IMD campus in Lausanne, Switzerland

Without a doubt, IMD conducts the most thorough MBA interview.  The interview day is divided into four evaluative sections.  When you arrive on campus, you will be introduced to the adcom and faculty evaluators as well as a group of applicants who will partake in the same experience as you.  Since the adcom will evaluate you on your team interactions and most of your peer-applicants will become your classmates, get to know them, have fun with them, and expand your network.

For the first part of the interview, our website’s interview section will help you.  Review the interview questions and prepare response to them, or contact one of our consultants to help you prepare for the MBA interview.  IMD’s adcom is trying to get to know you, your intentions, and your fit with the school.  The questions are similar to those at other schools.  They will ask you about your background and goals, team skills and leadership, successes and failures.  This part of the interview day will take 45 minutes to one hour and is a great way to help you prepare for the rest of the day.

Next you will be asked to present a topic they give you in the morning.  You will have 30 minutes to prepare the topic and 5 minutes to present the topic.  This is what I call a mini-case.  Take a stand on the topic and offer supporting evidence in a cohesive and dynamic manner.  You can practice by thinking about issues you have at work or that are in today’s business news.  For instance, they may suggest that you present your opinion of the European debt crisis or your opinion of the Euro. Should Germany have to bail out Greece? Can countries that have different political systems successfully use one currency? Give it some thought and present a good argument.  They will evaluate your presentation on analysis and delivery, but not on your opinion itself (every business issue has multiple dimensions).

Then you will have lunch with alumni.  Alumni are trying to get to understand how you will fit in with the culture of the school and they will report what they learn.  Let your personality shine through, but be on guard.  Alumni are evaluating your value-added to the school.

Finally, you will be asked to present the “Case”.  Most applicants don’t know how to tackle a case, but from an adcom’s point of view, I believe offering the case is a stroke of brilliance. Much of your MBA education will be case-based and if you know how to tackle a case from day 1, you will have smooth sailing throughout the program.  I suggest you read Mark Consentino’s book Case In Point  or William Ellet’s The Case Study Handbook well before the interview.  IMD will send you the case two weeks prior to your interview day.  You will need to prepare that case and on the interview day, faculty will observe you and moderate the case discussion as you and your peer group dissect and present the case.  They will be looking for your analysis, teamwork, leadership and presentations skills during the case.  Again, Accepted.com’s consultants are experts in helping you with case interview preparation.

At the end of the day, you will be asked to sit in on a class.  This is not part of the evaluation, but more of a chance for you to see the IMD faculty and students in action. Most applicants just observe and don’t participate in class, however, if they are discussing a topic in which you are familiar, I suggest you raise your hand and add to the discussion.  If you are unfamiliar with the topic, you should just observe the students and how they interact with the faculty.

While IMD’s interviews are intense, you should gain a lot from the day. And if offered admission, you will know if IMD is a good fit for you.

By Natalie Grinblatt Epstein, an accomplished Accepted.com consultant/editor (since 2008) and entrepreneur. Natalie is a former MBA Admissions Dean and Director at Ross, Johnson, and Carey.

The Two Questions Before the Essay Questions:

1) Position sought after graduation

Please give us your short term career goal post MBA (up to 5 years). Describe how the IMD MBA will help you achieve this goal and how you will approach your job search. (maximum 2000 characters)

Forward-looking, connect-the-dots MBA goals question with a twist. To answer this question, you need to know what you want to do after you complete IMD’s short, intense programs, and you also need to relate how that program will help you achieve your MBA goal. Finally, you have to show that you have a plan for your job search. That’s the twist.  It also implies that you know what IMD career services offers and how you will use and supplement those services.

2) Most important achievement

What do you consider to be your single most important achievement and why? (maximum 1230 characters)

Your single most important achievement should ideally show impact, leadership, and cross-cultural and cross-functional savvy. If you can’t have all the above, make sure you have at least two.

