Accepting and starting at INSEAD

INSEAD accepts roughly 25% of its applicants. Once YOU get accepted by INSEAD, its now, your turn to accept the school. I think that rate is as high as in the late 80% or more.

Once you have officially accepted INSEAD’s offer to let you pay their fees of around 50,000 Euros (year 2008,9,10), you start making arrangement to get to either the Fontainebleau Campus or the Singapore Campus.

Fontainebleau Campus (Fonty as we lovingly call it)

• If you are starting in Jan: The place is cold. Its still winter with sunrise late in the morning. Its a torture to get up early morning and get to the first class of the day as it looks like its still midnight. I, being a ‘not a early morning riser’, used to make the most of every minute in the morning trying to stay in bed. Then I rush, rush, rush like it was the end of the world like in 2012 and INSEAD campus was the only safe place where you would live if you made it there in the next five minutes. Black coats and sweaters everywhere.
• If you are starting in June: Voila ! You are in the right corner of the earth, in the right season. Summer in Europe. Its beeAUUUtifuLL. You should not miss this one. The temperature is mild but its green, happy and wonderful outside.

Singapore Campus

Either Jan or July the weather is very much the same in Singapore: humid and warmer. Your appreciation for the weather depends on the departure location of the plane that you took to reach Singapore. If you came from a colder location, you will love this place mostly. If you came from a warm or warmer climate, it may not make much of a difference. If you are a change seeker, not much in there for you. If you are a comfort zone seeker, coming from a warm climate, this would work for you.

Irrespective of which campus you choose and which promotion you choose, you will start with your finance, accounting and the rest of the basic classes. So dont get bogged down by which campus to choose.

Here are a few logical situational advice

– If you are looking for finance jobs in europe, stick to the Fontainbleau campus when the recruiting happens

– If you are hooked on to entrepreneurship, check out the Singapore campus at least for some periods if not for all the year

– If you want mild warm summer all around the year, be in Singapore campus during the August to March / April and July to March in Fonty.

– Singapore is generally more efficient than most countries, France included. This does not reflect in the campus life, but would have an impact on your off campus life. For example: Like transport is better in Singapore and so is the facility to get an internet connection. But if you want to ensure you are going to get payback on the hefty French classes fees you paid before coming to INSEAD, stay in Fonty to practice it…just kidding.

– If you are a treehugger, Singapore has better connected intracity network of trains. You can use the bike in Fonty if you are staying close to the Campus, but the choice of places to stay in the town are few and get easily filled up. A good number of students stay anywhere between 10 to 25 min drives. It has got its own advantages like you stay in houses that may be more ‘happening’ houses.

I accepted INSEAD and rejected IMD. My decision to choose INSEAD was the alumni. I was at ease with these people. They were fun. Hmmmm…:) that wasnt why I chose INSEAD, but I actually chose INSEAD the number of alumni and their dispersion across the globe. And my choice was right. Today I know another 600 odd people from my own batch across the world in places from professions that you I had not know before. The network is amazing and they are active members of the community. Its amazing how this one year at INSEAD bonds all of us more than we would imagine. Very few b-schools come close to such a diverse crowd who are active alumni.

I  chose the January batch starting in Fonty. I packed a few warm clothing, a few books which amounted to 40kgs and arrived in the CDG airport. Took a shuttle ride with my new found fellow alumni to our respective places in Fonty. It was a simple, but an unforgettable ride.  We were supposed to be 3 who were sharing a ride in a  prebooked big van. But we had a few more people joining in and we are rode packed like anchovies in a can with our luggage. The bonding began right there.

Applying to INSEAD

Every school has its own personality and you need to check if its the right fit for you. If you do not understand the personality of the school, randomly choosing and applying to a school just because you fancy it, is like going to a black tie party in a bathing suit. You have to know where you are headed in life, and why you want to make the b-school a part of it. If you want a career in finance, look at finance oriented schools and if you want to be an entrepreneur you absolutely should apply to INSEAD :).

