School Selection Based on Reported Post-MBA Salary

This post is a companion piece to Adam's Global Top MBA Rankings 2014.
To the extent that any sort of MBA ranking is valuable for purposes of school selection,  I have suggested some ways to make school selection decisions both for those who have been admitted to multiple programs  and those considering  which MBA programs to apply to.
I am well aware that applicants don’t simply make selection choices on the basis of salary, but I think evaluating programs on this basis is one important consideration. For other considerations, please see School Selection: Where to apply? Where to go?

FOR ADMITS:

School Selection Strategy for Those Admitted to Multiple Programs: Go to the highest salary ranked program if you want to obtain the most market value.



FOR THOSE CONSIDERING WHICH SCHOOLS TO APPLY TO:


School Application Selection Strategy Based on Salary/Acceptance Rate Approach: Simply compare salaries to rates of admission for the programs you are interested in applying to.
1. Apply to the highest ranked programs you think you can get it into.
2. Find bargains: Schools with a high salary and a high rate of admission.
3. Avoid application to schools with a relatively low admissions rates and lower salaries.
4. Caveat emptor. Don’t assume schools are necessarily reporting salary data with 100% accuracy.


School Selection Strategy for Those Considering Staying Local versus Going for a Globally Recognized Brand:  If you are deciding between going to your local MBA program instead of moving to a new city and/or country, look closely at the expected post-MBA salary rates to determine which programs are worth moving for.
1. If you are planning on studying in the US and/or Europe and are a non-resident, assume the real possibility, based on present economic circumstances, that you will likely need to return to your home country because of tightened visa restrictions and limited job opportunities.
2. If your objective is stay in your present locality, closely scrutinize whether the higher-ranked, but non-local option will actually prove to be of significant benefit to you in the future. For example, an MBA alumni network that consists of a large number of local graduates may be worth significantly more to you than association with a prestigious internationally famous brand if you intend to stay local.
3.  If your professional objectives are global, you will likely benefit much more from an MBA with global brand value rather than a program with local brand value even if the post-MBA salaries are not significantly different.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Adam's Global Top MBA Rankings 2014

As I have been doing since 2008, I wanted to provide my Global Top 100 MBA Rankings for 2014. The rankings below should hopefully be of value for both those engaged in initial school application selection and for admitted applicants who have been accepted to multiple programs and need to determine where to go.  Programs are ranked in many ways, so certainly look at other rankings lists. There is no one objective measure of an MBA programs’ value and no ranking that can account for an individual student’s positive or negative return on their investment of time and money for a graduate business education.

One advantage of a salary-based list of programs worldwide is that it helps to see the rising global market value of MBA programs. It also means that those of us who help applicants considering worldwide application, start to pay more attention to such national leaders and not just to dominant US and European programs.

For those with a US MBA bias, this ranking should be humbling because so many of what are usually ranked quite highly in the US, don't, at least at the weighted salary level, look as attractive as rankings might suggest.

From a school selection perspective, I think looking at the stark reality of the expected financial outcome is critical. Looking at this solely helps to put the outcome into focus. "The 100" is only one possible way of doing this.

"Methodology": All FT “Global MBA Rankings 2014” Data was ranked in order of " Weighted Salary ($)." No other methods were employed. I have included the FT 2014 rankings as well.

Justification #1: Whatever you get paid when you graduate is the base market value of your degree.

Justification #2: One may very well value an MBA beyond mere salary calculations, but salary will certainly be a factor for almost everyone.

Justification #3: Since each school reports its own data, assuming that data is good, the ranking is based on objective criteria that all programs have in common. Note: This a big assumption because it is based on the belief that schools are not manipulating their data).  

Disclaimer #1: I could use some other accumulation of salaries for this same purpose, but FT’s list is global, so I decided to use it. If your school is not included on this list of the top 100, please don't be offended. If FT ranked more programs, so would I.

Disclaimer #2: Actual market value will very much depend on your situation. The numbers below are only averages.

