INSEAD’s MBA application for their September 2016 intake went live several weeks ago, making their recommendations available for Class of 2018 applicants. INSEAD asks recommenders to provide their responses within a PDF that is emailed through the online application, which recommenders then upload through the online portal.

The recommendation begins with several background questions:

Have you attended an INSEAD Programme? if yes, please specify which one?

Please, specify your relationship to candidate: (select Professional, Educational, or Personal)

How long have you known the candidate? Define your relationship with the candidate and the circumstances whereby you met.

Click on the image to the right to view the grid on which INSEAD asks recommenders to rate the applicant’s competence, professionalism, and various other abilities and skills.

Recommenders are then asked to respond to the following short-answer questions within the PDF document. Our initial testing suggests that this space accommodates about 1,500 characters including spaces, though this may vary depending on the software being used.

These INSEAD MBA recommendation questions are:

1. Comment on the candidate’s career progress to date and his/her career focus.

5. Describe the candidate as a person. Comment on his/her ability to establish and maintain relationships, sensitivity to others, self-confidence, attitude, etc. Specifically comment on the candidate’s behaviour or skills in a group setting/team environment.