5 tips to determine a school’s personality:

1. The easiest and basic thing to do is read the school’s website and look at what subtle things they say about their strengths.

2. Go to LinkedIn and look up alumni from the particular school that you are interested in. See what they were doing before their education at the school of your choice and what they are doing after their MBA.

3. Get in touch with atleast 5 to 10 alumni of the school. Chances are 3 of them will reply and you can ask them if they would suggest that school for the career you are looking for.

4. If possible, have a face to face talk with some alumni and ask all your questions. You might have to go the extra mile to do this, trust me its worth the effort. More than it saving you from going to the wrong school (there is no wrong school as such), you may actually end up at the right school and your sense of satisfaction will be high.

5. A bonus would be if you could really visit the school and sit in a class. Looks like a long shot, but some students do go the lengths to make sure they make the right choice.

Top 5 checkbox list for an INSEAD wannabe:

As I went to INSEAD, I can tell you this from my perspective

1 – INSEAD values diversity. This is the best exposure to diversity you can get in a top B school category. (I would go as far to saying that class diversity is next best to the UN). You have to bring something unique to the class. In your essays bring out that aspects about you (professional / personal) that would be beneficial to the class – like working on an project in Swaziland or your plan to be an entrepreneur bringing up the best xyz  product/service into the world. Describe why you are to be believed that you can do it. If you are reading this and I believe you already have it in you that you are going to do something beyond mediocre in life. Show it, prove it, describe it in your essays.

2 – INSEAD looks for global exposure: Most of the students out there can speak 3 languages fluently. The reason being they do have work exposure in more than one country. It is a criteria at INSEAD that you pass exams in English and two other languages in order to complete graduating formalities. Ofcourse proof of the language as medium of your education eliminates the need of passing the exam. Again, people who have gone out of their comfort zone to achieve in life, add perspective to class discussions. And thats who you want as your classmate.

3 – An ideal INSEAD candidate: A person with five years or more work experience, with 700 plus GMAT score who is exposed to more than one country culture, is a global person, has achieved something worth mentioning and is going to be achieving greater heights post MBA. This is ideal. But if you fit a few of the above, you still have a chance as deviations from the ideal might also get selected depending on the other applicants that year. If you are fortunate enough to be unique enough. If there is nobody with your experience and profile that has applied, then there is a good chance that you might get selected.

4 – INSEAD looks for leadership: This is a key factor for any of the b schools, more so for the top 10 b schools. Particularly INSEAD and Harvard look for these traits. Choose an instance that best describes the leader in you.

5 – INSEAD in is France, but does not mandate French. Its is an international school. People who are fluent in two languages take up French as their third language intending to study it during the year. Its a funny mistake. Nobody goes to a business school to learn french, right. So you should free yourself from such tasks and save every bit of time learning business. As it is, INSEAD teaches you everything in one year what other top b schools teach in 2 years. You do not want to miss out on more businessy fun stuff by sitting and saying oui oui in a class.

Shall I apply for the Jan batch or the July one ?

INSEAD is actually not even a one year program. Its a 10 month program. INSEAD does as much justice to the subjects as a two year program so have no doubts on that one. In fact, some of the faculty rotate with other top b-schools and INSEAD has better faculty. (I may sound biased, ask alumni who did exchange programs).

Students in the Jan batch get a 2 month break to do internships, which is absolutely great if you want to try something out.  I had worked in US and Asia but not in Europe and used my internship to try it out. After that I made my decision that I wanted to work in Asia as it was more happening. The July batch does not get an internship break.

Questions

Should I apply to INSEAD?
If you have any queries, you can send them to me @ rashmi.vittal@insead.edu with subject ‘Applying to INSEAD’.
You can request for a one hour 1-1 session for a fee.

