One of my former clients asked that I post this.
-Adam
Northwestern大学Kellogg School of Management在校生・卒業生による学校説明会」のお知らせ
8月2日（日）に、Kellogg在校生・卒業生による、MBA受験生の皆様を対象とした学校説明会を開催します。 参加をご希望の方は下記のリンクからお申し込み下さい。お席に限りがありますので早めにお申し込みください。
http://kellogg.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_e5nNWvQEE4lUAFm&SVID=Prod
日時： ８月2日（日）13:15開場、13:30開始
在校生によるKelloggスクール紹介、卒業生によるパネルディスカッション、個別Q&A
終了時間は16:45頃を予定しております。
場所： 東京ステーションコンファレンス
千代田区丸の内１丁目7-12 サピアタワー6F
パネリストのご紹介：
● 加治慶光: 東京オリンピック・パラリンピック招致委員会エグゼクティブディレクター Class of 1997 タイム・ワーナーエンターテイメント映画宣伝部長、ソニー・ピクチャーズエンタテインメントマーケティング統括バイス・プレジデント、日産自動車マーケティング本部マーケティング・ダイレクターなどを歴任
● 苅田修: ボストンコンサルティンググループマネージングディレクター&パートナー Class of 1997
日本興業銀行を経て現在に至る。医薬、メディカル・エンタテインメント、消費財等の幅広い業界に対し、全社・事業戦略やM&A・提携戦略の策定・実行支援、新規事業立上げ支援、営業・マーケティング・研究開発のオペレーション革新等のコンサルティングを手掛ける
● 大里真理子: (株)アークコミュニケーションズ代表取締役社長 Class of 1992
日本IBMにてSE。ユニデンにて中国駐在、新規事業設立に携わった後、翻訳/通訳・WEB & Cross Media制作・ライティング等のビジネスコミュニケーションサービスを提供する会社を起業。 一児（1歳）の母
ブログ:マリコ駆ける！http://blogs.itmedia.co.jp/arc/
●有吉 昌康：株式会社PTP 代表取締役社長 Class of 1995
野村総合研究所で消費材メーカー、コンビニに対するコンサルティングに従事。同社を2000年に退職し、株）パワー・トゥ・ザ・ピープル（現 株式会社PTP）を創業。2007年に発売したSPIDERは、テレビなど数多くのメディアで取り上げられ話題になり、現在約300社の大手企業で導入されている。
● 岡本三成: ゴールドマン・サックス証券 投資銀行部門 マネージング・ディレクター Class of 1998 ゴールドマン・サックス・ニューヨークの資本市場部を経て東京に転勤。現在、日本政府、地方自治体、政府系機関等の公的機関、並びにインフラ関連事業の責任者を務める。
●その他、多数の卒業生、在校生が参加予定です。
概要：
説明会では、Kelloggの魅力を在校生や卒業生がたっぷりとお伝えします。世界最高峰のカリキュラム、多様かつ複雑な課題を解決するスキルを体得できるグループワーク、授業や課外活動に散りばめられたリーダーシップ・プログラム、配偶者や子供同伴の方でも安心して暮らせる生活環境といった多彩な魅力が、世界各国の若きビジネス･リーダーたちをひきつけています。当日はご家族・パートナーの方の同伴もウェルカムです。プログラムの進行は全て日本語で行う予定です。また、服装はカジュアルなものでお越しください。
問い合わせ先 ：
説明会の申し込みに関するお問い合わせは、下記にご連絡下さい。
受験及びキャンパスビジット等に関するお問い合わせは、下記にご連絡下さい。
また、Kellogg日本人在校生では受験生の皆様への情報提供を目的として、Webサイト並びにブログを運営しております。説明会に関する情報のアップデートがございましたら随時在校生ブログにアップデートさせていただきます。ぜひご覧ください。
Webサイト: http://www.kelloggalumni.jp/Prospective/
在校生ブログ：http://www.kelloggalumni.jp/kellogg_life/
June 26, 2009
June 13, 2009
Wharton analysis to be reposted after June 23rd
My analysis for Wharton will be reposted after June 23rd. Due to an error on the Wharton site I based my analysis on old info that they had incorrectly labled as the questions for 2010 admission. My thanks to a reader for pointing this out. Editing with blogger on an iPhone is not something I hope to do again.
