Every INSEADer has his own stories and special experiences, and that makes the diversity the school is proud of. I saw different versions of threads of experience sharing from successful applicants here. Still feeling grateful for what I’ve read and learnt, here I m going to write another version.

Am going to skip the GMAT preparation part, since am sure you’ve already got or will soon get a decent GMAT score if INSEAD is in your target school list. The following contents will cover several topics: 1) essays; 2) recommendation letters; 3)interviews; 4) why INSEAD; 5) myself

Essays.

OK, let’s see first what’s special about INSEAD, and what kind of personalities the school could be looking for:

- The one-year feature of the program makes the school life highly intense, and it pushes you to “drink water from a fire hose”. So, they value people of high efficiency, and those who thrive under pressure.

- INSEAD produces international leaders who have the capability to manage international complexity and global cultural diversity. I am already impressed by the diversity of the 2013-J class which I m going to attend. Note the key word here: diversity.

- Because of the highly diversified class, you’ve got to demonstrate your ability to communicate, to socialize, to adapt and to enjoy the diversity.

- Here is another famous slogan of INSEAD you may already have heard about: Study hard, play harder! Not literally mean that everyone has to be playboys playgirls but the school may potentially value the socialside of the applicants.

- The school is of world fame, but whether this fame can be maintained and improved depends on you. You’ve got to demonstrate a highly-aimed yet realistic, an ambitious yet reachable career goal that the school is gonna feel proud of someday.

- … you can find a lot more if you think hard.

Applicants are talking about the people-school fitting or matching, and the schools are doing the same thing. Let’s list the main keywords we’ve just talked about above:

Keywords:   efficient; diversified; enjoy pressure; resilient; sociable; assertive, adaptable, ambitious, … (and other common features you need in applying whatever school … )

Then, as suggested in another thread I read on CD, you’d better search your personal stories that can demonstrate the above keywords, starting from the beginning where your memory can ever reach. Voila, now you’ve got all the elements to crack the essays.

As for whether it’s good idea to use professional editing service to write your essays, I strongly object to that. I’ll never put my future at stake in other people’s hands. But it’s only personal opinion. You can show your essays to trusted people (and make sure they are experienced enough to give you positive inputs) to get their comments, some may be good, others may not. In the end,you should develop your own style and stick to it no matter what others say.

Recommendation letters:

It’s critically (sometimes vitally) important whom do you choose to be your referees! I heard a lot of people saying that the TITLE is everything. Well, Ithink that’s really true, but only if you can assure the good quality of the contents. One of my referees showed me all the questions they must answer inthe recommendation letter. I found it’s really quite a lot of job to answer all the questions and it’s time consuming almost the same as writing 5~6 essays… My French professor told me it took her weeks to think, draft and finish all the questions… I applied only 2 schools, so you can image what the amount of work would be if you apply 5 or 6 b schools! The contents and the quality of your recommendation letters really matter. It would be great if your referees have big titles (like CxO), but make sure they spend time to demonstrate your strengths!

In my case, my boss didn’t know I was applying for MBA yet at that moment, so I had to aska project manager who I was working with to write one letter, and for the other letter, I asked a professor from my engineering school in france. Two referees, one French one Chinese, one female one male, one academic one professional from different perspectives. They don’t have big titles but I think they know me well and they are willing to spend time on the recommendation questions to help my application.

Interviews:

Normally the interviews are always done with the alumni if you are not able to go to the campus either in Singapore or in Fontainebleau. So what exactly are the interviewers looking for? In my opinion:

1. Feeling. Do I want to be his/her alumnus? Do I like him/her?

2. Career potential. Did he/she make significant progress in his/her career in the past? What do I see this guy/lady in 5 years’ time?

3. Personality. Is INSEAD suitable for him/her? Does his/her personality match the INSEAD community?

4. The way you think. Does he/she answer my questions in a systematic way? Does he/she use any strategic approach when answering my questions

5. Thank you letter. Don’t forget to write a thank you letter after the interview.

I found in another thread an exhaustive list of questions. FYI, I met 90% of them duringmy interviews! So now you know what to prepare (question list is taken from another thread posted by "yuxiangmao''):

1. Tell me about yourself/walk through your resume
2. Why you made the career choices that you did (after undergraduate)?
3. What’s your role in your current company?
4. Why MBA and why now?
5. Why undergraduate major？

6. What are your short term/long term post-MBA career goals and why the xxx indusry?
7. Talk to me about a failure in life
8. What would your friends/colleagues say about you? Negatives/Positives
9. Tell me an example of about teamwork. If people not contributing how would you manage it?
10. What do you hate most about people?

11. What do you like most about people?
12. What do you do outside of work
13. So. Why INSEAD? Why not some other program? Which others have you applied to?
14. What if you don’t get INSEAD? Then what?
15. Which campus and why? Do you hope to apply for the Wharton exchange program?

16. How do you intend to finance your studies?
17. Do you have any questions for me?

Why INSEAD:

Here are the reasons why I choose INSEAD:

1. ranking, fame everywhere inthe world, no worse than M7 everywhere in the world
2. why THE HELL spend 2 years if you can do everything in one year?!
3. cost / benefit
4. I want to work in consulting after MBA.
5. Its diversity (I m already impressed)
6. I m already familiar with France and I’ve got friends and resources there. AND, my girl friend will also be in France during the coming years~

Myself:

Here is a summary of my profile:

- Male, 28 yrs old upon program start
- Gmat 740＋6.0, toefl waived
- Bachelor in mainland China from 985+211, engineering background.
- Master from French engineering school with full scholarship + one year internship in Paris doing technical consulting in engineering.
- 2.5 yrs WE in engineering industry 1/4 time in Europe
- co-founder of a consulting company mainly for auto industry, starting at the same time during application.
- Applied only 2 schools: HEC and INSEAD. Admitted by HEC with HEC excellence scholarship, INSEAD with AlumniFund (IAF) Diversity Scholarship.

The whole application process (from GMAT preparation to offers) took me around 7~8 months(3 months GMAT + 1.5 months application documents + 1.5 month waiting + 1 month interviews + 2 weeks waiting again). Maybe you won’t believe or agree, but I didn’t show anyone else my essays, and never did any mock interview … I don’t suggest everyone else do the same, but I think once you really understand what the school is looking for, you should confidently believe in yourself.

I am glad to help the future INSEADers concerning the application questions you have. You can either PM me or post directly in this thread, and I will answer your questions at the earliest possible time.