INSEAD Profile Evaluation - Tools for B-School Profile Evaluation

Hello everyone

I am a 26 year old female from India.
GMAT : 760
Education : BTECH from a tier 2 college with GPA 8.25/10
Work experience : 4+ years of experience in a leading IT company in the country. I work in the automotive domain wherein I am involved in the development, validation and deployment of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System ECU) softwares. For the past 1 year, I am in Japan, at client location, leading a team of 10 (both at onsite and offshore) wherein we are involved in the In Vehicle ECU Software development and deployment of the Driver Attention Alert System. I directly interact with our client so as to completely understand and analyse their requirements and then devise the strategy to achieve the same.
Extra-curricular : I am an avid reader and a writer. I have an online blog with over 20 published articles and over 1k followers.
Apart from this, I am a trained Bharatnatyam (Indian classical dance form) dancer, practicing dance right from the tender age of 6. I have performed at over 200 stages and have received many accolades throughout my school and university tenure.
Volunteer activities : Right from the age of 17, I have been involved in several NGO activities. While I was pursuing my 11th and 12th, I used to provide home tuitions for 10-12 under privileged students. Then while in college, I volunteered with Teach for India. I have also volunteered with Help Age India and taught our elderly basic Math and English.
I would like to know my chances at INSEAD and other top BSchools in the world. Which all colleges should I target?

Posted from my mobile device

Thanks for the fulsome candidate profile. There is one thing about your candidacy that is immediately differentiating - spending 90% of your day collaborating with international teams. It also sounds like you have had an impressive career trajectory in terms of professional promotions and increasing responsibility. Your experience in engineering and management should lend itself nicely to consulting, also. Your GMAT of 720 is slightly above the INSEAD average (usually around 710) but you should be aware that since you are applying out of Singapore, you will be likely lumped into a very competitive geographic demographic. Your strategic positioning, including what you’d like to do long-term after consulting (unless you want to be a McKinsey lifer) will be very important. At 28, you are probably in the sweet spot to give the INSEAD app a go next cycle. Note there are two different intakes for INSEAD (similar to Columbia), with meaningfully different acceptance rates for the January (lower) versus September (higher) intake. Since you are shooting for consulting and are not coming out of consulting, you may want to go for the January intake since it would allow you to recruit for a summer internship (while the September intake will not). If you want INSEAD more than you want consulting, though, and you’d like to take minimal time away from work, the September intake may be better for you. It is still possible to land a consulting position with the September intake, but it won’t be a full-time offer after a summer internship.

The INSEAD application is one of the longest business school applications out there. There are many different prompts, asking you everything from personal weaknesses to civic engagement to team leadership to long-term vision. Because the application is so thorough, you want to make sure that your strategic positioning is flawless. Why do you want to do consulting? How is INSEAD (widely considered to be THE pre-consulting school) aligned with your post-consulting goals? How has your engineering and product management experience, combined with your existing masters, positioned you to add value in the INSEAD classroom and for your consulting clients? Why do you need an additional masters? These are all aspects of your strategic positioning that will be important and will separate you from the mass numbers of GPA/GMAT-qualified applicants coming out of Singapore.

Thank you Admissionado and ARLeeconsulting for detailed review on my profile.

It is quite a news for me that Jan and Sept intake has different admission rates, can you elaborate on that ? because that might shed some light on my dilemma of choosing sept or jan intake


Appreciate your help!

Hi all!

Background:
Nationality Indian/ Female, 25 years old
GMAT: 700 (Q46, V40)

Education:
B.E in Electronics and Instrumentation engineering from a non IIT, top 10 university in India, GPA: 3.76/4 (Top 5% of the batch)
Masters in nuclear engineering with specialisation in instrumentation (Topper of the batch, pursued my M.tech while I was working)
HSE: 98.4%

Work experience:
Working as a scientific officer with the government for the past 4 years. Work profile includes research development and deployment of indigenous developed sensors.
Experience: No international exposure, But I have travelled all over India and interacted with manufacturers for product development.

