MBAandBeyond wrote:
Hi
beitrukh,
I can totally relate to how you are feeling! This year has been extraordinarily difficult even for the strongest candidates. I believe one or more of these can be reasons as to why you got waitlisted:
1. You rushed through such an intense MBA application in a short span of time.
2. You couldn't identify the specific gaps in your profile that only and only an MBA from INSEAD can help you bridge.
3. Despite having clarity about your vision, you couldn't tie it back to your current experiences.
Now you have two ways to go:
1. Try your best to get out of the waitlist and if you can not, reapply for fall deadlines (if you can figure out the gaps you've had in your application and convince yourself that by filling those gaps you can make it to INSEAD). INSEAD seems the best choice right now for you. But if you think of reapplying, you will have to take other schools/program in the mix to be safe.
2. Go back to corporate. It may not be possible for you to break into PE/VC or top-tier consulting without network and brand, but you may land a good job and start remaking your career.
To reach any conclusion, you will have to think deeply about your short-term and long-term goals. If you tend towards the former, get expert advice over your application and profile.
The least we can do is help you give an idea of your application, gaps and the potential of your profile to make it to INSEAD. We can also suggest to you some ways/efforts that you can do to get out of the waitlist. If you'd like, you can
hop on a call with us anytime this week.
Hope this helps you get some sense of clarity! Feel free to reach out for any queries. And let me reassure you that all is not lost!
Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma
Founder and Admissions Consultant, MBA and BeyondTestimonialsEmail:
shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com What s app: +65-97158525
beitrukh wrote:
Hi guys
Would really appreciate advice on a taboo metric among MBA applicants : age
I got WL by INSEAD despite having what I consider a strong and fitting profile
1. 35/Male
2. Born and raised in Paris, graduated top school in France International Relations. Decent GPA
2. Summer School in economics at Harvard University
3. Spent three years in Japan on exchange program at the top university then interned at a conglomerate then launched my own consultancy
4. Very strong extracurricular and international coverage, participated in sports competition in North Korea, had assignments in untapped locations, did entrepreneurship in Algeria, etc...
I had early entrepreneurial success but got entangled in too ambitious and challenging ventures. Published a print media in the MENA, with a business model based on
property development, art and culture. With the constant instability in the region and the COVID what I feared the most actually occured : I found myself at 34 with little capacity
to leverage let alone cash out.
I am now in a position where it's tricky to go back to corporate without a label. I digressed too much from my early corporate background, I am 35
My ambition is to shift to consulting even in a junior position to gain discipline and get back on track with a steady position, or PE, with a possibility to shift to VC in the mid term.
A full time MBA seemed to make sense : its only a year long, its intense and enables to apply upon graduation with IMHO more chances than an exec for instance (which is longer, more expensive and won't grant the same guarantee.
WL is a killer and I dont really have a B plan except an exec in the US maybe (Columbia LBS joint programme, or MIT Sloan fellow). Im doubtful regarding a two year regular MBA, or programmes deemed too local (IMD, HEC PARIS)
Any recommendations are welcome as per a strategy
thanks
Thanks for the feedback. I'll be more specific and maybe this will speak to a bunch of applicants/candidates here
1. I applied back in 2020 to INSEAD. January intake R4.
What happened is my first GMAT score was not correlated to the overall quality of my profile and they asked me to re-take it.
I even got a call from an admissions director herself (not my AO, a director) who claimed that they 'would love to have me in the cohort provided I improve my GMAT'
Thing is with COVID and personal issues I can't share I got delayed in my prep and only in January did I reach a score of 690
I contacted my AO and the director again and they placed me in the September intake R3, and i was invited for interviews right away
Close to the notification deadline they emailed me to tell I been WL. Tbh it was a shock. My application really made sense, they showed interest...
I took the GMAT again last month and nailed a 750. I notified my AO right away. I also asked some of my alumni friends (I know quite a lot) to push for my application.
No matter how competitive this year is, I didnt really get the dynamics of designing their cohort.
For some my story might no be relevant for a post-MBA industry but that's the exact point I wanted to stress.
I firmly believe industry switchers are in more need of those programs than applicants who already have secure jobs, especially in consulting, IB, and still wanna land a MBA just to get promoted or have a whim to switch to entrepreneurship (Im not judging but coming from an entrepreneur background I can tell it doesnt make any sense...)
Last point : Im not sure INSEAD encourage re-applications, let alone for a 35 yo who got two shots. Graduation might be earlier should I be admitted even for the next intake but I think it s a no no.
18 Apr 2021, 06:43
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