You have room here for a story. Don’t think for an instant that IMD wants the great American novel for this essay. Keep it succinct, but this essay should engage the reader.  You may want to review a few of these resources before writing:

• Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your MBA Essay.
• Essays That Stick, an on-demand webinar.
• Roadmap to Bold & Brilliant MBA Essays, an on-demand webinar.

Finally, realize that the “why” is as important as the “what.” Convey those reasons in your response.

IMD 2013 Essay Questions

Essay 1: Two situations of importance to you

Situation 1 (maximum 1230 characters)

Situation 2 (maximum 1230 characters)

Before responding to any of IMD’s questions, review its criteria for admissions, which are posted on its website and in a video on YouTube.

Then choose two experiences that demonstrate the qualities IMD seeks and that complement each other, the other essays, and the other elements in your application.

Realize that you can translate that character limit to approximately 200 words — not a lot to work with.  Be succinct, and include both the challenge and why you think it is worth including in your IMD application. Why do you care about it?

Essay 2: Failure to reach objective

Please comment on a situation where you failed to reach an objective and what you learned from it. (maximum 1230 characters)

Briefly describe the failure — and make it a real one — a time when you blew it. Take responsibility for your actions and show self-awareness. Discuss lessons learned and how you implemented those lessons successfully in similar, more recent situations. 

Essay 3: Leadership

Describe a situation where you had to demonstrate strong leadership skills. Explain how effective you were and what you learned. (maximum 1230 characters)

Leadership takes many forms, but it usually involves persuasion and motivation of others. What did you do? What was the impact? And what did you learn — what worked and why? Have you had occasional to repeat the experiment subsequently with similar or even better results? 

Essay 4: Describe yourself

How do you imagine your superior would describe your strengths and weaknesses to someone who does not know you. (maximum 1230 characters)

Take a look at a recent review from your manager. You will probably find good material there. You may also want to review:

• Evaluating weaknesses in your MBA candidacy holistically
• Weakness, what weakness?
• Strengths and weakness essays: Turning lemons into lemonade

Essay 5: International Exposure

Describe a situation where you successfully worked across cultures and/or nations. (maximum 1230 characters)

This is a very important essay for IMD, a school that values its global culture and cross-cultural experience. Describe the situation briefly, a challenge unique to international work environments, and how you met it. If you have room, lessons learned are always good to include. 

Essay 6: Differentiators

IMD receives numerous applications per year. Give us four bullet points that clearly differentiate you from this applicant pool. (maximum 1230 characters)

Your MBA essays up to this point are probably very professionally focused. Several of the bullet points could be personal. IMD wants to know about you as a person, as well as you as a professional. This may be a great place to inform the reader of distinctive features in your background or personal life. Your resume and the other essays will have already told them about unusual aspects of your professional life. 

Essay 7: Alternatives

If you are not admitted, what alternatives will you consider? (maximum 1230 characters)

How will you achieve your professional goals discussed earlier in the IMD application if you are not admitted to an MBA program? How else could you learn what you want to learn?

Essay 8: Finance

Please explain how you intend to finance your studies at IMD. What would be your budget? (maximum 1230 characters)

Just answer it. Are you going to take out loans, use your own money, turn to your parents? Remember to include a succinct budget.

Essay 9: Disability / illness

Do you have a disability or illness that could affect your performance at IMD? If so, please explain. (maximum 1230 characters)

If necessary, describe the disability and how you intend to compensate for it. Also show that you have compensated successfully for this illness or disability in the past.

Essay 10: Additional Information

Optional question: Is there any additional information that is critical for the Admissions Committee to know which has not been covered elsewhere in this application? (maximum 1230 characters)

Between IMD’s nine essays and two questions preceding the “real” essays, this may be the one application where the optional essay is really unnecessary. Nonetheless, if you have something to explain — a low GPA, a gap in employment, etc. — or something to add, this is the place to do it. 

IMD 2013 Application Deadlines

February 1; April 1; June 1; August 1; September 1

While you can choose any of the above deadlines, we encourage you to apply as early as possible.