Achievements at work:
One of the few employees to get promotion on a fast-track basis.
The only woman in the section working with 15 men on R&D and deployment projects.
Have contributed significantly in development of sensors for projects of national importance

Co-curriculars:
Currently learning Indian classical danceforms and have been practicing yoga for the past 3 years.
Involved with a few NGOs in Mumbai where I have taught few underpreviged kids. before moving to Mumbai, I had taught Class 10 Physics to around 100 kids in my locality.
Participant of National Aerospace Olympiad in 2009
Homi Bhabha Prize winner (gold medallist) during my trainingfor my current job.

Post MBA goals:
My constant interaction with vendors all over the country has revealed my techno managerial capabilities. I have also observed the vulnerabilities that the Indian sensor industries face. Also, working in a premier R&D unit of the country has made me more patriotic than I was earlier. I hope to eventually return to India after 5 years or so and closely work with the Indian government.

Short term goal: I would like to work in a general management role for a tech company like general Electric, Fuji electric or Tesla..
Long term goal: Would like to become a part of NITI Aayog, the planning commission of India and make decisions pertaining to Indian tech and manufacturing Industries.

I am opting for INSEAD beccause of its diverse student base, its proximity to India (targeting Singapore campus) and the short duration of the program.

Questions:
Should I retake the GMAT again and target for a better score?
I dont have any international exposure due to the nature of my job. Do you think it would be a deterrant?
Also, do you think there are other B-schools in the US for which I'd be a better fit(with my current profile)?

Background: 25 year old Algerian male

GMAT 700: Q48, V38, IR8
GPA: 3.94/4.0

Education: Bachelor with double major (business admin and computer science) from American University of Beirut (top school in middle east)

Work Experience: Total 3 years in MBB (Mckinsey, Bain, BCG) consulting

Extra curricular activities: traveled to over 20 countries, some competitive sports

International exposure: studied abroad, working abroad (lived in total of 4 countries)

Post MBA Goal - continue in MBB consulting

Hi axb02,

thank you for sharing your profile.

Although you haven't given much detail, I can see you are a good candidate for INSEAD. The combination of your academics, GMAT score, experience in MBB and international exposure will allow you to show that you meet all admissions criteria.

Are you going to be sponsored by your company? That would also help your candidacy.

Thank you very much.

Warm regards
Alex

Hi shankishri,

thank you for sharing your profile.

Overall, I like it and I think you'll be a great candidate for b-school. However, when it comes to INSEAD, you have two main vulnerabilities.

a. GMAT score. 700 is a great score. However, given the competitiveness of the Indian applicant pool, it is always recommended to score 20-30 points above the school's average, which in the case of INSEAD, this means around 730-740. So yes, if possible, it would be better to retake GMAT and aim for 730+.

b. International Experience. For INSEAD, international experience and outlook are extremely important. It is even one of the admissions criteria. So I'm afraid that, even with a really high GMAT score, it would be very challenging to get accepted to INSEAD with no international experience, especially if you belong to the Indian applicant pool, since you'll be competing with many applicants with 750+ GMAT scores and several years of experience living (studying, working, growing up...) outside of India.

As for US schools you could apply, with your current GMAT score, you could target schools with GMAT averages around 670-680. I realize GMAT is only one component of the application, but it is a very important one, especially for US schools.

I hope this helps.

Thank you very much.

Warm regards
Alex

Hi GovinSA,

INSEAD is quite secretive when it comes to that type of stats and claims that both intakes are equally competitive. However, because of the possibility to do a summer internship, it could make sense that more applicants are interested in the January intake, especially those aiming to transition into industries that require an internship (e.g. investment banking).

I hope this helps.

Warm regards
Alex

.

Hi Team,

Just a high level summary of my profile.

Keen to know if it meets necessary criteria and what mistakes I should avoid.

Background: 28 yo, Indian Origin Male (Attained Australian Nationality after relocating for work)
GMAT 750: Q50, V41, IR7
GPA: 7.8/10 (Top Tier Indian Univ. - IIT)

Education: Bachelor in Engineering - Metallurgy

Work Experience: Total 6 years in a large mining corporation - (3 promotions)
Working in an internal strategy unit for the last 1 year

Work experience in Australia, US, Mongolia

Post MBA Goal - Consulting in MBB for exposure and back to Mining Industry

Hi gilahrii

Your profile seems great in terms of academics, GMAT and IIT degree, your international experience also seems unique and impressive.
With 3 promotions, your career trajectory also looks solid - in terms of loyalty as well as advancement.