Disclaimer #3: Salary is but one measure of ROI. This survey does not account for relative increase in salary, opportunity costs, or other less tangible, but important factors.

Disclaimer #4: These rankings in no way measure the value of the educational experience at any of these programs, merely the reported average weighted post-MBA salary outcome.

I would like to thank “my team” at FT for doing all of the hard work. They have this nifty way of generating excel documents that really reduced my work by hours.

I better version of the table below can be found here.

Adam's Global Top MBA Rankings 2014

Salary Rank	FT Rank in 2014	School name	Country	Weighted salary (US$)
1	2	Stanford Graduate School of Business	US	184566
2	1	Harvard Business School	US	178300
3	4	University of Pennsylvania: Wharton	US	170472
4	5	Columbia Business School	US	164181
5	15	Northwestern University: Kellogg	US	157719
6	30	Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad	India	157459
7	8	MIT: Sloan	US	157262
8	3	London Business School	UK	156553
9	9	University of Chicago: Booth	US	156004
10	10	Yale School of Management	US	150880
11	20	Dartmouth College: Tuck	US	150754
12	11	University of California at Berkeley: Haas	US	149487
13	5	INSEAD	France/Singapore	148183
14	13	IE Business School	Spain	146933
15	16	University of Cambridge: Judge	UK	144350
16	7	IESE Business School	Spain	143168
17	12	IMD	Switzerland	142446
18	27	University of Virginia: Darden	US	142131
19	17	Duke University: Fuqua	US	141772
20	26	UCLA: Anderson	US	140712
21	17	New York University: Stern	US	140662
22	59	University of Cape Town GSB	South Africa	140069
23	23	University of Michigan: Ross	US	136828
24	27	Cornell University: Johnson	US	136707
25	23	University of Oxford: Saïd	UK	133315
26	34	Carnegie Mellon: Tepper	US	129296
27	39	University of Texas at Austin: McCombs	US	129225
28	17	CEIBS	China	127117
29	68	Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore	India	125249
30	14	Hong Kong UST Business School	China	125060
31	36	Georgetown University: McDonough	US	124990
32	33	University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler	US	124669
33	52	The Lisbon MBA	Portugal	123062
34	41	Emory University: Goizueta	US	122468
35	65	University of Southern California: Marshall	US	122308
36	46	Cranfield School of Management	UK	120941
36	22	ESADE Business School	Spain	120718
38	21	HEC Paris	France	120016
39	25	Warwick Business School	UK	119121
40	35	Rice University: Jones	US	118473
41	59	Vanderbilt University: Owen	US	117484
42	36	Indian School of Business	India	117308
43	29	University of Hong Kong	China	113038
44	31	SDA Bocconi	Italy	112901
45	44	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	US	112482
46	47	Indiana University: Kelley	US	112353
47	62	Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM)	Australia	111280
48	45	Sungkyunkwan University GSB	South Korea	110828
49	55	University of Rochester: Simon	US	110607
50	54	University of Minnesota: Carlson	US	110390
51	81	Wisconsin School of Business	US	110338
52	41	City University: Cass	UK	110260
53	82	Boston College: Carroll	US	109614
54	75	Texas A & M University: Mays	US	108699
55	95	Babson College: Olin	US	108694
56	93	Brigham Young University: Marriott	US	108549
57	75	Boston University School of Management	US	108256
58	71	Georgia Institute of Technology: Scheller	US	108033
59	52	Michigan State University: Broad	US	107808
60	64	Washington University: Olin	US	107556
61	50	University of Maryland: Smith	US	107236
62	48	University of California at Irvine: Merage	US	106764
63	58	University of Washington: Foster	US	106632
64	43	Manchester Business School	UK	106535
65	56	Purdue University: Krannert	US	106320
66	62	Pennsylvania State University: Smeal	US	105988
67	61	Hult International Business School	US/UK/UAE/China	105844
68	91	University College Dublin: Smurfit	Ireland	105384
69	94	Wake Forest University: Babcock	US	103696
70	49	Imperial College Business School	UK	103604
71	70	Ohio State University: Fisher	US	102899
72	88	University of St Gallen	Switzerland	102158
73	68	Melbourne Business School	Australia	102068
74	87	Arizona State University: Carey	US	100203
75	89	Western University: Ivey	Canada	99072
76	39	Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University	Netherlands	98771
77	99	George Washington University	US	98374
78	84	University of California, San Diego: Rady	US	98258
79	66	Mannheim Business School	Germany	97962
80	92	Tulane University: Freeman	US	97962
81	98	University of California, Davis	US	96864
82	38	Nanyang Business School	Singapore	96202
83	73	University of Strathclyde Business School	UK	95716
84	95	EMLyon Business School	France	93356
85	84	University of Bath School of Management	UK	92676
86	32	National University of Singapore Business School	Singapore	91358
87	100	Vlerick Business School	Belgium	90831
88	51	University of Toronto: Rotman	Canada	90304
89	74	Tilburg University, TiasNimbas	Netherlands	89848
90	84	McGill University: Desautels	Canada	89604
91	66	York University: Schulich	Canada	89332
92	89	ESMT – European School of Management and Technology	Germany	89172
93	77	Lancaster University Management School	UK	89009
94	72	University of British Columbia: Sauder	Canada	88881
95	79	Coppead	Brazil	88256
96	97	Durham University Business School	UK	86887
97	80	University of Pittsburgh: Katz	US	86410
98	77	Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Antai	China	84890
99	57	Peking University: Guanghua	China	81914
100	83	Fudan University School of Management	China	76140