• Apply for the February 1st or April 1st deadline to have the option of being interviewed in Singapore.
• Apply by the August 1st deadline to have the option of being interviewed in Sao Paulo.
• Citizens of countries requiring a longer visa process should apply for one of the first four deadlines.

If you would like help with your IMD MBA application, please consider Accepted’s MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or an IMD MBA School Package, which includes advising, essay editing, and a resume edit for the IMD MBA application.

Found these tips helpful? Check out the rest of our MBA application tips here!

  By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com, co-author of MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.

The Two Questions Before the Essay Questions:

1) Position sought after graduation

Please give us your short term career goal post MBA (up to 5 years). Describe how the IMD MBA will help you achieve this goal and how you will approach your job search. (maximum 2000 characters)

Forward-looking, connect-the-dots MBA goals question with a twist. To answer this question, you need to know what you want to do after you complete IMD’s short, intense programs, and you also need to relate how that program will help you achieve your MBA goal. Finally, you have to show that you have a plan for your job search. That last element implies that you know what IMD career services offers and how you will use and supplement those services.

2) Most important achievement

What do you consider to be your single most important achievement and why? (maximum 1230 characters)

Your single most important achievement should ideally show impact, leadership, and cross-cultural and cross-functional savvy. If you can’t have all the above, make sure you have at least two.

You have room here for a story. Don’t think for an instant that IMD wants the great American novel for this essay. Keep it succinct, but this essay should engage the reader.  You may want to review a few of these resources before writing:

• Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your MBA Essay.
• Essays That Stick, an on-demand webinar.
• Roadmap to Bold & Brilliant MBA Essays, an on-demand webinar.

Finally, realize that the “why” is as important as the “what.” Convey those reasons in your response.

IMD 2012 Essay Questions

Essay 1: Two situations of importance to you

Situation 1 (maximum 1230 characters)

Situation 2 (maximum 1230 characters)

Before responding to any of IMD’s questions, review its criteria for admissions, which are posted on its website and in a video on YouTube.

Then choose two experiences that demonstrate the qualities IMD seeks and that complement each other, the other essays, and the other elements in your application.

Realize that you can translate that character limit to approximately 200 words — not a lot to work with.  Be succinct, and include both the challenge and why you think it is worth including in your IMD application. Why do you care about it?

Essay 2: Failure to reach objective

Please comment on a situation where you failed to reach an objective and what you learned from it. (maximum 1230 characters)

Briefly describe the failure — and make it a real one — a time when you blew it. Take responsibility for your actions and show self-awareness. Discuss lessons learned and how you implemented those lessons successfully in similar, more recent situations. 

Essay 3: Leadership

Describe a situation where you had to demonstrate strong leadership skills. Explain how effective you were and what you learned. (maximum 1230 characters)

Leadership takes many forms, but it usually involves persuasion and motivation of others. What did you do? What was the impact? And what did you learn — what worked and why? Have you had occasional to repeat the experiment subsequently with similar or even better results? 

Essay 4: Describe yourself

How do you imagine your superior would describe your strengths and weaknesses to someone who does not know you. (maximum 1230 characters)

Take a look as a recent review from your manager. You will probably find good material there. You may also want to review:

• Evaluating weaknesses in your MBA candidacy holistically
• Weakness, what weakness?
• Strengths and weakness essays: Turning lemons into lemonade

Essay 5: International Exposure

Describe a situation where you successfully worked across cultures and/or nations. (maximum 1230 characters)

This is a very important essay for IMD, a school that values its global culture and cross-cultural experience. Describe the situation briefly, a challenge unique to international work environments, and how you met it. If you have room, lessons learned are always good to include. 

Essay 6: Differentiators

IMD receives numerous applications per year. Give us four bullet points that clearly differentiate you from this applicant pool. (maximum 1230 characters)

Your essays up to this point are probably very professionally focused. Several of the bullet points could be personal. IMD wants to know about you as a person, as well as you as a professional. This may be a great place to inform the reader of distinctive features in your background or personal life. Your resume and the other essays will have already told them about unusual aspects of your professional life. 