June 11, 2009
June 08, 2009
TUCK 学校説明会開催のご案内 ～TUCKの魅力を大解剖～
I was asked by a former client to announce the following Tuck Event to be held in Tokyo:
-Adam
TUCK 学校説明会開催のご案内
～TUCKの魅力を大解剖～
2007年、ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル紙の世界ビジネススクールランキングで栄えある第1位に輝いたTuck（正式名称:Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth）。今回、学校説明会ならびに懇親会を以下の要綱にて開催いたします。 本校の概要をはじめ、在校生・卒業生による体験談等をインフォーマルな形式にてご紹介する予定です。 全米最古の歴史をもち、小規模校ならではのインタラクティブなコミュニティ、チームワークを体感できるトップビジネススクールの一つ、Tuckの魅力を是非この機会にご確認ください。
当日は、2009年入学予定者も参加します。Tuckのみならず、MBA全般に関するご質問等にもお答えできればと考えています。ご多忙のところ恐縮ですが、ご調整の上、ご出席いただけると幸いです。
記
日時: 7月12日（日）14:30～16:30 ［14:00受付開始］
場所: ＡＮＡインターコンチネンタルホテル東京
（赤坂アークヒルズ隣接） 地下一階「オーロラ」
http://www.anaintercontinental-tokyo.jp/
概要: 14:30-15:30 学校説明会 ［プレゼンテーション、パネルディスカッション、Q&A］
15:30-16:30 懇親会 ［ソフトドリンク有］
出席者: 卒業生、在校生、2009年入学予定者
お申込み: 完全予約制、下記URLに7月7日（火）までにお申し込みください
http://www.smaster.jp/Sheet.aspx?SheetID=16021
お問合せ: tuckreception@gmail.com
ホームページ: TUCKオフィシャルサイト
TUCK日本人向けサイト
http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/clubs/international/JP/
※本説明会は、完全予約制となっております。定員110名になり次第、締め切らせて頂きますので、お早めにお申し込みください
※お申し込みいただいた方には確認のメールを追って返信いたします
※インフォーマルな形式の会です。カジュアルな服装にてお越しください
※本説明会は、卒業生・在校生・2009年入学予定者によって企画されたものであり、出願審査とは 一切関係ございません。当日、アドミッションからの出席はございませんので、予めご了承ください
以上
-Adam
INSEAD MBA Essay Questions for January & September 2010 Admission
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MY UPDATED AND GREATLY EXPANDED VERSION OF THIS POST.
I am posting my analysis of INSEAD's essays for the January and September 2010 Intake. The questions are taken from the PDF. My interview with the INSEAD MBA Programme's Assistant Director of Marketing is here.
Over the years, I have had an opportunity to work with a number of clients admitted to INSEAD. Two of my clients were admitted for Fall 2009. You can find an interview with one of them here. For Fall 2008 admission, you can read testimonials by one of them who was accepted here and one was invited for an interview, but decided not take it here. Additionally, another one of my comprehensive package clients and an interview-only clients were admitted.
1. Give a candid description of yourself, 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. (400 words approx.)
With a question like this I think it is important to understand that you are actually being asked to think about your strengths and weaknesses in terms of your overall personality and development. What is important here is provide both an analysis about specific characteristics of yourself and something memorable about your background.
Obviously the strengths and weaknesses should be ones that relate to your character, not to a skill set. Given the word count, I suggest focusing on no more than about two strengths and two weaknesses. I would try to give fairly equal consideration to both weaknesses and strengths.
EMBRACE WEAKNESS!
I find that many applicants resist writing about their own weaknesses, yet to do so reveals self-awareness and maturity. While I think it is necessary to practice good judgment when writing about weakness, I think it is also important that you provide something beyond the routine.
One standard defensive strategy that many applicants seem drawn to is to write about knowledge areas where they are weak, but this is not suitable for INSEAD's question. Instead think about those characteristics that relate to your personality.