Please see School Selection Based on Reported Post-MBA Salary for how the information here can be utilized for school selection purposes.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Kellogg MBA Admissions Interviews for the Class of 2016

This post has been updated for admission to the Kellogg MBA Class of 2016.

Just as with essays, interviews for the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management MBA applicant interviews are all about fit. I could not really tell you how many Kellogg mock sessions I have conducted since 2001, when I started working as an admissions consultant, because the number is simply too huge. Given the fact that Kellogg has an open interview policy, more applicants will interview there in any year that anywhere else.  Reported interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes, with most reported interviews taking 30-45 minutes.  As I work with clients from all over the world, I have discovered that Kellogg interviews are pretty consistent worldwide, both for the good and bad.

Know your Resume!
You need to know your resume completely as you will most likely be asked about content in it. Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game. Kellogg interviews are conducted blind, so your interview will not have read your application. The only thing they will have is your resume. Most interview reports indicate extensive questions about the contents of the resume. As such it serves four main functions:

1.  First Impression: Most interviewers will have your resume even before they meet you. For resume-only interviews, it really is their first impression of you.  Make sure your resume is really designed for ease of use by the interviewer.  One of my objectives when helping a client with a resume is always to focus on how effective the resume is for this purpose. 

2. Agenda Setting Device: To a greater or lesser extent, a resume has an agenda setting function in many interviews.  While schools will provide interviewers with varying levels of guidance about what questions to ask, the resume may very well form the basis for some of the questions that you receive. In the case of Kellogg, it is almost always the case that the resume plays a role in the questions that you will be asked.

3. Booby Trap:  The resume can blow-up in your face if you are not careful.  Failure to review your own resume closely prior to interviewing can put you in an awkward position if you are not fully prepared to discuss everything on it. Make sure you know your numbers and dates. Make sure you can discuss anything on your resume.

4. Past Experience Answers: Since you have presumably highlighted many of the key things you would actually want to discuss on your resume, it is in essence, a primary source for your answers to past experience questions. Especially when I working with a client with limited English ability, I will tell them to practice explaining "Who What Why How When" questions related to their resume.

In addition, since you might get asked to "Tell me something about yourself that is not covered on your resume," you can use the resume to figure out what that would be.


