INSEAD September 2013 - Calling All Applicants

Humm very few French admitted in round 1...really interesting! thanks

I had my first interview today. It took place in the interviewer's office and lasted... 2h30!
But the talk was great so I didn't see time passing.

Finally, she gave me her business card, asked me to keep in touch, and wished me good luck for my next interview.

I am happy that halfway is

Also done with the first interview. The interviewer tried challenging my view during the interview, but later he told me it was the interview method. Finally, he said he enjoyed the talk and told me all his former interviewee got admitted. Not sure whether it's a good sign..My next interview will be on Feb 18 due to the other interviewer's vacation. Will this late date bring me any disadvantage?

Admission Committee has a very professional attitude and I doubt they will allow any discrimation caused from administrative tasks and procedures.
My guess is that they don't start reviewing the candidate profiles before everyone is finished with their interviews. Plus, they have already completed the shortlisting for Round 2, which must be more time consuming. So at this stage, it will be deciding on who gets and "admit", who gets a "waitlist" and if any negative feedback exists, who gets a "reject".

Keep your focus for the next interview and continue to impress. That is all that you can do for now.

Best of luck.

Total: 213

Fonty: 130
Singy: 83

I believe there are usually 300 in Fonty and 200 in Singy for a typical class. So still a looooong way to go!!!

It is my pleasure to continue the above post : The two-body problem, solved ! See my post on the INSEAD waitlist forum.

I see there are now 214 admits!

Have both of my interviews scheduled for this week. Will report back once I am done.

I had my second interview today in a restaurant. It was a bit noisy and not so easy to talk while eating at the same time!

My interviewer asked me basic "why" questions, but also a couple of more challenging ones.

After 1h30, the interview was over and even if I don't really know his opinion, I am relieved that I'm done with my application.

Good luck to those who are still looking forward their interviews!

Had my 1st interview today. Went well. Not my best performance but not my worst either.

I have scheduled both of my interviews for this Friday. For all those that have already interviewed, can you please post some of the more challenging questions you were asked or at least those questions beyond the normal ones that we see posted time and time again, aka Why INSEAD, Why Now? etc.... Thanks!!!

@cahillr2: The 3 Whys are always there, so good to be prepared for. Also, other questions that I was asked by both interviewers were: culture shock related (though these come up more in a conversational way), what other school you applied to (this is to see your research process and to double check your "why INSEAD" answer), and also questions and discussions about the workload. The latter came up for me in both interviews, again in a conversational way, more in terms of them sharing their experience, I'm not even sure if it's an actual question or a coincidence.
Overall, my INSEAD interviewing experiences have been amazing. Because the interviewers don't have our essays, it's basically been just relaying to them the same thing I wrote in my essays (especially essay 1 and 4).
Good luck!

The interviews I had steered away from the 3 "why's" fairly quickly and just became more of a general conversation. The second interviewer did show me the last question on the form INSEAD provided him, he found it particularly amusing. It stated "If you were stuck at an airport with the candidate for 3 hours, would you be happy to have a conversation with him/her?" (or something like that). I know its pretty obvious but you need to come across as a likable and interesting person. The feeling I got is that this is less of a job interview and more of an assessment to see if you will fit into the culture at INSEAD. Both my interviewers were absolutely amazing, really came out feeling that it would be a privilege to go there. *holding thumbs*

On my side, I had questions such as:
What do you bring to the table that other students don’t?
What is your type of leadership?
How is going your company? What is its strategy? How do you see this company in 5 years?
Some one famous (don't remember exactly his name) said that entrepreneurs don't need university or business school education. What do you have to say about that?
What make you find people interesting? how do you detect talent in someone?

Good luck dude

Done both interview rounds for September 2013 intake, R2 applicant. Now a 1 month wait. Fingers crossed.

Is anyone else really frustrated with the scholarship application website?

Yes!!
I was trying to do it earlier today in the morning, and it kept getting stuck so I gave up. Will try again tonight.