Can I get help on my essays?
If you are a serious about going to INSEAD and need help with your essays send me an email at rashmi.vittal@insead.edu and I will assess if I think I can help you. Depending where you are with your essays, I will recommend the number of sessions and the fees for it.

Please note that I do not recommend last-minute essay writing exercise. And I can only accommodate last minute essays reviews.

Can I get help on my interview?

Don’t be fooled by people who say, once you get an interview call from INSEAD, you are through. Or those who say, ‘Interview is just a formality’. It is far from the truth.

I interview candidates for INSEAD for the last 10 years and have rejected plenty of them. The chances are the candidates who get rejected do not speak about it much and so you do not hear about it.

Prepare well.

If you need help your INSEAD interview prep, you can write to me at rashmi.vittal@insead.edu with the subject ‘INSEAD interview help’ and we can schedule a session for a fee. 

7 tricks to score a 700 plus on GMAT at the first attempt

My GMAT experience:

These are things that worked for me and by no means decide that these ought to work for everyone else every single time.

The ticket to applications: The GMAT scorecard

First thing I did was to Google to find some mock tests and bought some books on GMAT preparation. A total effort of half an hour and I decided that I should write the GMAT in another 8 weeks or so. Could I crack the exam in 8 weeks, I did not know. I had a job that demanded 12 hours plus of availability if not work, I had not written an exam in a very long time. I used the calculator for everything. I had forgotten all basic math long back.

Soon it turned out that my day job did not leave me with much motivation at the end of the day and there was always ‘something else’ to do on weekends.

I did not trust myself again to sit and study for GMAT by myself and looked up some coaching classes around town and took a session at one of those.  They were far from motivating to say the least and I ran away from them. I found another guy wanting to join a study group and soon four of us decided to be a study group. Before the third meet two of them dropped. Me and the other chap met on Saturdays, practiced for few hours, and wound up with an evening tea. Sundays, we met late morning and wore out before lunch. We did some online practice tests and some simulation tests in addition to the books – OG, Kaplan. Sometimes we would get so worn out and bored that we ended up either cooking fancy dishes or catching up with the latest movie in town.

Scored a 720 the first time and thought that was enough.

1. Getting stuck at a 650 score:

My first GMAT mock test on OG was a little more than 500 !!!!. Thats when I decided – no calculator for the next few weeks, my brain’s math department had hibernated and needed a good shakeup.

But getting a 650 after a couple of sessions was no big deal. It was moving above that mark that proved to be a ‘no progress zone’ for me. I have heard it happen to many others who have spoken to me later and that is why I am writing this down. Here is how I moved beyond 650 into the 700s.

Quant – once you have done the mock tests, go back to the answer sheet that you marked rights from wrongs. circle all the wrong answers and check which section of math that you are mostly going wrong in. Check the basics of that math section on the web or in a math book and learn them. For example if you are getting all percentage problems wrong then there is something that you think you know about percentages. So refresh your knowledge with a basics book or the web. Now, solve problems from that section. Find hard puzzles and solve them. Now retake the test and see how you fare. In summary, find your problem area and iron it out. Sounds simple, but trust me, there are people lazy enough not to recognize the problem area and will keep getting frustrated at why their score is not improving.

Language: GMAT English may be a little different than the English that you usually speak, coz we often modify the language to suit our dialects or native languages. And here too, we are bound to make similar mistakes, not realizing and wondering why our language mock tests has so many wrong answers. Again, go back to the mock test answer sheet. Mark all the ones that you got wrong. Look at the questions and find the pattern/category of your mistakes. Get back to the category and practice that till you get all of it right. Now try the test again.

Dont expect magic just because you identified your mistakes. Sometimes in one iteration, you may be able to identify only one common mistake you do and you may need to do this exercise two or three times till you are consistently scoring in the range that you want. Remember, if you keep doing what you have always done, you will always get what you always got. To improve, look your mistakes closely and you should be able to learn and set it right. Trust me it ain’t that hard. I am pretty average and could do it, so you should be able to do it better ;).