You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA interview questions
Most reported Kellogg interviews simply consist of them. See my previous post on MBA Application Interview Strategy as well the list of questions below. You should expect to have to answer questions regarding teamwork (Examples where you demonstrated it, how you handled problems on teams, and how you would handle a low-performing team member in group work at Kellogg are common examples).  Be absolutely comfortable explaining core questions regarding fit (Why Kellogg? Why the Kellogg community is right for you?  Contributions?) as these always come up.   Be ready to ask questions and obviously make those questions fit to the person you are talking (admissions officer, student, or alumni). My colleague, Steve Green, has collected the following common questions:

RESUME: Career

• Tell me about yourself. / Walk me through your resume. PROBE ANSWERS
• Tell me about [particular accomplishment]
• Tell me about [particular promotion or change]
• What is missing from your resume that you'd like to tell me about?
• What led you to your first job?
• What made you change careers? (+ Follow-up)
• Why did you decide to switch into the field that you chose?
• How have you grown over the years?
• Tell me about what’s challenging in your current role. (+ Follow-up)
• Why did you choose ________________ for your career?
• What are your current responsibilities?
• What do you clients say about you?
• What do you outside of work?

RESUME: Education

• Why did you choose your undergraduate school?
• Why did you choose your major?
• Tell me something about your undergraduate experience?
• What was your legacy at your undergrad school?
• Why did you choose ________________ for your career?
• What are your current responsibilities?
• What do you clients say about you?
• What do you outside of work?

TEAMWORK

• Tell me about your teamwork experience.
• Describe a difficult team situation you have had to deal with in the past?
• Tell me about another teamwork experience.
• What would you do when a team member wasn't pulling his own weight?
• What would your teammates say about you?
• Discuss a team failure you were part of.

LEADERSHIP

• Who do you admire as a leader?
• Have you held leadership positions at work?
• Tell me something about your leadership experience?
• Have you faced any challenges as a leader? How did you deal with them?
• How has your leadership style evolved since college?
• What kind of leader are you?

WHY MBA / WHY KELLOGG

• Why do you want an MBA?
• Why now?
• Why Kellogg?
• Are you good with numbers?
• What are your goals?
• How will Kellogg help you achieve those goals?
• How do you envision yourself being involved in the Kellogg community?
• What clubs will you participate in?
• How will you enhance the diversity of the Kellogg class?
• What unique contribution do you bring to Kellogg?
• What other schools did you apply to?
• If you got into all of them, which would you attend?

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

• If you could hit the reset button, what would you do differently?
• Anything that may be considered a weakness in your application you would like to explain or expand on?
• How have you grown over the years?
• What are your two main strengths?
• What are your two main weaknesses?
• If time and money were not an issue, what would you do?
• What three words would you use to describe yourself?
• Who is a good negotiator?
• Have you ever been in a negotiation where it wasn’t win – win, rather, win-lose or lose-lose.
• What do people misperceive about you in first meeting?
• If I asked your colleagues about you, what would they say? What feedback have you used to do better?

CONCLUSION

• What questions do you have for me? / Do you have any questions for me?

In MBA Application Interview Strategy I discuss some specific ways to prepare for many of the types of questions discussed above. Additionally, since some Kellogg interviews involve behavioral interview questions, I would suggest reviewing my post,  MIT Sloan MBA Interviews.  MIT Sloan MBA Interviews will also introduce you to the STAR method for telling stories, so if you need help in telling stories (especially ones about teamwork and leadershIp), I recommend reviewing that post.


Reread your essays!
Given that your Kellogg essays should contain key content to answer many of the above interview questions and because no interviewer will have read your file, feel free to make complete use of your essays for your interview. Unlike in interviews where the interviewer has read you file, for Kellogg feel free to draw upon on your essays and not even just your essays for Kellogg. For example, if you have written effective contribution content for Wharton Essay 2 or London Business School Essays 2 or 3, you might find it very useful when answering a question about how you would contribute at Kellogg.   It surprises sometimes when I am doing mock interviews with a client and they have not reviewed their own essays very much. This a core repository of content. It will need to be altered for purposes of the interview, but you should use it!