STRENGTHS
Compared to weaknesses, strengths are easier for most people to write about. Given the limited space here, you might find it helpful to write about a topic here that is discussed in greater detail in another essay.
IS IT A GOOD STRENGTH OR WEAKNESS?
Some questions to ask yourself:
1. Does the strength demonstrate one's potential for future academic and/or professional success? If so it is a probably a good topic. If not, why does INSEAD need to know about it?
2. Is a weakness fixable? If you are writing about a weakness that cannot be improved upon through your program at INSEAD, why do they need to know about it?
3. If your strength or weakness is not related to leadership, why does INSEAD need to know about it?
Finally, if you are having difficulty thinking about your strengths and weaknesses in relation to your future academic and professional goals, please see my analysis of Essay 5 because in it I discuss how to think about strengths and weaknesses in relation to goals.
2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)
Some key things to keep in mind when answering this question:
-Accomplishments reveal your potential to succeed at INSEAD and afterwards.
-Accomplishments reveal your potential for contributing to your classmates.
-Everyone has had accomplishments, so it is easy to compare applicants.
-What you consider to be an accomplishment are real tests of your self-awareness and judgment.
The following grid is the kind I have used successfully with applicants preparing this question:
(CLICK TO ENLARGE. )
How to use this grid for outlining your answer to Question 1:
Row 1: "Stories." The first thing you need to do is think of the accomplishments. These will eventually take the form of stories, so that is what I call them. A few things to keep in mind:
Row 3: "What potential for success in the MBA program or afterwords is demonstrated?" You may or may not be directly stating this in the essay, but you should think about what each accomplishment reveals in terms of your potential. INSEAD Adcom will most certainly be considering how your accomplishments demonstrate your potential to succeed at INSEAD and afterwards, so you should as well. One key way of thinking about the MBA application process is to see it as a test of potential. Potential itself can mean different things at different schools and so you must keep in mind differences between schools and in particular must pay close attention to what schools say really matters when they assess applicants. Please click here to read about what INSEAD values in applicants. Please keep in mind that a core part of your own application strategy should be determining which parts of you to emphasize both overall and for a particular school.
Row 4: "Will this be a contribution to others in the MBA program? How?" Just as with potential, think about whether your accomplishments demonstrate your ability to add value to other students at INSEAD. Given space limitations, it is not likely that you will be explaining how one or more of your accomplishments will be contribution, but rather this is a strategic consideration. The dynamic nature of study groups at INSEAD is very much based on what each student contributes. Think about whether any of your accomplishments demonstrate how you will likely add value to other students INSEAD experience. Not all substantial accomplishments will have this quality, but many will.
Row 5: "Why does Adcom need to know about this?" If your accomplishment has made it this far, chances are it is substantial. That said, I have two simple tests for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay. The first is whether INSEAD really needs to know about this accomplishment. After all, you might consider getting the love of your life to marry you to be one of your most substantial accomplishments, but will Adcom care? If an accomplishment does not reveal (whether stated or implied) potential and/or contribution, chances are likely that it is not significant enough.
Row 6: "Is this something Adcom could learn about you elsewhere? (If "YES," find another accomplishment)" The second and final simple test I have for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay is based on the idea that something that is totally obvious about you to anyone looking at your resume and transcript is probably not worth mentioning. If you were a CPA, having an accomplishment that merely demonstrated you were good at accounting would not be worth writing about. Instead it would be important to show something more specific that reveals something that is not obvious by a mere examination of the basic facts of your application.
Finally, as I mentioned above what you include here is a real test of your judgment, so don't just write about your obvious accomplishments. Think deeply and come up with a set of unique accomplishments that reveal distinct, interesting, and the most important things about you that will compel admissions to want to interview you.
3. Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)
This is a fairly standard failure question. That said, it is important to remember that the objective you fail to reach might very well be your own personal objective and not one imposed on you. You might very well succeed from the perspective of others, but fail from your own perspective.