Essay 7: Alternatives

If you are not admitted, what alternatives will you consider? (maximum 1230 characters)

How will you achieve your professional goals discussed earlier in the IMD application if you are not admitted to an MBA program? How else could you earn what you want to learn?

Essay 8: Finance

Please explain how you intend to finance your studies at IMD. What would be your budget? (maximum 1230 characters)

Just answer it. Are you going to take out loans, use your own money, turn to your parents? Remember to include a succinct budget.

Essay 9: Disability / illness

Do you have a disability or illness that could affect your performance at IMD? If so, please explain. (maximum 1230 characters)

If necessary, describe the disability and how you intend to compensate for it. Also show that you have compensated successfully for this illness or disability in the past.

Essay 10: Additional Information

Optional question: Is there any additional information that is critical for the Admissions Committee to know which has not been covered elsewhere in this application? (maximum 1230 characters)

Between IMD’s nine essays and two questions preceding the “real” essays, this may be the one application where the optional essay is really unnecessary. Nonetheless, if you have something to explain — a low GPA, a gap in employment, etc. — or something to add, this is the place to do it. 

IMD 2012 Application Deadlines

February 1; April 1; June 1; August 1; September 1

While you can choose any of the above deadlines, we encourage you to apply as early as possible.

• Apply for the February 1st or April 1st deadline to have the option of being interviewed in Singapore.
• Apply by the August 1st deadline to have the option of being interviewed in Sao Paulo.
• Citizens of countries requiring a longer visa process should apply for one of the first four deadlines.

If you would like help with your IMD MBA application, please consider Accepted’s MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or an IMD MBA School Package, which includes advising, essay editing, and a resume edit for the IMD MBA application.

Found these tips helpful? Check out the rest of our MBA application tips here!

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com, co-author of MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.

The IMD EMBA essay questions will generate a comprehensive view of you as a businessperson and a professional – in very succinct form.  Although the essays are not long, be prepared to put good thought into deciding what to write.  Also spend time deciding what to emphasize about a given experience or point, because you will not be able to include all aspects given the brevity.   Keep in mind the program’s targeting of seasoned managers on the brink of senior management.

Rather than in a traditional set of essay questions, the IMD application asks you a couple of critical questions within the application.

5. Description of career history

Please provide a brief description of your career history and accomplishments to date, including current duties and reporting responsibilities.  The response must be limited to 10 lines.

This line limit gives you about 130-150 words – not much.  You can either weave in your accomplishments ( selectively discussing the key ones) into your career history, or you can do a short paragraph with your career history followed by a short paragraph about your key accomplishments.  Regarding the accomplishments, include at least one recent one.  In this short essay, be specific and quantify where possible/relevant.

9. Briefly state your career objectives.  The response must be limited to 5 lines. 

This gives you a few sentences approximately.  Be specific:  roles/positions, industry, possibly geography.  Give an example of companies that interest you.  State not just what you want to do, but also what you’d like to accomplish, what impact you’d like to have in the long term (your “vision”).

10-13. Essays

Questions 10-13 should be answered on separate sheets of paper. Please re-type the questions with your answers and include your name on each page.  Please take this opportunity to present yourself to the Admissions Committee in a concise, informative and open manner.  Each essay should be a maximum of 15 lines.

NOTE: This line limit gives you about 200 words per essay.

10. Please describe three situations, business or otherwise, in which you were involved and which were of importance to you. Explain why you view them as such.

Selecting three interesting, different, and in some way pivotal situations is the key to using this essay to maximum effect.  It gives the adcom YOUR lens onto your life and career –and it gives you a chance to present a multifaceted self-portrait.  Ideally at least one of the three situations will be non-work related.  A general rule of thumb in terms of time frame is, the longer ago something happened, the “bigger” its meaning and impact should be to make it a viable essay topic.  For example, you should generally steer clear of discussing something as far back as high school – unless, for example, you escaped with your family from a region at war.  Most likely you’ll discuss things within the last five years. For the work-related items, try to have one fairly recent, and also discuss experiences that are different.    I suggest three paragraphs, each devoted to one situation.  In each, describe the situation, and then discuss why it was important to you – and if it was so for multiple reasons, focus on one or two.  Be thoughtful and insightful, don’t just state the obvious. 

