INSEAD - The Journey

Work, play and sleep - pick two!

2010-09-23T00:36:00.000+01:00

This is the reality for all business school students, especially so at INSEAD where you squeeze in 2 years in 1. Work, play and sleep, you can only pick two of the three - no matter how hard you try. People who thought taking time off before the MBA, so that their "batteries are charged" before the MBA begins, found themselves sleep-deprived after all the partying in the Orientation week.

INSEAD Fontainebleau - What's happened so far?

2010-09-16T10:53:00.003+01:00

The MBA got off to a rollicking start with the Orientation week. Lots of parties and a soft start to the year, where you essentially set yourself up logistically and train your mind to get around the whims and fancies of the French regulations and requirements. The sections and groups were ordained (the Harry Potter hat was missing though) and we all got busy spotting our section and group mates.

Finally in Fonty - the first hangover means the MBAs officially started...

2010-08-25T17:28:00.000+01:00

My arrival in Fontainebleau was delayed by a few days - mainly due to my non-preparedness on the front of moving out of London (work and private) - but eventually the day before yesterday I did arrive in Fontainebleau. In hindsight it was excellent that eventually we (me and my fiancee) drove away on a Saturday morning. Getting into Paris on a Saturday afternoon meant that we had no traffic

INSEAD The Journey - The next lag is about to begin

2010-08-12T11:18:00.000+01:00

A quick update to all of you readers out there...I finally have my visa for the full year, so that's sorted. I have to say a few good words for the French Consulate in London, cause they made it very easy to get the visa done in time and mainly cause they didn't create any hassles whatsoever during the entire process. The visa was ready in 5 days, they asked me until when I wanted it to be valid

INSEAD French Visa

2010-08-05T12:59:00.002+01:00

To update you briefly on what I’ve been up to this week…I have finally visited the French Consulate for my Student visa early this week, and it all went very smoothly. So now I hope to receive the visa early next week, which will put me back on track for my planned departure to Fonty around the 15th of August. Apart from that its been a real pain starting to pack everything, deciding what to

INSEAD or DivorSEAD?

2010-07-28T17:51:00.000+01:00

Herds of people past, have often referred to the cosmopolitan fun-filled learning Mecca that is INSEAD as DivorSEAD. While some will argue against this tag, facts and suggestions point to there at least being some smoke…if not a fire lurking just behind the veil of smoke. Why the tag you say? Term after term, and intake after intake, the stories of people divorcing and breaking up with their

T minus 3 weeks to INSEAD

2010-07-21T12:41:00.000+01:00

Things are getting a little hectic now as the time for the big move closes in. It’s T minus 3 weeks right now, and there are simply too many things to sort out before I begin packing. My French Long stay visa is not sorted – my appointment for the visa is not until the first week of August! I’ve heard that they take about 10 days to process the visa, so I think I should still be in time for the

INSEAD videos...the best bits!

2010-07-12T16:45:00.000+01:00

In this post I’m sharing some of the INSEAD (related) videos/slide-shows which I have found either very entertaining or informative, and if you are interested in INSEAD, these are a must watch. All the material linked in this post is produced by current or previous INSEAD students and has been put on the internet for public viewing. One of the traditions at INSEAD is that of the National weeks

Group photograph from the INSEAD Fonty Open Day

2010-07-05T09:33:00.000+01:00

Forgot to include the photograph in the previous post...here's one with all of us who attended the Fontainebleau Open Day for the 11J class (29th May 2010).

INSEAD Open Day (Fontainebleau) - Part 2

2010-07-02T17:12:00.012+01:00

The actual Open Day meant that we got to see a lot of people in a changed setting (and changed attire). The dress sense seemed to get very formal all of a sudden (yours truly included) and the mood went from being extroverted social to a more receptive and curious one. There were about a 150 of us attending the open day in Fontainebleau and we all fit in one Amphitheatre – which was the base for

INSEAD Open Day details and Photographs - Part 1

2010-06-26T15:28:00.016+01:00

Let’s start with the 28th of May 2010. That morning I took the Eurostar to Paris with a few other Londoners from my batch and we arrived in Fontainebleau in a reasonably good time at about 1300. One of the Londoners though missed the train, which added to her excitement, but thankfully she made it to Fonty with the next train – just in time for the apartment viewing she had arranged with one

The day before the day before the INSEAD Open day...

2010-06-21T15:38:00.000+01:00

Yes, you read the title right! Before I jump into the details of the Open Day weekend, I thought I will bring you some interesting pictures of what happened at INSEAD Fontainebleau the day before the 28th. 27th of May was part of an old tradition at INSEAD - the National Weeks. I'll tell you about this and other traditions in a future post, but for now, enjoy a few pictures... This happened on

New-Admits Open-day at INSEAD Fontainebleau

2010-06-17T16:08:00.000+01:00

INSEAD hosted its open-day for the new admits for Class of July 2011 (starting in September 2010) on the 29th of May 2010. The Open Day is meant for all the new admits to get a first taste of life on campus, get to know other fellow admits from the same batch and receive important information regarding some of the pertinent topics that may be lingering in the minds of the new admits - for e.g.