It is critical that you learned something meaningful about yourself. And your learning about yourself should be important, otherwise why tell admissions about it? Therefore the key constraint of this question is that whatever the failure is, you have learned something important from it. While not stated, you may very well find that one way of showing what you learned is to discuss how you applied your lesson to a new situation.
I would, in fact, argue that the heart of any sort of "failure question," whether it is an essay question or an interview is what you learned. Also depending on what your role was, how you reacted is also very important.
The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the objective was.
2. Clearly state your role.
3. Clearly state your failure.
4. Explain what you learned.
The word count is limited, but, if you can, show how you applied what you learned to a new situation because the application of abstract learning to a new situation is a key indicator of real learning.
4. Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)
THIS IS A FUTURE DIRECTED QUESTION
Unlike some other "Why MBA" questions, INSEAD is not asking about the past. You will write about that in the other essays. Instead focus on your goals and the skills that you will obtain at INSEAD that will help you accomplish those goals. Please see my analysis of Stanford Essay 2 as it mostly applies with the exception that Stanford asks about "aspirations" and INSEAD asks about "goals." This is not much of a difference, but it does mean that you should, at least in terms of your short-term goal, have some specific learning objectives that contribute directly to a future career plan. You should certain offer a vision for your intended future, but given the short lenghth of the INSEAD program, it really is quite important that you give them a clear future plan.
As with other schools, I strongly recommend becoming informed about INSEAD. Attending admission events, meeting alum, and making full use of INSEAD's online resources is critical for making the strongest possible case for why your goals require an INSEAD education. You should most certainly look at INSEAD KNOWLEDGE and listen to some INSEAD Knowledgecasts.
5. Please choose one of the following two essay topics: a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.), or b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)
One core characteristic of those who are admitted to INSEAD is that they are international in their perspective and experience:
The INSEAD MBA equips our alumni to work anywhere in the world. Accordingly, we attract applicants with cross-cultural sensitivity and an international outlook.
I have found that it is usually those with extensive international experience that have the greatest likelihood for admission.
Both options for Question 5 are really great ways for INSEAD to gauge your global perspective.
a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you?
This is a very standard question that frequently gets asked in interviews and has appeared on a number of MBA applications. It is also a question with significant room for saying something stupid and potentially fatal to your application. Some topics to avoid:
1. Topics where you negatively stereotype another nation: Martians are argumentative, so I was surprised to learn that some of them are not.
2. Topics where you are the victim: The Martians lied to me and a result I lost the contract to a local provider.
3. Topics where you don't actually learn anything: This situation taught me the importance of human communication.
Successful versions of this topic almost always involve real learning. I suppose it is possible for something to mean much to you without learning something important, but I can't recall a successful version of this essay that did that. After all to be shocked is to experience something outside of your previous understanding. Getting shocked teaches something important that changes your perspective. This may lead to a new career decision, a new way of looking at oneself, a new way of interacting with other people, or a myriad of other possibilities.
b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country?
American Adam's bad answer: Learn how to tip.
Why is that answer bad? It certainly is useful to know how to tip. I can think of almost nothing more annoying in the US than our system of tipping. Every time I go back to the US, I am at a loss. Doesn't this make for a good topic? NO, BECAUSE IT IS OBVIOUS, IS COVERED IN EVERY TRAVEL GUIDE, AND WOULD GIVE ADMISSIONS NO REAL INSIGHT INTO YOUR ABILITY TO HAVE INTERESTING AND USEFUL THINGS TO SAY ABOUT YOUR OWN COUNTRY. Uppercase is used here in the hope that I don't have to read another version of this essay where the writer says commonplace things about their own country that any tourist would know. And yes, we all know it is useful to learn the local language, so please don't suggest that!
If you write on option b), one that I think is actually much more fun and certainly more open than option a), think deeply about how your knowledge of your country will contribute to your fellow classmates at INSEAD. INSEAD is a place were students really have the option of getting know (and drink with) people from all over the world. It is truly international in a way that no American program could ever claim. This question directly relates to your ability to show how you will be an effective representative of your own country to your classmates. They will, to some extent, depend on you for their knowledge of your home country. Don't tell them the easy stuff they can get by flipping through the first few pages of a Lonely Planet travel guide to your country. Give them real insight. The kind of insight they could use if they were going to move there.