11. Please comment on a situation where you failed to reach an objective and what you learned from it.

Here you have a chance to go more in depth on a particular experience.  Ideally use an experience from work, not too far in the past.  First narrate the situation, giving specifics such as where, who, when, etc.   Don’t shrink from the part where you failed to reach the objective – this is the pivot point of the story.  Explain what happened and be frank about where you fell short.  Describe your learning from it – and then add a quick sentence noting how you have since applied that learning.

12. In what ways do you believe you can contribute to this program?

Identify 2-3 key ways you stand out among IMD Executive MBA applicants and elaborate on how they will enable you to contribute.  There is no formula here; it will differ for each applicant.  Some examples of factors to consider are a unique industry perspective or niche, an unusual or powerful experience at work, in-depth experience in under-represented developing region, work that deals with critical or evolving social issues, significant and high-impact volunteer work.  These are just examples.  For the top 2-3 factors you mention, describe each briefly and now how/why it will enable you to contribute.  After this substantive discussion, if you wish and if you have room, you can add a couple more points in a concluding sentence or two – but there is no need to do so. 

13. Optional question: Is there any additional information that is critical for the Executive MBA Admissions Committee to know that has not been covered elsewhere in this application?

The use of the phrase “is critical” indicates that you should not use this essay simply to further market yourself; write it only if there is an essential item not mentioned that the adcom must know in order to have a full understanding of your candidacy.  Obviously you’d need to discuss things such as an unimpressive undergrad record, gap in resume, etc.  But given the opportunity to discuss a range of issues that the regular essays present, you should not add another “interesting” experience here.

Application deadline

“As soon as we receive applications, we review them and make acceptance decisions. Typically, we respond to all applicants within 3 weeks.  You can apply at any time – it is in your best interest to apply early.”

If you would like help with IMD’s executive MBA essays, please consider Accepted.com’s EMBA admissions consulting and EMBA essay editing services.

 By Cindy Tokumitsu, co-author of The EMBA Edge, and author of the free special report, “Ace the EMBA.”

Check out the rest of our executive MBA essay tips here.

If you attended our recent conversation with IMD’s Lisa Piguet, Associate Director of MBA Admissions and Marketing, then you know what a success it was. You can review the Q&A by reading the whole IMD Q&A transcript, by listening to the full audio clip online, or by subscribing to our podcast in iTunes and catch as many of the MBA Admissions Q&As as you want.

Here is a particularly noteworthy clip from the IMD Q&A about the focus on entrepreneurship at IMD:

Linda Abraham: I know IMD is a general management program, and we’ve talked a lot about graduates going into either consulting or industry, mainly industry. What about entrepreneurship?

Lisa Piguet: That is one of the things I didn’t mention in the first part of the program in terms of our offering. We have a very strong entrepreneurship stream that lasts about four and a half months. Benoît F. Leleux runs that program. He is a specialist in the private equity, venture capital world with start-ups. And we know that a lot of people studying for general management programs are not necessarily going to have a start-up someday, but what we have found is that what you learn in an entrepreneur situation happens a lot in the corporate world. In a business unit for example, oftentimes you have loose variables — you don’t have much budget, you don’t have much people — and you still have to figure out how to get the project working and functioning. So that is what the whole stream actually teaches you.

