview and he said it went well (fyi - my phone rang in the middle of him asking me a question...he didnt react though). So that's that - onto IV # 2 - which hasnt been scheduled yet!

Hey Habeebee ... congrats mate.. looks like you had a good interview.. not bad, having topics like philosophy and economics on your CV Do keep us posted on your second IV.. Really envy you mate, while you're already sharing your IV experiences, we're still awaiting the elusive pre-selects
Rock on mate!

Congrats Anjali! Can you please share your profile and the name of your coordinator? Thanks

Hello All, any pre-selected invites from Stefanie yet??

@ravdoc: thanks a lot man! Wish you all the best too and will keep all posted on the second IV. Gotta make sure the phone doesn't ring this time.

Hi,

Congrats to everyone invited to interviews!

Any reapplicant from D11 or J11 that was invited to interviews? How did you manage / modify the application form + supporting documents?

Thanks,
Mujko

Roll call updated.

I received one on Friday

Thanks all and sorry for the late reply.
I am an Indian/24/IT field/barely any international exp/690
I got the invite from Stefanie. I really wasn't expecting it. So everyone, keep your hopes alive. You can have the most stereotyped profile but you never know.

I received an invite on Oct.22.

Last year I was rejected without being granted an interview. Yet, I received a feedback encouraging me to reapply when and if I improve my quant score (mine was quite low). And I did: now my quant is at 75%. This feedback also outlined a reapplication procedure: I only had to submit a profile section of application, a reapplicant essay, and an application fee (not sure if this is the same procedure for all reapplications).

In the reapplicant essay, I stressed that my GMAT score is now in line with the school's recommendations of at least 70-75% for each section. Also, I touched on my new extracurriculars (I became involved with a political party), and additional education (I entered a M.S. in Finance program, that will conclude in June, 2011).

Hope this was beneficial.

I have a similar story. I applied three years ago with a low verbal score and the final day for interview invitation they suggested me to reaply with a better verbal score. In fact they offered me several options like reapplying within the month with only a new GMAT score. I improved my score within the month, sent it to my coordinator, got interview invitation the next day and was eventually rejected.

Sorry for the unhappy-end, but I wouldn't be here otherwise

Today, the reapplication process for me is quite the same as a new one exept that I had to write an additional essay (the last one), I didn't have to resend my transcripts/GMAT score and I had to find new referees.

Anyone having difficulty reaching one of their interview contacts?

Hey all,

Glad to join this forum.
I have been pre-selected for interview almost 2 weeks ago... i have already scheduled my interviews during next week. I hope it goes well.

Profile:
- Region: Middle East... currently working in the UAE
- By Sep'11, i'll have 4.5 years experience (out of which 3.5 yrs in Management Consulting)
- currently 27 yrs old, extensive international exposure, multilingual, managerial experience
- Engineering graduate (honors) with a very active student life!
- Finally: GMAT 660 (above 70% percentile on quant & verbal)

Good luck for all of u guys, keep ur hopes high!