MBA Decoder

Deadlines:
September Intake:
Round 1:  10 September 2024
Round 2:  5 November 2024
Round 3:  14 January 2025
Round 4:  4 March 2025

Job Description Essays
1. Briefly summarise your current (or most recent) job, including the nature of work, major responsibilities, and where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, clients/products and results achieved. ((200 words maximum)

2. What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company instead of going to business school? (200 words maximum)

3. Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university. Describe your career path with the rationale behind your choices. (short answer)

4. Discuss your short and long term career aspirations with an MBA from INSEAD. (100 words maximum)

5. (optional) If you are currently not working or if you plan to leave your current employer more than 2 months before the programme starts, please explain your activities and occupations between leaving your job and the start of the programme.

Motivation Essays
1. Give a candid description of yourself (who are you as a person), stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary (maximum 500 words).

2. Consider a situation where you failed to achieve your objective(s). How did you handle failure? What did you learn about yourself and/or your interactions with others from this situation? (400 words)

4. Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee? (maximum 300 words)

Video Essays:
Once you submit your application online, you will get access to a link for submitting your video essays. You will have 48 hours to complete and submit these. These together with the online form complete the stage one of the application.

The video is an opportunity for you to share your passions, your motivations and who you truly are. The Admissions Committee is interested in obtaining an authentic view of you as a person, to see how you think on your feet and how you convey your ideas. You will have to answers to 4 questions.  You will get 45 seconds to prepare each answer and 60 seconds to record your answer.

Other Application Components:

Resume:
You can use your own format for the resume or use the format suggested by INSEAD for drafting your resume.

Recommendations:
You are required to submit two professional recommendations. From these, at least one should come from your workplace while the other recommendation should be from someone who can evaluate you in a professional setting. You can also provide an optional third letter of recommendation.

Recommendations should be submitted within 48 hours of the deadline.

Interview:
Interviews are by invitation only. There are two interviews, and these are normally conducted by alumni.

Reapplications:
Reapplication is not that easy at INSEAD. They welcome you to apply, but only if your profile has gone through significant changes.

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