IMD sits physically right next to a big school which is similar to MIT. And here between Lausanne and Geneva is the third largest area in the world for venture capital and private equity. The first is Silicon Valley, the second is Cambridge, and the third is here. We have a lot of biotech, we have a lot of clean energy, and we have all kinds of things happening around here. There are sixteen projects, and they are chosen from around this area because we want the entrepreneur to be with the MBAs. They physically need to meet with them and work on their projects. So if we can, the projects actually come from this area. Oftentimes, they help them validate their business plan. Oftentimes, they actually help them go and raise money for their projects. Oftentimes, they have to shut their door because the project is not viable after doing all the industry analysis, the company analysis. So it’s very interesting for the MBAs to work on that. And occasionally we have people who actually go work for that start-up. And we do have probably two or three MBAs each year when they graduate who start their own company.

Linda Abraham: Out of ninety students, that is not much different than schools which are much more outwardly entrepreneurially focused.

Lisa Piguet: Benoît F. Leleux actually taught at Babson for a long time. As you know, that is a big entrepreneur school. And then he did his PhD at INSEAD, and taught there for a while. But most of our professors are actually industry based, so they come from some sort of industry related to what they are teaching. A lot of them come from consulting. Benoît F. Leleux in this case is venture capital, private equity. He was working in Asia for years on different projects. So they are very practical and very hands on.

And here’s another exchange that focuses on IMD’s International Consulting Project:

Linda Abraham: Is there a required international component? By that I mean study outside of Switzerland. Or is the program just too intense and too short to allow for that?

Lisa Piguet: We have some very interesting things built into the program. I know a lot of schools now are doing exchanges. But in eleven months, that’s really hard to do. So what we have done in the program is we have something called the International Consulting Project, which is actually one of the MBAs favorite projects of the year. That is basically working with top multi-national companies out there. They are actually paying us for the MBAs to consult for them. And these projects are based all over the world. So last year when I was in China, I ran into a group in Shanghai. When I was in Brazil, I ran into a group there; they were underground in a mine. I ran into a group in New York; they were doing a water project. So they get to spend time outside of IMD quite often actually.

There is another project that is built into the program called the Discovery Expedition. And for the last three years, we’ve been going to South Africa because when you look at South Africa, you can actually find literally everything. And they’ve been working with small and medium sized businesses to try to change the entire process in Johannesburg. That is for two weeks. You have the International Consulting Projects plus the Discovery Expedition, and so that is what we would equate to an exchange. You are not sitting down in class and learning accounting, but it’s a very hands-on exchange.

View the full IMD Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now or subscribe to the Apple iTunes MBA Admissions Podcast. If you like the podcast, please leave a 5-star review.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

In addition to providing applicants with specific program information, interactive workshops, career counseling, and test preparation, the Access MBA Tour gives applicants the unique opportunity to meet one-on-one with admissions directors! Christophe Coutat, Founder of the Access MBA Tour, explains, “The One-to-One meetings are proven to advance candidates in their decision-making process during the event. This is more valuable than basing an MBA program choice on brochures or rankings.”

Next week Access MBA will be visiting New York on Monday, June 20, so visit Access MBA Tour to learn more and register.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

 According to BusinessWeek, “global MBA programs are showing themselves to be more selective, more rigorous, and more desirable to recruiters.” Shouldn’t you explore the possibility that IMD‘s intensive, 10-month MBA will be a better fit for you? Come learn about IMD’s admissions policies, program, and student life in our interactive Q&A on Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 8:00 AM PT/11:00 AM ET/5:00 PM Swiss time, with Lisa Piguet, Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing. Don’t miss your chance to discover why IMD’s unique business approach, “Real World. Real Learning,” has made the program a leader in the global business scene.

Register now to reserve your spot for the IMD MBA Q&A.

What time is that for me? Click on the link to find out the exact time for your location.

Photo credit: LouisL

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This IMD 2011 MBA Application tip post is one of a series of posts providing MBA application and essay advice for applicants to top MBA programs around the world. You can access the entire series at http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/tag/2011-mba-application-tips. My tips for answering IMD’s essay questions are in blue below.

The Two Questions Before the Essay Questions:

1) Position sought after graduation

Please give us your short term career goal post MBA (up to 5 years). Describe how the IMD MBA will help you achieve this goal and how you will approach your job search.