Now while the question is not in regards to your classmates, I think it is useful to think of it that way so that you focus on writing something that would actually be interesting and useful to someone moving to your country. Decide on one or two pieces of really great advice and provide examples to justify their importance. Since they will be living in your country, assume they will also be working there. You don't have to write on a business related topic, but if you have a good one, do so. Try to have fun with this one. My guess is you will spend much more time thinking about what to write than on actually writing it.
6. Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words approx.) This essay is optional.
This is a completely open question. While you might very well need to tell the Admissions Committee something negative, such as an explanation for a low GPA, I would suggest using at least part of it to tell them something positive about you. Feel free to write on any topic that will add another dimension to Admissions' perception of who you are. I would not treat it as optional unless you truly feel that the rest of your essays have fully expressed everything you want INSEAD to know about you. I don't suggest writing about something that would be obvious from reviewing your application, instead tell INSEAD that one story that will give them another reason to admit you.
Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.
インシアード インシアッド インシアド ビジネススクール エッセイ
大学院入学 カウンセリング コンサルティング 合格対策 MBA留学
I am posting my analysis of INSEAD's essays for the January and September 2010 Intake. The questions are taken from the PDF. My interview with the INSEAD MBA Programme's Assistant Director of Marketing is here.
Over the years, I have had an opportunity to work with a number of clients admitted to INSEAD. Two of my clients were admitted for Fall 2009. You can find an interview with one of them here. For Fall 2008 admission, you can read testimonials by one of them who was accepted here and one was invited for an interview, but decided not take it here. Additionally, another one of my comprehensive package clients and an interview-only clients were admitted.
1. Give a candid description of yourself, 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. (400 words approx.)
With a question like this I think it is important to understand that you are actually being asked to think about your strengths and weaknesses in terms of your overall personality and development. What is important here is provide both an analysis about specific characteristics of yourself and something memorable about your background.
Obviously the strengths and weaknesses should be ones that relate to your character, not to a skill set. Given the word count, I suggest focusing on no more than about two strengths and two weaknesses. I would try to give fairly equal consideration to both weaknesses and strengths.
EMBRACE WEAKNESS!
I find that many applicants resist writing about their own weaknesses, yet to do so reveals self-awareness and maturity. While I think it is necessary to practice good judgment when writing about weakness, I think it is also important that you provide something beyond the routine.
One standard defensive strategy that many applicants seem drawn to is to write about knowledge areas where they are weak, but this is not suitable for INSEAD's question. Instead think about those characteristics that relate to your personality.
STRENGTHS
Compared to weaknesses, strengths are easier for most people to write about. Given the limited space here, you might find it helpful to write about a topic here that is discussed in greater detail in another essay.
IS IT A GOOD STRENGTH OR WEAKNESS?
Some questions to ask yourself:
1. Does the strength demonstrate one's potential for future academic and/or professional success? If so it is a probably a good topic. If not, why does INSEAD need to know about it?
2. Is a weakness fixable? If you are writing about a weakness that cannot be improved upon through your program at INSEAD, why do they need to know about it?
3. If your strength or weakness is not related to leadership, why does INSEAD need to know about it?
Finally, if you are having difficulty thinking about your strengths and weaknesses in relation to your future academic and professional goals, please see my analysis of Essay 5 because in it I discuss how to think about strengths and weaknesses in relation to goals.
2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)
Some key things to keep in mind when answering this question:
-Accomplishments reveal your potential to succeed at INSEAD and afterwards.
-Accomplishments reveal your potential for contributing to your classmates.
-Everyone has had accomplishments, so it is easy to compare applicants.
-What you consider to be an accomplishment are real tests of your self-awareness and judgment.
The following grid is the kind I have used successfully with applicants preparing this question:
(CLICK TO ENLARGE. )
How to use this grid for outlining your answer to Question 1:
Row 1: "Stories." The first thing you need to do is think of the accomplishments. These will eventually take the form of stories, so that is what I call them. A few things to keep in mind:
- Your accomplishments maybe personal, professional, or academic.