2. Thinking that a 700 plus score is a must

Depends on the school and your profile. You may have the most interesting profile for the school and close to 700 is good enough. Also you might have 780 and a very common, uninteresting profile and may not get admission. A good GMAT score is like the physique of a good model. Its necessary, but its not the only criteria that will put the model on the cover of a magazine. A good interesting personality that fits the product(school) is very important.

3. Kaplan is better, OG is better, xyz is better

There is lot of debate on this on the web. In my opinion, start practicing OG, alternate with Kaplan and OG and then do simulation tests on the computer or online and then focus on improving yourself as discussed in point 1. There is not hard and fast rule. Practice makes one perfect and so dont stop till you have done well on the mock tests.

4. Does study group help ? Is it better to go to classes ?

You know yourself better. Choose an option that will help you be motivated and finish the GMAT at the earliest.

5. GMAT is the hardest part of the pre MBA phase

Ha ha…wait till you start your application. I drafted my application essays and then started thinking … ‘all my life, is this all I have done’ or at times ‘I have done so much over so many years and I have just 400 words to say it all’. For most people writing applications takes lots more time than writing the GMAT. So plan well so that you can apply in round 1 and 2 of admissions. Well, I applied in round 3 and did get selected but missed out on a chance to apply for scholarships :(. Also, the best places in Fontainebleau are booked by then.

Choosing INSEAD

8 tips to consider while deciding on the b-school for you

‘US B-Schools ..or errrr may be Europe?? …one year or two years?? ..may be part time is better…should I do an MBA at all, Steve Jobs doesn’t have one…no MBA…or may be I need it – Jack has an MBA, I definitely want to get one …this year or may be next year…should have done prev year … is it worth it??…not worth it?… ‘ the questions go on.

Whether you need an MBA or not, its for you to decide. Where you should pursue an MBA – thats upto you too. Shared below is the thought process I went through when I narrowed down on INSEAD. Many of the aspects may apply to you even if you are not looking to join INSEAD.

It is a ‘Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest them of all’ question

1. School Ranking

As soon as I had made my decision to get an MBA, I decided I look at the top 10 business schools across the globe. Easy one there…as I googled ‘top business schools’ and had my list. (Stating the obvious here …:P). This was pre GMAT. I looked at the deadlines for these top B Schools and decided that I had to write GMAT in a few weeks or else it was going to be next year. If postponed, I didnt trust myself to have the same enthusiasm to go ahead and take a year’s break to study.  At times, just taking a year off to travel had seemed very tempting. Plus I had just sealed a deal and the resulting cash I had acquired made tempted me enough to start on my own. Studying in Europe appealed to among the top 10 had a one year program or something close to it. So I shortlisted it to INSEAD and IMD. Ofcourse I added Harvard into my list of places to apply as well, though for some reason I was not interested in working in the US post-MBA (blame your gut or the heart when you cant reason it out).  I hadn’t written my GMAT yet and here I was already mildly rejecting HBS’s inviting MBA program. Within seconds, I reminded myself that I always need to have plan B and added HBS on my list of schools.

In my experience, if applying to more than 2 or 3 B-schools

a) tells me that you need to do more home work to know what you really want from a B-School

b)secondly, it is very laborious and unnecessary

2) Two years vs one year

I  did not want to be spending 2 years away from work and hence a one year program was the optimal choice. Since INSEAD and HBS are ranked in the same list I thought that the one year at INSEAD should be as good as the HBS two years – theoritically. So I went through the list of courses offered. The two had the same basic courses and different optional courses.

3) Alumni strength

I figured that the B-School alumni is one of the school’s best assests. So I researched on the number, location and Corporate positions of the alumnis of the schools that I had picked. INSEAD and HBS outnumbered IMD in terms of numbers and location. HBS is an older school so it outnumbered INSEAD. I did general reading on the web about how helpful these alums were and how good the alumni network to say. There are no figures here, its a ‘feel’ factor as to what appeals to you.