Lack of Consistency in Kellogg interviews

As you should know Kellogg’s new motto is THINK BRAVELY, but as far as  interviews go, I would say their motto must be INTERVIEW INCONSISTENTLY. While most Kellogg interviews are moderately difficult in terms of the kind of questions that are asked and the attitude of most interviewers (admissions officers, alumni, and students) is professional and friendly, other types of interviews are possible and not uncommon.   Given the huge number of alumni interviewers involved in this process, this is especially a problem with alumni interviews whether held on a Kellogg Interview Day (many applicants and interviewers all meeting at the same place for one-to-one interviews) or just through an arranged one-to-one off-campus interview. Even on-campus interviews with students lack some consistency as I will discuss below.  Only interviews with admissions officers fit into some predictable norm of moderately difficult and professional.  Some types of dysfunctional Kellogg interviews:

The Cake Walk: The lovely expression “as easy as cake” can be applied to some international interviews that I have heard about. This can be nice for the applicant, of course, but surely is unfair for other applicants. A cake walk interview consists of some of the standard Kellogg interview questions, but everything is very surface level and most of the interview is just nice conversation. The interviewer then prepares a sterling evaluation of the applicant even in terms of areas that were not necessarily addressed in the interview because the men involved (not always, but typically from what I can see this involves men and is just another form of immediate locker room type bonding). If you find you are having an apparently very easy interview, just make sure you work as many key points about yourself into the conversation while maintaining a positive and friendly feeling about the whole thing.

“You really don’t fit because I don’t like you”: The worst reports I have heard about have involved Kellogg alumni interviewers who expressed their dislike for the applicant. The interviewer uses highly judgmental language that often barely hides bias. This bias might be gender-based, class-based, or industry-function based. We are not talking here about merely an agressive interviewer, but rather an interviewer who actively looks down on the applicant.  Frankly I have never read or been about such an interview being conducted in the US, but I do know about such unpleasant interviews conducted through Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The only thing I can suggest during such an interview is that you hold your own, don’t cave against bully you are dealing with, but respond aggressively in defending yourself and why you belong at Kellogg. The abuse of power is an ugly thing. If you feel you have been treated particularly badl y, you should consider reporting the details of this to Kellogg admissions.

English not spoken: One of the best reasons to eliminate alumni interviews completely especially when an admissions office is because alumni interviewers don’t always conduct some or even most of the interview in English. I have client reports of this from around the world. This can be to the advantage or disadvantage of the applicant.  If an applicant is trying to really highlight their English communication ability, having an interview that is not conducted in English might not be particularly helpful. In addition, speaking in another language is often a gateway to the two previous types dysfunctional interviews I mentioned above.  I have no specific suggestions for what you can do when an interview is not conducted in English if you think the interview is going well. If you think the interview is not going well, you can consider this grounds for informing Kellogg admissions. Since Kellogg admissions waives some interviews and subsequently conducts telephone interviews, I would not be surprised if your interview was initially waived. Most applicants will not want to complain about an interviewer, but if you feel you were treated badly, it is worth considering. Advice for international applicants who really want to highlight their English communication skills: Go interview on-campus because campus interviews will be conducted in English. 

Bored, hungover, busy, and/or tired: Most reported student interviews are not like like this, but it is no surprise that some of these interviews involve student interviewers who wish they were some where else doing something else (studying, sleeping, recruiting activities, etc.).  Not fun if you have traveled to Evanston and find your interviewer is just not that engaged in the process. If your interviewer seems less than engaged, just make the possible case for yourself and don’t let their indifference get to you. The worst thing you can do is react to someone else’s lack of energy.  You must maintain your enthusiasm even in the fact of complete indifference. Just imagine you are talking to a mirror and ignore the interviewer’s lack of engagement. I don’t think you can really complain to admissions about this issue. Just be aware that might happen.