Forward-looking, connect-the-dots MBA goals question with a twist. To answer this question, you need to know what you want to do after you complete IMD’s short, intense programs, and you also need to relate how that program will help you achieve your MBA goal. Finally, you have to show that you have a plan for your job search. That last element implies that you know what IMD career services provides and how you intend to use and supplement it.

2) Most important achievement

What do you consider to be your single most important achievement and why?

Your single most important achievement should ideally show impact, leadership, and cross-cultural and cross-functional savvy. If you can’t have all the above, make sure you have at least two.

You have room here for a story. Don’t think for an instant that IMD wants the great American novel for this essay. Keep it succinct, but this essay should engage the reader. Afterall, it is your most important achievement. You may want to review a few of these resources before writing:

• Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your MBA Essay.
• Essays That Stick, an on-demand webinar.
• Roadmap to Bold & Brilliant MBA Essays, an on-demand webinar.

Finally, realize that the “why” is as important as the “what.” Convey those reasons in your response.

IMD 2011 Essay Questions

Essay 1: Two situations of importance to you

Situation 1 (maximum 1230 characters)

Situation 1 (maximum 1230 characters)

Before responding to any of IMD’s questions, review its criteria for admissions, which are posted on its website and in a video on YouTube.

Then choose two experiences that demonstrate the qualities IMD seeks and complement each other, the other essays, and the other elements in your application.

Realize that the character limits work out to around 200 words, and that is not a lot of room. Be succinct, and include both the challenge and why you think it is worth including in your IMD application. Why do you care about it?

Essay 2: Failure to reach objective

Briefly describe the failure — and make it a real one, taking responsibility for your actions and showing self-awareness. Bring out what you learned and how you have implemented those lessons successfully in more recent situations.

Essay 3: Leadership

Describe a situation where you had to demonstrate strong leadership skills. Explain how effective you were and what you learned. (maximum 1230 characters)

Leadership takes many forms, but it usually involved persuasion and motivation of others. What did you do? What was the impact? And what did you learn — what worked and why? Have you had occasional to repeat the experiment subsequently with equally beneficial results?

Essay 4: Describe yourself

How do you imagine your superior would describe your strengths and weaknesses to someone who does not know you. (maximum 1230 characters)

Take a look as a recent review from your boss. You will probably find a good source there. You may also want to review:

• Evaluating weaknesses in your MBA candidacy holistically
• Weakness, what weakness?
• Strengths and Weakness Essays: Turning Lemons into Lemonade

Essay 5: International Exposure

Describe a situation where you successfully worked across cultures and/or nations. (maximum 1230 characters)

This is a very important essay for IMD, a school that values its global culture and cross-cultural experience. Describe the situation briefly, a challenge unique to international work environments, and how you met it. If you have room, lessons learned are always good to include.

Essay 6: Differentiators

IMD receives numerous applications per year. Give us four bullet points that clearly differentiate you from this applicant pool. (maximum 1230 characters)

Your essays up to this point are probably very professionally focused. Several of the bullet points could be personal. Think about that IMD video I suggested you watch. IMD wants to know about you as a person, as well as you as a professional. This may be a great place to inform the reader of distinctive features in your background or personal life. Your resume and the other essays will have already told them about unusual aspects of your professional life.

Essay 7: Alternatives

If you are not admitted, what alternatives will you consider? (maximum 1230 characters)

How will you achieve your professional goals discussed earlier in the IMD application if you are not admitted to an MBA program? How would you acquire the skills you seek?

Essay 8: Finance

Please explain how you intend to finance your studies at IMD. What would be your budget? (maximum 1230 characters)

Just answer it. Loans, your own funds, parental assistance? Whatever it is, provide the answers. The same is true of the budget question.

Essay 9: Disability / illness 

Do you have a disability or illness that could affect your performance at IMD? If so, please explain. (maximum 1230 characters)

If necessary, describe the disability and how you intend to compensate for it. Also show that you have compensated successfully for this illness or disability in the past.