Now what will matter most for your application, is the quality of your essays and letters of recommendation. That is where the adcom needs to see your perspectives and unique ways in which you would enhance the experience of your peers at INSEAD.

I see that you are aiming for Jan 21 intake, so I'd strongly suggest applying in the Mar 2020 deadline.

If you need help with your essays, and application, feel free to reach out to me at mail@vibranture.com.
I have helped many clients, including Indians, gain admission to INSEAD

You might also like to read this article I wrote on How Business Schools Evaluate Your Profile
https://vibranture.com/articles/how-scho ... rofile.htm

Good luck!

Being an Indian male engineer is a tough demo, but you have about a strong a candidacy as any - checking the ITT, 750 GMAT, profitability, global lens and age boxes flawlessly. Your candidacy is strong not only for INSEAD but also for Wharton, Harvard and Stanford, should you choose to apply to those. Of course nobody has a crystal ball but you definitely have a good shot. If you do apply to other schools besides INSEAD, though, I'd encourage you to do so in the R1 2020 application cycle. Otherwise you'll be aging out of the prime 26 - 28-year-old demographic and your chance of acceptance will decline. With INSEAD there is less of a rush because the average age is a couple of years older than Harvard/Wharton/Stanford.

Given your focus on the Eastern Hemisphere and consulting, INSEAD may be the best fit out of the top-ranked schools, since it will likely available a more Asia-focused global network and it is THE consulting school. However, if you are aiming to work in the US after graduation, that's a different story. If you are going for the Jan. intake, it sounds like the summer internship is important to you. That is right-on given your consulting ambitions (it's easier to land FT consulting by going through a summer internship).

Some consulting firms do "sponsor" (e.g. pay for assuming a 2-3 year FT commitment post-MBA) a future FT consultant's second year of MBA after a successful internship for certain U.S. schools. Of course there is no certainty that you'll get a consulting internship or that you'll get a FT offer after the internship, but it's something to think about as this would likely close the tuition delta between INSEAD and the top U.S. schools.

Keep in mind that A LOT of applicants to INSEAD (or any top-tier school for that matter) will be applying with a M/B/B consulting goal. You will need to have perfectly-executed strategic positioning to stand out form the masses. Why is MBA the right next step for you? How will an MBA help you be a better consultant? Why consulting? How does M/B/B support your long-term goal? What is your long term goal? How has your prior success in mining & IIT groomed and prepared you to be a value-additive MBA student and M/B/B consultant? What are your long-held passions and talents that will help you be an active and engaged community member outside of the classroom? What do you do outside of work to better your community? How are you a LEADER beyond just an ACHIEVER? Given the large number of male Indian engineers who will be applying with a large corp and IIT background, you NEED to make sure you have watertight and flawless essays that show (rather than tell) your responses to these questions. The INSEAD application is the longest of all the top-tier applications. If you take a look at it you'll see that all of these questions and more are are least tacitly asked in the prompts. I recommend you start sooner rather than later with your strategic positioning so that you can submit a fulsome applications with different content for each of these questions to provide as 3D a picture of who you are as possible.

If talking to an admissions consultant might be helpful to you as you develop your strategic positioning, feel free to sign up for a free consultation here: https://admissionado.com/free-consultat ... sultation/ Best of luck to you - you have a great profile!

GovinSA, I will disagree with the speculations that many admission consultants make about the acceptance rates between Jan and Sept intake. Adcom specifically mentions that there is no significant difference in the acceptance rate across the two cohort. I could also validate it through my experience at INSEAD where both the intakes had similar class profile.