- While it is very important that your accomplishments be distinct so as to reveal different things about you, there is no single formula for what their content must be. It is quite possible that you might have three professional accomplishments or one personal/one professional/one academic or two academic/one personal. It will really depend on your background.
- The key consideration is that each accomplishment must be substantial and that you can explain why that is the case.
Row 3: "What potential for success in the MBA program or afterwords is demonstrated?" You may or may not be directly stating this in the essay, but you should think about what each accomplishment reveals in terms of your potential. INSEAD Adcom will most certainly be considering how your accomplishments demonstrate your potential to succeed at INSEAD and afterwards, so you should as well. One key way of thinking about the MBA application process is to see it as a test of potential. Potential itself can mean different things at different schools and so you must keep in mind differences between schools and in particular must pay close attention to what schools say really matters when they assess applicants. Please click here to read about what INSEAD values in applicants. Please keep in mind that a core part of your own application strategy should be determining which parts of you to emphasize both overall and for a particular school.
Row 4: "Will this be a contribution to others in the MBA program? How?" Just as with potential, think about whether your accomplishments demonstrate your ability to add value to other students at INSEAD. Given space limitations, it is not likely that you will be explaining how one or more of your accomplishments will be contribution, but rather this is a strategic consideration. The dynamic nature of study groups at INSEAD is very much based on what each student contributes. Think about whether any of your accomplishments demonstrate how you will likely add value to other students INSEAD experience. Not all substantial accomplishments will have this quality, but many will.
Row 5: "Why does Adcom need to know about this?" If your accomplishment has made it this far, chances are it is substantial. That said, I have two simple tests for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay. The first is whether INSEAD really needs to know about this accomplishment. After all, you might consider getting the love of your life to marry you to be one of your most substantial accomplishments, but will Adcom care? If an accomplishment does not reveal (whether stated or implied) potential and/or contribution, chances are likely that it is not significant enough.
Row 6: "Is this something Adcom could learn about you elsewhere? (If "YES," find another accomplishment)" The second and final simple test I have for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay is based on the idea that something that is totally obvious about you to anyone looking at your resume and transcript is probably not worth mentioning. If you were a CPA, having an accomplishment that merely demonstrated you were good at accounting would not be worth writing about. Instead it would be important to show something more specific that reveals something that is not obvious by a mere examination of the basic facts of your application.
Finally, as I mentioned above what you include here is a real test of your judgment, so don't just write about your obvious accomplishments. Think deeply and come up with a set of unique accomplishments that reveal distinct, interesting, and the most important things about you that will compel admissions to want to interview you.
3. Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)
This is a fairly standard failure question. That said, it is important to remember that the objective you fail to reach might very well be your own personal objective and not one imposed on you. You might very well succeed from the perspective of others, but fail from your own perspective.
It is critical that you learned something meaningful about yourself. And your learning about yourself should be important, otherwise why tell admissions about it? Therefore the key constraint of this question is that whatever the failure is, you have learned something important from it. While not stated, you may very well find that one way of showing what you learned is to discuss how you applied your lesson to a new situation.
I would, in fact, argue that the heart of any sort of "failure question," whether it is an essay question or an interview is what you learned. Also depending on what your role was, how you reacted is also very important.
The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the objective was.
2. Clearly state your role.
3. Clearly state your failure.
4. Explain what you learned.
The word count is limited, but, if you can, show how you applied what you learned to a new situation because the application of abstract learning to a new situation is a key indicator of real learning.
4. Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)
THIS IS A FUTURE DIRECTED QUESTION
Unlike some other "Why MBA" questions, INSEAD is not asking about the past. You will write about that in the other essays. Instead focus on your goals and the skills that you will obtain at INSEAD that will help you accomplish those goals. Please see my analysis of Stanford Essay 2 as it mostly applies with the exception that Stanford asks about "aspirations" and INSEAD asks about "goals." This is not much of a difference, but it does mean that you should, at least in terms of your short-term goal, have some specific learning objectives that contribute directly to a future career plan. You should certain offer a vision for your intended future, but given the short lenghth of the INSEAD program, it really is quite important that you give them a clear future plan.