Essay 10: Additional Information

Optional question: Is there any additional information that is critical for the Admissions Committee to know which has not been covered elsewhere in this application? (maximum 1230 characters)

Between IMD’s nine essay questions and two questions preceding the essay questions, this may be the one application where the optional essay is really unnecessary. Nonetheless, if you have something to explain — a low GPA, a gap in employment, etc. — this is the place to do it.

IMD 2011 Application Deadlines

February 1; April 1; June 1; August 1; September 1 

While you can choose any of the above deadlines, we encourage you to apply as early as possible.

Our rolling admissions process helps us to assemble a unique mix of participants who will maximize your learning. After each deadline, the IMD MBA admissions committee reviews all the complete applications and performs an initial evaluation.

Within 6 weeks, we inform you if we would like to meet you for the on-campus assessment day.

If you would like help with your IMD MBA application, please consider Accepted’s MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or an IMD MBA School Package, which includes advising, essay editing, and a resume edit for the IMD MBA application.

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for—the Financial Times published its 2011 ranking of global MBA programs!

First the rankings; then some thoughts.

Top 20 Global MBA Programs (last year’s position is in parentheses)

1. London Business School – UK (1)

1. University of Pennsylvania Wharton – USA (2)

3. Harvard Business School – USA (3)

4. INSEAD – France/Singapore (5)

4. Stanford GSB – USA (4)

6. Hong Kong UST Business School – China (10)

7. Columbia Business School – USA (6)

8. IE Business School – Spain (6)

9. MIT Sloan – USA (8)

9. IESE Business School – Spain (11)

11. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) – India (unranked)

12. Chicago Booth – USA (9)

13. Indian School of Business – India (12)

14. IMD – Switzerland (15)

15. New York University Stern – USA (13)

15. Yale School of Management – USA (16)

17. Ceibs – China (22)

18. Dartmouth Tuck – USA (13)

18. HEC Paris – France (18)

20. Duke Fuqua – USA (20)

As you see above, this year there are some surprises, although the top 5 haven’t changed much. Among the surprises:

• Hong Kong UST vaulted to #6 from #16 two years ago and is ranked ahead of MIT Sloan, Columbia, Booth, Kellogg, and Tuck.
• Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), grabbed #11 – even though it wasn’t ranked previously by FT.
• US leaders like Kellogg (#21) and Chicago (#12) and many other prominent US schools did not fare well, and tend not to do well in the FT global rankings.

A bit on the FT methodology: To be ranked, business schools need to be accredited, to have been open for at least four years, and must have at least 30 students in each class. 156 business schools fit this description this year and participated in the school survey provided. The data for rankings is collected from alumni and from the schools themselves.

To determine the top 100 schools, the following three areas are analyzed: diversity and international reach, alumni salaries and career development, and research capabilities. These three categories are then further broken down into 20 specific criteria that are further analyzed to determine the rankings.

For a more detailed description of the methodology, see “Getting to grips with the method.”

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The Financial Times just released its 2010 European b-school rankings, along with a number of analytical articles explaining how the results were determined. Please see “The ranking decoded” for the full list of ranking criteria, with salary data at the forefront.

10 Best European Business Schools

1. HEC Paris
2. London Business School
3. INSEAD
4. IMD
5. IE Business School
6. Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
7. ESCP Europe
8. Esade Business School
9. IESE Business School
10. EM Lyon Business School

Other articles in the report of interest include:

• “Challenge for European business schools as US goes global” – an interesting article on the increasing globalization of US business schools and the threat they pose to European schools.
• “HEC Paris at the top” – an analysis of this year’s ranking winners and losers.
• “New ideas in tough times” – an article on how the changing face of the economy has affected business school and the business world. Note the emphasis on the role of overseas expansion.
• “The Bologna Accord: a revolution by degree” – an analysis of the impact of the Bologna accord on the European rankings.

Are you thinking about pursuing an international MBA? Check out our new special report, Internationalizing the MBA, by Accepted’s internationally-based consultant and editor, Tanis Kmetyk. (P.S. It’s free!)

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best