While I think it is nice that Kellogg basically interviews all applicants (some applicants are waived initially from interviewing but ultimately do a telephone interview if Kellogg is actually interested in admitting them), it does come at the cost of consistency.  I do think that putting all applicants on level playing field means giving them an interview that is conducted with a fairly high degree of consistency.  Of course, the moment alumni are involved at any school, consistency tends to get lost unless the school really works hard to maintain standards and weed out bad interviewers.  I know many alumni do a great job and should be praised for their involvement with the process, but unfortunately this is not always the case.   I have pointed these issues out so you are prepared for the worst case scenarios. Hopefully you will not experience them.

Best of luck with admission to Kellogg’s Class of 2016!

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

INSEAD: Applying for September 2014 versus January 2015 Intakes

The question of applying to INSEAD for January versus September intakes always comes up, but at this time (January 2014), the issue is further complicated by the change in essay content (something I will discuss at the end of the post). Given that the Round Three September 2014 application (Class of July 2015) is due on March 5, 2014 and the Round One January 2015 (Class of December 2015) is due on March 21, 2014, there will be many applicants who would be ready to apply for either intake.  The basic difference in terms of the program between the September and January intake is stated clearly on the INSEAD website:
What are the differences between the September and January intakes?
The curriculum, course structure, class size and composition, and campus exchange opportunities are identical for the September and January intakes. The primary difference is that if you choose to begin in September, you will complete the MBA in ten consecutive months. If you choose to begin in January you will have a two-month summer break during which you can pursue an internship or other endeavours.

For my own clients, the internship has clearly been a major reason for choosing the January start. Also beyond having an internship, the additional two months does extend the MBA experience a bit and create some additional breathing room before returning to a career.

Other reasons for choosing January or September might have to do with timing, such as when they want to leave work, company sponsorship for their degree,  or major life events (birth of a child, marriage). Sometimes it is simply a question of application timing.

Another major consideration, which is likely to running through the minds of those considering whether to apply for Round Three for September 2014 or for Round One for January 2015 is the chance for admission.  Since the September and January intake are equal in size and composition and are equally competitive, this is simply an issue of applying Round 3 versus Round 1. INSEAD states that the chance for admission is the same for all rounds, but if you want scholarships apply in Round 1 or Round 2:
Each round is equally competitive as the ratio of acceptance is the same for all rounds. We allocate more places in round 1 and 2 than in round 3, but we also receive more applications in round 1 and 2 than in round 3. When choosing a round in which to apply, the most important consideration is to dedicate enough time and thought to your application so that it accurately represents your strengths and talents. However, we encourage you to apply to round 1 or 2 if scholarships are a priority or if you need more time to relocate to your starting campus.

Working with large number of clients who have been admitted to INSEAD (27 since I began my own consulting business and additional admits between 2001 and 2007 when I was working for a consulting service), I can say the above statements by INSEAD align completely with what I have observed.  While I assume on the margins it might be harder for applicants coming from very large pools like Indian male in an IT position, I have had such clients admitted in Round 3.  I have never noticed any real distinction between the rounds or January versus September when it comes to chances for admission.  That said, selecting January 2015 Round 1 is better than September Round 3 if you want to maximize your chances for a scholarship. 

Another consideration would be the essays.  Please see my posts on the January 2015, September 2014, and repurposing September 2014 essays for a January 2015 application.   Frankly, I think this is a real mixed bag and it is not obvious which essay set is easier in general.  If you have already written the September 2014 essays and are happy with them, don’t care so much about scholarships, and prefer starting in September, I would suggest applying for the September intake.  If you are either in the midst of writing or have not started and want to increase your chances for a scholarship, want an internship, or have other timing considerations that favor the January in take, January is a better choice.  If I was discussing this issue with client who was completely indifferent to a January or September start, I would assess what kind of essay content they have and use that as the basis for my advice.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Converting INSEAD's 2014 MBA Admissions Essays into January 2015 Essays

In this post I will discuss the specific problem that some applicants will have if they previously started writing INSEAD’s MBA Application Essays for January and September 2014 Admission, but are now applying for January 2015 admission.  Below I provide both the GOOD and BAD NEWS on converting your essays for 2014 admission to what you will need for January 2015 admission.