INSEAD: Which intake? September or January?

2010-06-11T23:59:00.001+01:00

There are many theories put out by students of these two intakes as to which one is the better option, and all of them have their opinions and reasons behind it, and honestly they are all right. It all depends once again on what you want to get out of your MBA experience. For all those of you who are not sure if it makes any difference at all whether you apply for the September intake or the

INSEAD Fontainebleau - House-hunting and the dilemna...

2010-06-08T11:02:00.002+01:00

This post is about the housing options for INSEAD Fontainebleau (not Singapore) and what to consider before you make a decision on which kind of accommodation will suit you best. INSEAD does not offer any on-campus accommodation for the full-time MBA students (INSEAD Executive MBA students though, live in on-campus accommodation within the “Ermitage” buildings). This means that you are

Once admitted – start networking!

2010-06-04T10:12:00.001+01:00

It’s never too early or too late to start networking amongst your peers at your business school. Depending on the length of the program, and the planned and unplanned activities both on and off campus, you will get a lot of chances to network with your colleagues during the MBA program – so make the most of it. But why wait till you actually get on campus for the start of your program? Doesn’t

MBA Scholarship applications

2010-06-01T11:10:00.000+01:00

This post is going to be a rather short one and more likely to be of use to all MBA applicants regardless of the specific program/b-school they have chosen. INSEAD process wise, you should receive an email inviting you to register with their separate scholarship related website/platform. This should happen a short while after you’ve been accepted at INSEAD. Once registered, you can start

Language requirements at INSEAD

2010-05-26T10:29:00.001+01:00

One of the reasons why INSEAD stands apart from all the other MBA programs and business schools of the world is its unique Language policy. For all the newbies to this subject let me put it to you in brief: 1. You need English + 1 more language to enter the INSEAD MBA program 2. You need one more language in addition to your entrance languages to earn your MBA degree. This translates into you

London Business School - Interview process and experience

2010-05-21T16:40:00.000+01:00

By the time I had my second interview for INSEAD, I had already received the interview call from LBS – so the things were generally moving in the right direction. I didn’t schedule my interview until the second interview was done though, and honestly after the way in which my second interview went, I was almost sure that I didn’t even need to both with the LBS interview. But as much as you hope

INSEAD MBA Interviews & process - What to expect?

2010-05-18T09:43:00.001+01:00

Once again, as throughout my earlier posts, I will be sharing my experiences on the interview processes at the 4 schools I considered – INSEAD, LBS, IMD and HBS. The INSEAD admissions process was running ahead of the other 3 programs I was considering and hence it was also the first in line for the interviews. Information around the INSEAD admissions process (plus rumours) suggests that you

Business school visits - Impressions from Harvard Business School and IMD

2010-05-12T09:20:00.000+01:00

The next visit was to Harvard Business School (Boston/Cambridge USA). HBS was one of the better school visits. Here the difference to INSEAD is that you need to ensure that you are registered for the right visits through their online platform. First of all I suggest by ensuring your registration for your preferred day and time for the “Class visit”. Everything else will revolve around it. Pick a

Added functionalities to the blog...

2010-05-08T15:48:00.000+01:00

Thanks to all who have been reading my blog these last couple of weeks. To make the blog more usable for all the readers from around the world, and in the true spirit of a global community, I have added a little widget on the right hand section of my blog where you can translate the blog in many popular languages. You should be able to see translated versions of all the posts in the following

Business school visits - What to expect? Impressions from LBS and INSEAD

2010-05-06T10:45:00.000+01:00

I have been on business school visits for all the MBA programs that I was looking to apply for. In this post I’ll share with you, what you can expect during the different school visits, what you need to keep in mind during the visits, things to do while on campus, and what (if any) preparation may be required. Believe it or not, for some top business schools one of the subjective interview call

Preparing for Business School - INSEAD newsletter

2010-05-04T09:17:00.000+01:00

I just saw this in my inbox this morning. This is a must read for any INSEAD applicants (and MBA applicants to other top business schools). ** Note ** This is a link and copy of the article as published by INSEAD within their newsletter dated 03/May/2010 and is NOT my material ** ============================================= http://mba.insead.edu/newsletter/PreparingforBusinessSchool.cfm ========

MBA Admission essays - What the business schools probably look for...

2010-05-02T12:30:00.000+01:00

Now that you are all set with your timelines, dive straight into the application package preparation. This part of the process takes up a lot of time, especially as you draft up your first responses and then keep refining them. So, what exactly are the business schools looking for in successful MBA applicants? The top b-schools of the world look for extra-ordinary candidates, who are smart,