INSEAD SEPTEMBER 2011 Intake

I trust there are others who, after having received the interview invite, haven't heard anything further from INSEAD? I'm getting impatient!

I had both of my interviews last week. I would recommend that if you still haven't heard back from your interviewer, then you should get in touch with your INSEAD coordinator and have them put some pressure on the interviewer for you!

Hope interviews went well for you. Was one of your NYC interviewer with the initials V.W.?

I feel pretty positively on them, so fingers crossed. Looking at all the stats of people who got interviews makes me SO nervous, b/c at this point they only take 50%! (And can I just say, we all look like very fine candidates! )

My interviewers' initials were C.W. and J.N.! Did yours go well? (and Good Luck if you haven't done them yet!)

nycgirl191,

I am one of those still waiting after my int. invite. I don't live in a cosmopolitan region and Insead alums don't grow on trees in my catchment area. So I feel like the country bumpkin or B&T and will catch the train to the big city for my interviews. Still thinking to either save costs and do both interviews in one day or spend on hotel and do interviews in two days. A bit apprehensive as I don't really perform that well in interviews.

Just mention VW as the person was one of my Insead alum contact when I researched BSchools. 50% of interviewed candidates admitted sounds the average with other BSchools. I also frowned when I saw the formidable profiles of interviewed or admitted people. Insead is the stretch BSchool for me with long odds. So the int. invite was a pleasant surprise.

Even I haven't heard anything after pre-selection mail. I suppose there might be many others like us. I heard that sometimes INSEAD takes as much as 2 week to send the details of the interviewer.

I haven't heard anything either. I was notified that I would interview on the 10th, but so far no follow up from INSEAD.

Good to know that I am not the odd one still awaiting interviews. interview on the 10th, more likely February than Jan.

Just finished my second interview for INSEAD.

Both interviews went ok while the first a bit better than the second one.
Did have the regular questions Why MBA and Why INSEAD but never had the "why now?" questions.
Both interviewers were nice but I have difficulties to assess my second interview.

The interviewer told me that he was clear on my motivations and long term project and the interview was conversational, I cannot be sure whether he will recommend me. I hope he will.

At the end of the interview we spoke about the diversity issue at INSEAD and that was especially difficult to get in for us as French male. he told me with a smile that "Being French, male and entering INSEAD mean that we performed extremely well". Do not know how to take that...

My profile French/male/720/5 years experience in IB and Investment management entrepreneurship/lived in Hong Kong and Singapore.

By the way, does anyone know people that succeeded their interviews (or at leat at one) and were dinged?

I just completed my 2nd interview. Both interviewers said they like me and that I would be a good fit for INSEAD. Can someone give me a rough idea of how good my chances are at this point?

I'm debating whether to invest into another safety.

50% roughly, maybe slightly less. It's stressful. Good luck!!

Depends
if your an INDIAN IT guy I would say 50%
If you are a girl from Khazaghstan I would say 80%+

Overall I was told its 70%+ including the waitlist

True, I did not factor geography into the equation. Any high-density areas are bound to have lower rates. However, I think 70% is a high estimate. Just looking at the ratio of interviews:acceptance from this forum's R1 is pretty stark. (I am not counting waitlist b/c I am not sure what the % of acceptance is from that). Plus, you have to figure the people on this forum are probably the most aggressive and ambitious (certainly they wouldn't be posting if they had so-so GMAT scores), so I would think these stats are better than average.

R1
Total Applicants: 72
Interview Invites: 50
Admits: 26
Dings: 10
W/L: 12

if 50% of waitlisted get in we have 32/50 people in, meaning 64%...which is near 70% ...
Remember one important thing about GMAT scores... they are just one part of your application.
So basically a stellar gmat is never better than a good gmat + good essays.

But I agree on the fact that the GMAT CLUB pool is biased towards excellence.
Well, I thought this forum would help me to relax after my so so second interview...never been so stressed.

Interesting take on geography and high level density of application. So India, France would be longer odds, Middle East/Japan favourable odds. Any regions with neutral odds? U.S., Western Europe excl. France?

Are you folks sure about 50% of waitlisted candidates get eventually off the WL? Sounds quite high compared with other BSchools.

I just had my first interview yesterday. The guy who interviewed me didn’t prepare at all for the interview. I sent him the entire package of my application. He said at the end that he didn’t read essays and was planning to read them after the interview. He even asked me which essay I recommend him to read. Sounds like he doesn't have time for reading all my essays. The entire interview was conversational. He shared about his experience with INSEAD which was quite positive: His business partner was from INSEAD; He met his wife at INSEAD; He went out with INSEADERs a lot; he regretted that he didn’t take the entrepreneurship course in INSEAD since he is now starting up his own company. He also shared his opinions about different companies where he worked and about certain news. The conversation was too relaxing for me that in the end I got the feeling that I was kind of misled (maybe my feeling was wrong). I didn’t emphasize strongly on what I have achieved at work because I assumed he has read all my essays and I didn’t want to repeat the same story again.

I had mixed feeling about the interview. On one hand, it was quite relaxing and lasted 1.5 hours. On the other hand, I didn’t receive clear feedback from his side whether he will recommend me or not. I feel a bit uncertain with this interview. Anyway I should forget about it and focus on the next interview.

Good luck with all your interviews!

Hey folks...

Any updates on the final list of R1s along with country and male/female breakdown? The last one I saw had had 37 Americans for R1 which stresses me out tremendously. If the average acceptance size is 500 and a cap of 10% from any one nationality, that only leaves 13 spots for Americans in R2 & R3 combined. Given that I am an R3 applicant, the news is pretty disheartening.