Ask INSEAD Admissions

Hi saikarthikreddy!

Thank you for your question! You're our very first inquisiter

INSEAD does not have an absolute requirement for years of work experience, although at least two years is preferred. Participants in our current class have an average of nearly six years work experience, with the range being between two and ten. However, applicants with less experience who demonstrate exceptional maturity and outstanding leadership through their professional and personal experiences will also be considered.

Camille

Hello! I have 4 questions.

1). Are INSEAD students issued business cards by the school for networking purposes? If not, do many students produce their own?

2). Does career services help enrolled students with pre-MBA internships?

3). Are INSEAD interviews conducted exclusively in English or is the applicant's knowledge of other languages (mentioned in the application) tested by the interviewer, if appropriate?

4). Do you prefer international experience to be in a professional context? Does "personal" international experience have the same weight (i.e. growing up in various countries and attending international schools)?

Hi ,

To apply is international experience mandatory ?

Dear Insead Adcom

I am an aspiring candidate for the January 2013 intake at Insead. I realise that Insead does not provide any pre-assessment of profiles for admission to MBA program but i just need one piece of advice with respect to the average GMAT score for the pool of candidates which i belong to.

A Brief about my profile

GMAT score - 650
Target - Jan 2013
Citizenship - Indian
Education - From one of the best schools in India
Workex - 6.5 years by the time of intake
Location - Currently based in United States. Lived and worked globally.
Extra - Doing community service for last couple of years. Passionate dancer - represented at national and international level.

I have been advised that the pool of candidates in which i will lie is highly competitive and my GMAT score is very low compared to average score of students in that pool. So i should reattempt GMAT and the apply by the June Deadline(2nd round) instead of the April Deadline(1st round).

Regards

Hi Abhi47,

Rather than international experience we talk about 'international motivation'. By this, we mean cross-culturally sensitive and with an international outlook. This can take the form of any international experience, be it professional (working in a foreign country, working on a daily basis with other countries etc...) or personal (like growing up in another country or travelling the world regularly and extensively).

Camille

@ FatRiverPuff

Hi there,


Students get the opportunity to order INSEAD business card once they're on campus. This is optional though.


No. Career Services will provide support for summer internships conducted during the Programme or for post-graduation internships.


Interviews are conducted by Alumni. The MBA department will hand pick interviewers based in your country of residence. So a lot of interviews are conducted in your 'home' language AND English. Nevertheless, your should expect the conversation to switch to any other language(s) you may have indicated in your application!


Please revert to my reply to abhi47 a few posts above

Camille

Dear Camille,

Thank you for this great thread,

I have two questions:

1-) Do you have any limitations on the Wharton exchange program ( if I want to do this exchange is it certain? ) and how long will I spend at Wharton?

2-) I am wondering the difference for the 1st round and the 2nd round..( I am thinking jan-2013 entrance).. In terms of admission ratio.. ( p.s I am not thinking any kind of scholarship)

thank you,
Best

Hello akinakbiyik,


We can offer around 30 seats for Wharton exchange (and around 15 seats for Kellogg). Not all Wharton exchange demands are granted. The main advantage of the INSEAD-Wharton alliance is that there's no need to make a fully independent application, however you will still need to go through a thorough internal selection. Students exchange for 1 period i.e. 2 months.
Learn all about INSEAD Campus exchange policy on our website! (sorry, i'm not allowed to post URLs yet )
You'll find this info under MBA Programme/Campuses/Campus exchange


Ratio admitted:total files received is the same for Round 1, Round 2 AND Round 3!!

Camille

Really helpful! thanks a lot..

Hi,

Can you please elaborate of your foreign language requirements.

I invite you to read INSEAD's language policy on our website. Then if you have more specific questions I'll be happy to answer.
https://mba.insead.edu/admissions/languages.cfm

Camille

I have an undergraduate degree in Near Eastern Studies with a minor in Arabic. Immediately after undergrad, I moved to the Middle East for three years to become fluent in Arabic. During this time, I worked as a full-time high school teacher. I taught economics if that matters, grades 11 and 12 in an international school.... if that matters.

How will adcoms look at this work experience? Does this even count as work experience even though it's in education and not in a bank, for example?

I've asked around and haven't heard much so far.

Thanks

Hi,

first of all, thank you for your time.

I'd love to have a feedback about my profile for INSEAD - January 2013, Full Time MBA.

---


Nationality: Italian

Education:
Bachelor in Electronic Engineering
Master's Degree in Management Engineering
(both in "Politecnico di Milano")

GMAT: 710 (Verbal:41 / 92% - Quant: 47 / 76%)
TOEFL Ibt: 108
GPA 3.8 (sort of, converting from Italian grades).

Work Experience:
- 1.5 year as university researcher (Change Management following ICT implementations in Healthcare Environment);
- 3 years as Enterprise Application Consultant (Workflow Analysis, ERP implementations, Training) in various businesses (food, metal, fashion).

Misc:
Some competitions and prizes won in high school, corporate workshops and experiences during college.

I'm interested in management consulting, international experience and eventually going to work for a major technological company.

----

This is a quick synthesis. I hope you can help me evaluating it!

Thank you again.

@ Trader13 & MintEater,

I understand your conserns and curiosity about what INSEAD may think of your profile. However, this thread is not about profile consulting and i believe that GMATclub offers such personal feedback somewhere else on the site.

Feel free to ask here any specific questions you may have about the school, but please avoid request about personal profile/GMAT/Toefl scores that are not beneficial to the larger community.

Thank you for your understanding,
Camille

Hi Trader13,
At INSEAD, we value diversity at every level. We welcome applications from people with a variety of professional and academic backgrounds, including the arts, law, non-profit, etc. No matter the field of your professional and academic background, we will be looking for you to demonstrate your potential as a leader, and we will consider your professional experience and past performance when assessing your application.
We have had some pretty unusual profiles on the Programme over the years such as an olympic medalist, professional musicians, criminal lawyers and a priest! So don't let anyone stop you because you could be one of our "poets"

Camille

Hi Camille,
Thank you for starting this thread. Greatly appreciated and thankful!

I am an eager INSEAD applicant and currently a bit heart-broken at being rejected for the Class of Sep 2012 Intake. I also understand that INSEAD does not favor reapplicants much , however there are two things I would really wish to understand:

1) Can I request for information on my profile's evaluation and understand shortcomings in any specific area?

2) Reapply to INSEAD with a stronger profile and application the next time around and be hopeful of atleast an interview invite?

Thanks for your reply and time.

Best Regards.

Hi Camille,

Just a few quick questions.

1) Are there ways to pass out of the required core classes (eg. finance/accounting etc) if you have background in the given subjects?

2) What is INSEAD's stance on Cantonese/Mandarin as being considered as two different languages or may only one of them be used towards the language proficiency?

3) Does INSEAD have a admission deferral policy? IE, if you want to be part of the Janurary intake but you want to compare admission decisions side by side with other US Schools in the first round.