As with other schools, I strongly recommend becoming informed about INSEAD. Attending admission events, meeting alum, and making full use of INSEAD's online resources is critical for making the strongest possible case for why your goals require an INSEAD education. You should most certainly look at INSEAD KNOWLEDGE and listen to some INSEAD Knowledgecasts.
5. Please choose one of the following two essay topics: a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.), or b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)
One core characteristic of those who are admitted to INSEAD is that they are international in their perspective and experience:
The INSEAD MBA equips our alumni to work anywhere in the world. Accordingly, we attract applicants with cross-cultural sensitivity and an international outlook.
I have found that it is usually those with extensive international experience that have the greatest likelihood for admission.
Both options for Question 5 are really great ways for INSEAD to gauge your global perspective.
a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you?
This is a very standard question that frequently gets asked in interviews and has appeared on a number of MBA applications. It is also a question with significant room for saying something stupid and potentially fatal to your application. Some topics to avoid:
1. Topics where you negatively stereotype another nation: Martians are argumentative, so I was surprised to learn that some of them are not.
2. Topics where you are the victim: The Martians lied to me and a result I lost the contract to a local provider.
3. Topics where you don't actually learn anything: This situation taught me the importance of human communication.
Successful versions of this topic almost always involve real learning. I suppose it is possible for something to mean much to you without learning something important, but I can't recall a successful version of this essay that did that. After all to be shocked is to experience something outside of your previous understanding. Getting shocked teaches something important that changes your perspective. This may lead to a new career decision, a new way of looking at oneself, a new way of interacting with other people, or a myriad of other possibilities.
b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country?
American Adam's bad answer: Learn how to tip.
Why is that answer bad? It certainly is useful to know how to tip. I can think of almost nothing more annoying in the US than our system of tipping. Every time I go back to the US, I am at a loss. Doesn't this make for a good topic? NO, BECAUSE IT IS OBVIOUS, IS COVERED IN EVERY TRAVEL GUIDE, AND WOULD GIVE ADMISSIONS NO REAL INSIGHT INTO YOUR ABILITY TO HAVE INTERESTING AND USEFUL THINGS TO SAY ABOUT YOUR OWN COUNTRY. Uppercase is used here in the hope that I don't have to read another version of this essay where the writer says commonplace things about their own country that any tourist would know. And yes, we all know it is useful to learn the local language, so please don't suggest that!
If you write on option b), one that I think is actually much more fun and certainly more open than option a), think deeply about how your knowledge of your country will contribute to your fellow classmates at INSEAD. INSEAD is a place were students really have the option of getting know (and drink with) people from all over the world. It is truly international in a way that no American program could ever claim. This question directly relates to your ability to show how you will be an effective representative of your own country to your classmates. They will, to some extent, depend on you for their knowledge of your home country. Don't tell them the easy stuff they can get by flipping through the first few pages of a Lonely Planet travel guide to your country. Give them real insight. The kind of insight they could use if they were going to move there.
Now while the question is not in regards to your classmates, I think it is useful to think of it that way so that you focus on writing something that would actually be interesting and useful to someone moving to your country. Decide on one or two pieces of really great advice and provide examples to justify their importance. Since they will be living in your country, assume they will also be working there. You don't have to write on a business related topic, but if you have a good one, do so. Try to have fun with this one. My guess is you will spend much more time thinking about what to write than on actually writing it.
6. Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words approx.) This essay is optional.
This is a completely open question. While you might very well need to tell the Admissions Committee something negative, such as an explanation for a low GPA, I would suggest using at least part of it to tell them something positive about you. Feel free to write on any topic that will add another dimension to Admissions' perception of who you are. I would not treat it as optional unless you truly feel that the rest of your essays have fully expressed everything you want INSEAD to know about you. I don't suggest writing about something that would be obvious from reviewing your application, instead tell INSEAD that one story that will give them another reason to admit you.
Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.
-Adam Markus
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