Calling all INSEAD MBA Applicants: (Sept 2018 Intake) Class of 2019!!

Just did mine too. My questions were more traditional
1) A leader who influenced you and how?
2) what kind of skills you want to learn at INSEAD
3) what is your definition of diversity
4) how would your team or friends describe your leadership. Give example.

Last question i missed giving a strong example.


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Excepted this thread to be more active, with R2 deadline...

Just finished my video interview now, can't remember the questions but they were pretty general. Not sure how well I came across because 60 seconds is over in a flash.

Guess its just a waiting game now.

I ended up practicing and spending quite a bit. Aprox it got stretched for 4 hours it went fine, I did stammer at one place but completed my answers and tried to have a conversational response.
these were the questions I got

1)what is your weakness that you hope to overcome in INSEAD
2) Do you think you are aware of your biases? How and why do you think you have them?
3) How do you keep track of your vision or the vision of your company?
4) You have a friend who is having a difficulty adjusting to the new country in INSEAD class. How would you approach them?

Overall I feel the questions were a high difficulty level. You need to basically show how well exposed you are to the concept of diversity, and how you can think like a CEO (high level view).

Hi Gmat clubbers,

I am applying for R3 of Insead and had a query.

Insead had done away with the following international experience essay this year

Essay 3: Tell us about an experience where you were significantly impacted by cultural diversity, in a positive or negative way(approximately 300 words).

Can someone please clarify on the why this has been done away with, it would be naive to think that Insead has reduced weightage on this aspect for admissions.

And having said that how can we cover the international exposure in other essays, I am trying to cover it in essay 1 (Strength and weakness) but honestly right now its seeming like a force fit as have not worked across countries though I have interacted with teams across geographies and have personal travel experience across US, Europe and Russia.

So,

1. There is a space in application where you will get to show all the international experience - work, vacation, or studies

2. If one of your strength is related to teamwork, empathy, leadership then the experience of interaction with the teams across geographies will fit right into it.

Or else you can talk about in optional essay. Where you can share that you know international experience is one of the aspect Insead look for and you want to highlight these aspects from your experience to show that you gained enough exposure of working with people from different geography and culture

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People, please share your experience of the video interviews here.

Mine was quite interesting, none of the questions were what I had thought of

Same here Abhishank,

I had never seen those questions before. I feel practice questions can only prepare you for the overall experience, but not for questions that will be asked.



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Hi,

I submitted my application on 29th Nov and finished video interviews on 1st Dec.

My video interview experience:

- Make sure you have good internet speed. I was clocking 7.5 mbps on internet speed tests but somehow the Kira website was showing only 0.9 mbps. Below 0.5 mbps (measured on kira), the website recommends switching to a stronger internet connection. I went ahead with 0.9 mbps and started the video interviews. While the video loaded quickly and I didn't have any issues during the recording, the upload for each video response took around 10-15 mins. Hence my video interview lasted for almost an hour. Throughout the session, I was concerned about my internet connection dropping off and resulting in an incomplete session

- 4 questions. questions were all different from the practice questions.


Btw, is it safe to assume that the interview invites wont come out before Jan 2nd? Last year, the first interview invite came out on 2nd Jan.

Cheers
Saurs

I think it is safe to assume that since they would need 3-4 weeks to go through all the applications

Hi,

Is there anyway to ascertain if INSEAD has received the score reports. My AO sent me the generic email stating that the application is complete. But there is also a note stating that official reports need to be received by INSEAD before interview decision. I have already ordered my score reports (GMAT report in 2016 and TOEFL in Nov'17). But just wanted to be check if there is any way to ascertain that INSEAD has received it. I doubt AO will respond to this query since they must be busy and wont have time to verify for each applicant

Cheers
Saurs

2 ways to find it out.

1. Go to gmat website and check in score report section
2. Drop an email and check with the admission team member. They might take a few days to respond, but they will.

(posted on another group by someone)
Hello INSEAD MBA applicants:

I was in your shoes just three years ago. So I deeply resonate with the challenge you are trying to conquer and how important it is to make this dream of getting into an elite business school a reality. I want to share 3 tips to help you get your INSEAD application to the NEXT level:

1) International experience is a MUST. You must demonstrate in your essays that you have international experience. This can be collaborating with teams in other countries, serving international clients, working or volunteering in another country, education exchange, etc. International experience doesn't necessarily mean 'living' in another country. You can still demonstrate that by being exposed to various international projects or working with a global team. Try to have 2-3 different international stories and bring them out in different essay questions. If you have more than 6months till you apply, consider gaining more international experience to boost your edge, whether be volunteering-vacation abroad for a short period with a non-profit / a cause, asking your manager to put you on an international project, doing a short-language program in a foreign country as a vacation...the options are plenty!

2) INSEAD does really care about the GMAT score. You may see in the class profile that some elite business schools do admit stellar individuals even though their GMAT score was way below the average. However, this is NOT the case for INSEAD. Do your best to have a GMAT higher than 650. If your score is not above 650, do consider re-taking the GMAT to increase your score. There are plenty of courses for GMAT, feel free to take one to learn the techniques to do well. You CAN master the GMAT by learning the techniques.

3) Spend A LOT of time writing and re-writing your INSEAD MBA essays until it is from the heart. I applied to A LOT of elite MBA programs and INSEAD is by far THE most comprehensive and time-consuming application. INSEAD wants to know you inside-out. So it's really important that you speak from a very authentic place. I talked about the GMAT score in point 2. I want to make it clear that the rest of your application, especially the essays, speaks MUCH louder than your GMAT score.

okay a bonus tip, cause I really want you guys to succeed...

4)Don't underestimate the time that it will take your referees to write recommendation letters for INSEAD. Although I didn't see it (as it's confidential), my referee informed me that it was a very long one, and longer than any other schools he has ever done. Make sure you give them a few weeks to write an awesome recommendation letter.

I can provide a ton of tips, but I want to be available to help YOU succeed. You probably have a ton of questions like
--how do I stand out from this competitive pool of applicants?
--what to share in my essays that will make me look unique?
--how to build a great resume that within a few seconds of glance I demonstrate my credibility, value, and fit to the business school?

I have created a free facebook community where you can receive personalized support from me during your business school application.
You can join the new facebook community I have created here: https://bit.ly/MBAPrep-Community

This is a highly value-driven community. All new members will have the opportunity to jump on a 1 hour 1-on-1 MBA application strategy call with me, packed with value to help you get in.

If you are loving the tips above, I have written a free 5-page MBA application guide "7 Steps to Create a Stand Out MBA Application for Top Business Schools". You can download it here: https://gotinmba.lpages.co/freembaguide/

I had my own set of struggles during these business school applications (where I openly and honestly shared in one of the Facebook community videos).
I'm here to give you HOPE and be proof that you can make your dream a reality with the right techniques and strategy.

Here to support you on this life-changing journey,
Portia
Join the MBA Application Prep Community >> https://bit.ly/MBAPrep-Community

Just got the call from my AO... Accepted from the waitlist... yay!!!

Congrats. I see you also got Admit to LBS. what's it gonna be?

That's the first world problem to have.... Totally confused...

Same boat over here

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I got waitlisted at both. So I hope there are a lot of people who got accepted at both. As soon as you lot decide where you are going, I might have a shot at getting into one of them.

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