INSEAD September 2013 - Calling All Applicants

To be honest, I am not sure how long after the deposit deadline does INSEAD assume that the person will not take the offer and hence delete him/her from the directory. I reckon the school is rather flexible with dates then. Anway, I would wait until close to the announcements of R3 (mid May) to start gauging probabilities.

Thanks for sharing your experience - I'm sure they went great. I have both of mine coming up this week.

just to share with the R3 candidates out there.

I got my interview decision notification email 25th MAR. Got the interviewers' details on 28th MAR. Contacted with the interviewers almost immediately and had both interviews on 6th & 8th Apr respectively. Here's the qns that was asked.

Interview 1
Besides the usual 3 why's, a walk through of my resume, also asked 2 str & weakness my boss would comment about me. (Note that this is very different from personality strength and weakness. Its more work related.) Career goal and asked quite a bit on my regional exposure. In return, asked him more of the INSEAD experience, why his career switch and so on. This interview lasted approx 1hr 15mins with 60% of the time me talking/answering his questions. Done in a coffee house, and held more like an interview.

Interview 2
The 3 why's come into play, spoke more about my current regional role and experiences with each country. He shared with me his experience of INSEAD and I am even more excited about getting into INSEAD after his sharing. The session was more like a casual exchange than interview and lasted 50mins. This was done in the interviewer's office.

I dont know what is going to happen next given that none of the interviewers said anything postive nor negative.

I saw someone commented that INSEAD likes to put candidates into 2 different style of interviews; 1 being the formal, drilling type and the other being the informal, sharing of INSEAD experience type. This was what i have experienced and i can say that this observation is pretty accurate to what i have read, at least for my case.

Does anyone has any idea when would the notification of acceptance (fingers crossed) or dinged will start? I see that from past rounds it usually happens the week of the deadline.

I had my first interview. I met with an alumnus starting his own fund in my region. Interview was casual, held at a coffee house. I arrived a little early and the interviewer was finishing another meeting. I printed the interview form and carried it with me for his reference. He said that he had reviewed it but seemed happy to have a point of reference. I didnt really get any questions outside of the usual 3 whys and if I had applied anywhere else.
He said he was done with his questions after approx 20 mins of my explanations. He then asked if I had any questions for him and I asked questions about the school and his views on what I had said my plans were for after school in the region. We spoke for approx. 15 mins about what I should do to prepare for my plans and how I could prepare to take advantage of the INSEAD experience. We then spent another 40 -45 mins discussing what he thought I should do once I got to INSEAD, so I am optimistically taking that as a good sign even though he didnt explicitly say that he was recommending me. I feel that maybe I may have talked too much, but overrall I think it went well. Hoping for the best.

Also, further to whats been posted here regarding the good cop/bad cop, I am preparing to be grilled by the next interviewer on the 19th since the first was one was relatively laid back.

I hope this helps someone out there. Would love to hear other peoples interview experiences.

For fellow Round 3 applicants, am I correct that you cannot start applying for scholarships until the 25th of April? I only ask because on the website it states that you should start the scholarship application process at the interview stage. Which I believe most us are at now. Let me know if you have any thoughts. Thanks.

Hello,
I will also make my contribution to this post!
I had my first interview on Monday evening in a cafe. The alumni was really nice and friendly. She made me at ease straight away.
I presented myself (mainly studies, work), and then we had some talks on different points: our industries, our volunteering projects... The alumni shared about her experience at work and at Insead. She told me why Insead is a great experience and how one could take the most of Insead. She also answered to my (many) questions.
I also had the traditional 3 whys... Why an MBA, why Insead, objectives... It lasted 1h30.

After the interview, I really felt that it was more a "meeting", because I got to meet/know somebody very succesful and could be an example for me, and I really had a great time talking to her.

My next interview is on Friday, as many mentionned the good/bad cop, I am expected to be "grilled" on this one... will see.
Anyways, I am pretty amazed by my interviewers' career, and it is already great to meet with such people.

Please disregard this, I went to register and it did not let me.

Hello All
I am having problems doing this "Prior to each interview, we ask you to please provide your interviewers with a copy of the profile section from your online PDF application. You can access the profile section by clicking on the following link and following the step-by-step instructions"

Can i just send my interviewers a copy of the INSEAD application before the scheduled interview. I would like to hear what you guys did??

Thanks

1. Open the email that your adcom member sent you informing you of your interviewer details. Save the file by clicking on the icon.
2. Go to your original application, on pg 3, i believe, there is a button that says export data. It will create a new file, save it.
3. Then go to your interview form and click import, import the file that you saved in step 2.

Thats all you need. Hope that helps.

In R1, the 1st interviewer wanted only to have my CV. The 2nd one asked me again for a CV and for complete application materials.

Had my interview at the office of my interviewer. The initial questions surrounded my essays as the interviewer asked me to send my essays to her. She drove into specific points on my essays and asked for clarification or expansion. Often these questions resorted in additional questions on my perspective on something - for example: 1) Discuss a professional situation that didn't align with my moral standing - what did I do? This led to a conversation about companies acting ethically, so she asked 2) Do you think companies are held to a higher ethical standard than individuals? Other questions included (these are the ones I can remember): Tell me about a culture shock you experienced professionally? Tell me about a time when someone refused to understand your rationalization? What have you learned about the difference between management and leadership?

The interview lasted 75 minutes and while pleasant, felt like I was being challenged on every answer provided. Occasionally the interviewer would answer her own question first and then look to me to provide my answer (bit of a bizarre interview tactic as it leads the candidate).

Thank you buddy!!

I finished my second interview yesterday. It was in a coffee shop and lasted just under an hour. It was a laid back conversation and she covered why INSEAD, why an MBA and some details about the type of consulting that I do. Quite a contrast to the first experience - so I would agree that my experience was also "good cop" "bad cop". Both interviewers said they would submit their 'report' to INSEAD within 48 hours.

Hello,

I had my final interview yesterday at the interviewer's office.
I do confirm that it seems there is a good and bad cop.
Yesterday the interviewer was nice but questionned me a lot, and made sure I totally answer to his questions.
He just asked me, why an mba, which other schools did you apply to? and I presented my past experiences, my volunteerng projects....
it lasted 1h30 (again !) but I am a kind of person who speaks a lot, and I also spent some time asking questions to my interviewer.

I did not have any feedback, but he told me that his company is a great one and if I would like to do management, I should apply.

So I will see, no idea if the interviewers will recommend me, but I think that the hardest part is starting: waiting.... and May 31 seems to be soooo far away...
Good luck to all of you...

Has any R2 waitlisted candidate received a response yet?

Nothing yet buddy. As per last year's blogs, people start to hear from AdCom around this period (2-3 week April). But this year, things have been "Uncomfortably Numb".

I got through from WL 3 weeks ago