If you have not done so, I suggest reviewing my analysis of the January 2015 (Class of December 2015) essays before and/or in tandem with this post.  You may also find it helpful to refer to my analysis of the 2014 essays as well. My post, INSEAD: Applying for September 2014 versus January 2015 Intakes  may also be relevant to you. 

Altering the Job Description Essays 
Job Description 1. Briefly summarise your current (or most recent) job, including the nature of work, major responsibilities, and where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget,clients/products and results achieved. What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company? (350 words max.) 

THE GOOD NEWS: Since they added a 100 words to the question for January 2015, chances are that you can fully utilize what you already had written to answer this question. In addition, the new part of the question was previously in Job Essay 2, so you probably can repurpose that part completely (Most applicants would have written far less than 100 words on that anyway).

THE BAD NEWS: Since there is no longer a  full Why MBA/Why INSEAD Essay Question, but only the goals in Job Essay 2, you should consider providing a clear and brief explanation here on why an MBA now is better than staying at your current job. Aside from being brief, I don’t imagine this should be too hard.

Job Description 2. Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university. It should be written as if you were talking to someone at a social gathering detailing your career path with the rationale behind your choices. Discuss your short and long term career aspirations. (350 words max.) 

THE GOOD NEWS: You should be able to repurpose at least part of what you had previously written for the first part of Job Essay 2 and Motivation Essay 4a (Goals) here.  The second part of Job Essay 2 is now in Job Essay 1, so you don’t need to use word count for it here.

THE BAD NEWS: Since you need to really need to factor in “It should be written as if you were talking to someone at a social gathering detailing your career path with the rationale behind your choices,” chances are very likely you will to do a total rewrite.  In addition, you will surely need to cut your goal content down to around  100-150 words instead of the 250 you would have had if you applied for September 2014 admission.


Altering The Motivation Essays

1. Give a candid description of yourself (who are you as a person), 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. (600 words max.) 

THE GOOD NEWS: If you have written this essay already and are happy with it, chances are pretty good that you don’t need to alter it.

THE BAD NEWS:  No bad news here!

2. Describe the achievement of which you are most proud and explain why. In addition, describe a situation where you failed. How did these experiences impact your relationships with others? Comment on what you learned. (400 words max.) 

THE GOOD NEWS:  You might be able to repurpose your professional accomplishment and failure stories as long as you can relate these stories to your impact on others and what you learned.

THE BAD NEWS: Instead of having 400 words for your failure essay, you now have around 200 words.  The need to factor in “How did these experiences impact your relationships with others?” might require you to change topics.


3. Tell us about an experience where you were significantly impacted by cultural diversity, in a positive or negative way. (300 words max.) 

THE GOOD NEWS:   The January 2015 version is a much more open-ended question than the September 2014 version and you get 50 more words. It is at least theoretically possible that if you wrote 5a for 2014 (culture shock), you might be able to convert into this essay.  If you are applying to IMD (links to my essay analysis)  as well, it is possible that there will be overlap between INSEAD 3 and IMD 3.

THE BAD NEWS: If you wrote 5b (advice for a foreigner), you probably will not be able to use it here and need a new topic.  Many topics for 5a will also not work well either.

4. Describe all types of extra-professional activities in which you have been or are still involved for a significant amount of time (clubs, sports, music, arts, politics, etc). How are you enriched by these activities? (300 words max.) 

THE GOOD NEWS: It is entirely possible that you can repurpose your September 2014 non-professional achievement from Essay 2 here.

THE BAD NEWS: This is a new essay and you need to cover multiple topics.

5. Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee? (300 words max.) 

THE GOOD NEWS:  For most applicants,  chances are high that they can use what they had already written for September 2014.

THE BAD NEWS: September 2014 applicants get 350 words to answer this question, while January 2015 applicants only get 300. Reapplicants will need to write on reapplication here because there is no longer a reapplication essay.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.