4) School Fees and expenditures

Take a look at your bank balance and you should know the answer. Scholarships exist, but not all b-schools offer them. Most of the top b-schools have very few scholarships and not enough to cover a good portion of your school fees. Of course, some schools waive your entire tuition fees.

( Let me add before you ask…At INSEAD, you WILL NOT find time to work part time. The only part time work that you may get to do during INSEAD is brush your teeth and bathe. Sometimes its the choice between sleeping and partying …always chose partying, you can sleep when you are dead)

5)Placements after graduation

The school websites have stats on their placements sector wise, salary wise, geography wise etc. You can write to them if you don’t find this information. Your ROI is important, but is not the only factor. Use LinkedIn to find out who did what after their MBA education. That should give you a good idea as to what to expect after the MBA.

6) Geographic location

Schools  have tie ups / affiliations / partnerships with other schools and you may want to check those out as you may have the opportunity to study at more than one location or school.

INSEAD has two campuses – one in Asia and one in France. There is an Abu Dhabi campus as well, but this is not used for the MBA classes as yet. INSEAD also has also partnerships with Wharton and Kellogg. This variety no other school has. Well, at that time I did not really know what that really meant. This fact actually means that INSEAD is the ONLY top ranked b-school in the world that has two intakes a year and has two campuses in two continents. You can switch campuses during the year and graduate from either campus where you choose to. You can also take classes in the partnership b-schools in the third continent. Trust me, this IS a lot of variety and you really need to know what you want to make the best of it. I knew that I might like to work in Asia after graduation given the economic growth, so I really started leaning towards INSEAD. I was not interested in Wharton and so did not investigate it much. During INSEAD, I learnt that some students interested in the financial markets in the US did opt for the Wharton campus option. If you are interested in this option, I would suggest you talk to someone who did take this option as I did not take this option and so I reserve my right to ‘not comment’ here.

7) Class mix

I should have written about this probably in point 2 or 3 as this is one of ‘the’ most important factors in choosing a b-school. Who do you want to study with matters ..a lot. Some B-schools have homogeneous classes. Well, if you want to work in the Wall Street, you may want to rub your shoulders who want to do so too as it makes sense. I was looking for diversity. You can look up the schools website or ask for information regarding this, depending on what you are looking for.

INSEAD rocks in this aspect. The selection process makes sure that you will have the most diverse class on the planet and you will the value of it in action during the class. You get to learn so much from your classmates that its amazing. Ofcourse, I did not know this then and even if I had read this many a times on the blogs, websites etc its something that needs to be experienced. I think my facebook page my explain it better ;).

8 ) To MBA or not to MBA

If you are thinking about it, go ahead give it your best shot. My personal advice is that dont settle for some school as a compromise for a school that you did not get admit into. Do your homework thoroughly. Reach out to the school staff and alumni and learn more about it – if you cant find them or answers from them the school is not worth your time. Sometimes I think I am an average Joe and some other times I think I have this unique idea that will change the world, but eitherways if you ask me if I had a choice would I do the MBA all over again – DEFINITELY. I would go to INSEAD all over again and I can gaurantee you that my classmates would say the same. The only thing that I would not like there is the tests and exams – well that I did not like in Grade 1 either.

FAQ

Should I apply to INSEAD?
If you have any queries, you can send them to me @ rashmi.vittal@insead.edu with subject ‘Applying to INSEAD’.
You can request for a one hour 1-1 session for a fee.

Should I get an MBA?

If you are much early in your MBA journey and still mulling on the question ‘Should I do an MBA or not ?’ or thinking ‘Am I too late to do an MBA ?’ or ‘Should I apply to top tier schools?’ or similar questions, you are welcome to schedule a chat with me. You can request for a session directly with me for a fee by writing to rashmi.vittal@insead.edu.