INSEAD Round 4 - January 2021

Question

Is it a bad idea to apply in Round 4 for January 2021 ?

bucoloco · Answer

Yes. A lot of 21J students deferred to 21D (January 2021 Intake), so there are fewer slots left.

nikhildas · Answer

Exactly! wait a few more months and apply to 22J if possible. A number of deferrals have happened.

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pabpinor · Answer

Where did you find information about the deferrals? I thought they would not accept many.
I believe that R4 is way harder as for example only 10% of the scholarships are available, and there are fewer spots, but I do not see how a higher number of deferrals would impact more R4 than the other rounds (being that those deferrals would be known before R2 decisions).

Regards,
Pablo

nikhildas · Answer

Deferrals were announced this week.
Insead has been extremely considerate as a lot of students' situation has changed during the pandemic.

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donesd · Answer

It's always not a very good idea to apply for R4 (or any last rounds) unless you have an exceptional profile. There's quite a number of deferrals from 21J to 21D, so competition will likely be fiercer for the latter rounds.

That said nobody except the INSEAD adcom knows if the current situation (greater uncertainty, possibly harder to get visas, whether internationals will apply more to european schools with the uncertainty in US schools visa) will mean that there will be an increase/decrease in applications for INSEAD.

Do note that there are no needs-based scholarships left for R4. Only some merit-based scholarships are left.

anita15lather · Answer

Four questions:

1) But doesn't January round traditionally see less applications in comparison to September round ?

2) And this time, the application drop will further decrease by 20% due to COVID because people might want to wait it out ?

3) Also, the school won't expand the batch considering they are deferring people from other batches ?

4) As a contrarian bet, anyone with a bit of a nontraditional profile with a 700+ GMAT could benefit from R4 ?

Will appreciate if someone tries to answer these questions for me. Thank you!

nikhildas · Answer

The Jan batch sees more applicants with a lower selection rate than the August batch. I found this information online through a simple search. This is owing to the 2 month internship period for industry switchers.
I think the school will keep batch more or less the same and accept more people into the batch they are deferreing applicants from. Infra constraints i guess.

Applicants may increase (lower opportunity costs as there are pay cuts lesser bonuses) or decrease if situation seems bad even during graduation.

Regarding your point 4 im not sure. I guess it might depend on whether they already have someone from that industry profile/ overall profile etc.

Apply if you really want to and have everything ready nut remember reapplicants are not viewed much by Insead. Had read this somewhere too.

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donesd · Answer

Adding on to nikhildas' comments:

1) I would suggest choosing Jan vs Sep based on a) whether you want to have the 2-month break to do internship, and b) how ready is your application (by that I mean not just your essays, as well as your recommenders timeline). Ditto to nikhildas point that INSEAD is less friendly to reapplicants compared to other schools (they have mentioned it before), hence you would want your application to be as strong as possible.

2) Personally I have no idea whether the number of applications will drop or increase (maybe admissions consultants will have better insights). For me, there are too many factors at play. For instance:
- US supposedly tightening visas (more applications towards european schools?)(Also maybe more chinese applicants for european schools?)
- B-schools applications usually go up during downturns (could this time be different?)(could the 2021J batch be graduating to an upturn? TBH I dont think anyone knows now)
- If B-schools go for virtual, less people will want to pay the full sticker price (is that a plus for INSEAD's 1 year programme compared to 2 years for other schools? i.e. lower opp cost?)(A few B-schools seem to be going the hybrid way. INSEAD has not indicated the model for 2021J yet, but has pushed back the start date for 2020S.)

3) In addition to the infrastructure constraints, if the schools have to practice social distancing, this means the capacity will be further lowered. So far, there's no official word by INSEAD to increase the batch. In fact, since they have mentioned that 2020J can delay P5-6 into 2021 (I think I read somewhere), that means less physical space for everyone. Also, so far, it seems that INSEAD has been very accommodating to deferrals.

4) INSEAD's average GMAT score is 710+, so unless the score is like maybe >760 (I'm just plucking a number), I don't think it's a big differentiating factor. It would depend on how the adcom view your profile as a whole then, and your competition at the time of your application.

pabpinor · Answer

Hey anita15lather Please keep the R4 discussion here, there is no need to extend the question to other topics, whoever follows INSEAD will see your topic and can answer here

Regards, Pablo

bb · Answer

INSEAD Round 4 - January 2021

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