In case you have any further doubt, the article below lists down the differences between the two intakes-
https://aidmit.com/index.php/2018/08/24/ ... ry-intake/

Please find a snippet from the article below-
"
September intake of MBA at INSEAD is a 10-month program which does not allow you the time to pursue any full-time internship during the course. January intake is a 12-month program which includes a 2-month full-time internship opportunity. There is one more difference, as a part September intake, you have an option to spend 2-month study period in Abu Dhabi. This exchange is not available for January term. The exchange between Singapore and France campus and to the partner universities in the US is possible for all the students."

gilahrii, INSEAD is very objective about what it looks in a candidate and you should be able to tick all the boxes through your application and the essays. INSEAD looks for the following 4 factors in prospective candidates-
1. Ability to Contribute
2. Academic Capability
3. International Motivation
4. Leadership Potential

Through your work experience and GMAT score, you could convince the adcom about your academic criteria and International motivation. You must ensure that your essays bring out your "ability o contribute" and "Leadership potential". For instance, if you talk about 3 promotions, you should highlight on how you incrementally mentored more people within the organization.

Hope it helps.

I would recommend you to read this article before starting your application process - "What INSEAD looks for in applicants? How important is international education/ work experience?"
https://aidmit.com/index.php/2018/09/12/ ... xperience/

Just wanted to get a profile evaluation:

Background: 28 year old, Canadian (Indian origins - family immigrated to Canada when I was young)

GMAT 680: Q47, V38, IR8, AWA6.0 - (I know this is below average - but ran out of 5 attempts...as I was in the middle of a move)

Undergrad GPA: 11/12

Education: Bachelor of Science - Mathematics, got a graduate degree (i.e. a Masters) in Math as well

Work Experience: Total 4 years in a large Canadian bank in risk management - (1 promotion + managed a summer intern)

Working in a risk management role, working with NY, London, HK offices for project work.

Moved to London office from Toronto after great performance

Speak French at A1, German A2

Work experience in Canada, and UK

Post MBA Goal - Consulting in the Financial Services industry...targeting MBB

I'm just very insecure about my GMAT at the moment- is it worth mentioning this in my optional essay and refer to a few high scores in my math courses in undergrad and grad school?

Hi everyone!

Really appreciate the good people on this website for taking the time to comb through all this info and provide gems of advice, huge thanks! So here's me:

Background: 28 year old Singaporean male

GMAT: 700 - Q45, V41, IR6; still awaiting my AWA but expecting a 6.0 (3rd sitting, first 2 yielded a 640 - the most recent one had a split of Q48 V29 and my mocks had nothing lesser than Q49 and Q50, so you can imagine how frustrated I am with my Quant. Kicking myself for this, but I'll save the whining for another post on another thread)

GPA: 4.0/4.0 (First Class Honours)

Education: BSc. and MSc. in Information Mgmt. for Business (University College London)

Work Experience: Close to 3 years as a Business Analyst in IT. Have led a couple of projects on my own from start to finish, bolstered my CV with some certifications to boot (Accenture, then an MNC headquartered in SG currently)

Extra-Curricular Activities: Competitive sports, volunteered with my present organisation overseas,

International exposure: Completed tertiary education overseas, a number of volunteer missions to underdeveloped countries since Secondary school days.

Post MBA Goal - Move into Strategy consulting (MBB is the target), then make a shift to Product Management within the FinTech space.

Personality: Extremely personable individual. People-oriented person. Resilient and logical problem solver. Officer in the Armed Forces.

Hi hyrdra123456879

I can understand your concern about the GMAT score especially if you are coming from over-represented applicant pool of Indians. [if you have Canadian citizenship, you might be viewed differently.)

While GMAT is quite an important criteria, if the other parts of your application such as international experience, contribution, impact are strong, you could become an attractive candidate for admission. INSEAD is one of the few schools that cares a great deal about your personal characteristics and what you bring to the class. If you could highlight your unique perspectives and experiences in the essays and letters of recommendation, you might have good chances despite lower than average GMAT.

Speaking from personal experience, I know of an Indian who was working in the US for a few years with a consulting firm and got accepted to INSEAD with a score of 680.
Additionally, one of my students from Egypt with a score of 640 also got admitted to INSEAD and currently working with Bain in Middle-East.

I'd be happy to review your profile in greater detail and also be glad to help you with your application
Feel free to email me at mail@vibranture.com.


INSEAD Essay Tips
https://vibranture.com/essay/tips/insead ... g-tips.htm