UPDATE: This article was originally posted on August 1, 2018. It has been updated with new information and tips below.
With business increasingly taking place across borders and popular industries (we’re looking at you, tech!) moving at a breakneck speed, INSEAD is a more popular target for business school applicants than ever.
Though INSEAD offers two intakes each year, the increased attention the school has garnered makes it more competitive than ever to earn a spot at this prestigious business school.
That’s why we’ve prepared this guide to help you use your INSEAD admissions essays to stand out. We’ve rounded up not only our best tips but have also included INSEAD sample essays to ensure you give your INSEAD application your best shot.
1. Who is INSEAD looking for?
Source: remessaonline.com
“The accelerated full-time MBA programme curriculum develops successful, thoughtful leaders and entrepreneurs who create value for their organisations and their communities, and we are looking for smart, well-rounded candidates who believe that business can be a force for good.” Minh Huy Lai, Managing Director of the INSEAD MBA Program.
Every year, INSEAD searches the globe for outstanding, globally-minded professionals. More than 75 countries are represented in INSEAD’s MBA class. With a strong emphasis on diversity, collaboration, and global mindset, there is a lot of variation in the INSEAD class, with previous work experience ranging from 3 to 8 years.
Beyond the impressive statistics, though, INSEAD is a highly values-driven community that values diversity, adaptability and teamwork — and professionals who are adept at putting these values into practice in their daily lives.
According to INSEAD’s admissions committee:
“The MBA Admissions team are looking for people with intellectual curiosity, personal qualities to contribute to the many INSEAD activities and a desire to stretch themselves in a rigorous academic programme. We welcome applications from around the world regardless of race, religion, gender, colour or financial status. Our aim is to build an exciting, dynamic and diverse student body.”
If this sounds like a community in which you’d be right at home, you’ll first have to prove you’ve got what it takes by successfully answering INSEAD’s highly varied, challenging admissions essay questions.
2. How should I answer INSEAD essay questions?
Writing any admission essay is a tough task. However, INSEAD requires applicants to submit a highly-challenging set of nearly a dozen essays that discuss everything from strengths to failures to personal characteristics to future plans to extracurricular activities.
Keep reading for a more in-depth look at how to turn this advice into outstanding essays!
2.1. Motivational Essay 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. (500 words)
Considering the fact that you only have 500 words to present yourself, this essay can seem like a daunting task. However, we have found that the following structure helps this essay flow nicely and perfectly nail the brief.
We suggest including two strengths and one weakness (in any order you prefer), and a theme to connect them all.
As you can see in Motivational Essay Sample Set 1 (available for download below), the author uses his passion for digital as the theme for his essay, comparing various technical processes to strengths and weaknesses in his personality before ending by stating his working to become version 2.0 of himself.
Many people argue initially that their personality should be enough of a theme. This can definitely work, however, we have found that a more robust theme that integrates with and connects to your characteristics makes for a more interesting, cohesive essay. It will also help you discuss what led you to develop the unique characteristics that make you you!
Finally, please (please!) do not use a fake or made up weakness. Your weakness should be thoughtful, yet appropriate for business school.
Talking about how you often fight with superiors, for example, is not appropriate for business school, since the experience is inherently collaborative and teamwork driven, so make sure you don’t build an argument that you have a hard time relating to others. Furthermore, answers like losing your temper easily or being lazy are not good choices.
You also don’t want to stray too far to the other side, choosing answers like “I work too hard.” Instead, choose real, well-considered weaknesses and include information about why this personal trait is a weakness.
REMEMBER: your weaknesses should be an obstacle to other strengths and NOT one of your inherent flaws.
For example, if you tend to get lost in the details, show the adcom that this has led to negative feedback at work, where you’re increasingly asked to take care of your team’s big picture responsibilities.
Finally, end by showing how you are working on this weakness. The important thing here is not to show you are a “perfect” person, but to show them that you are mature, self-aware, and focused on self-improvement.
TOP TIP: There is a lot of space for repetition with Essay 2, so we suggest planning out all your examples for all essays and double-checking for any conflicts before you start writing.
Need more guidance? Our MBA Resource Center has dozens of past successful INSEAD essays and a detailed brainstorm to help you plan out a winning INSEAD essay. Our library also includes guides for all top global MBA programs, detailed essay brainstorms, interview tips and mocks, CV templates, and recommendation letter guides. Click to join!
2.2. Motivational Essay 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)
For many of our clients, this is the most difficult essay to write, considering the sheer amount of content applicants must cram into a 400-word essay.
However, with the right approach, this essay can be much less daunting.
First, we suggest you brainstorm a list of your greatest accomplishments and greatest failures.
After doing this, filter out examples that are contradictory to Essay 1 (for example, your achievement revolves around being an excellent presenter and your weakness in Essay 1 is presentation skills) or that overlap with stories you are telling in other essays.
After this, go through the list again and remove examples that have nothing to do with other people.
This is incredibly important because this essay is not asking you to discuss your life’s absolute greatest mess up, it’s asking you to talk about a failure and discuss how it influenced your relationships with others.
For example, while brainstorming this essay, many of our clients suggest writing about not passing at their top choice undergraduate university for their failure. Though this is certainly a crushing blow, it’s hard to talk about how this impacted the way you relate to others. An example like not asking for help and failing to deliver on a project, on the other hand, is a much better choice.
As such, be absolutely sure that you choose examples that allow you to answer the full question.
Finally, given the short word count, you may want to consider a situation where you experienced a failure, learned from it, and turned things around to lead to your greatest achievement. Though you certainly don’t have to follow this model (and many of our successful clients have not), it can help shorten the word count by eliminating the need to provide context for two situations.
TOP TIP: STAR-format examples work best here. If you’re not sure how to achieve this, check out this post, designed to help you use the STAR methodology easily and effectively in your essays.
2.3. Motivational Essay 3
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)
Here, we suggest choosing a few different activities you currently participate in (or have meaningfully participated in previously).
These can be a range of activities, from hobbies to community service to sports, etc. If you can, try to choose activities that reinforce you’re a globally-minded, team-oriented person and use this space to highlight new elements of your profile that you did not discuss elsewhere.
No matter what you choose, you must justify how each activity has enriched you.
You don’t have to get overly dramatic here and state that soccer saved your life (if it did, though, write about that!), but make sure to show a mature, thoughtful analysis of how this activity has led you to grow as a person.
2.4. Optional Motivational Essay
Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like to share with the admissions committee? (300 words)
As with nearly all elite business schools, INSEAD does not want to see a summary of your profile or a restatement of why you want to attend INSEAD. Considering they give you 8 other essay questions and a video essay, you have plenty of space to make your most important arguments within the confines of the application.
However, if you have extenuating circumstances that merit additional explanation (a good overview of what kind of circumstances qualify can be found here), make sure to explain them clearly and directly.
2.5. Job Essay 1
Job Essay 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. (200 words)
For this question, the most important thing is to answer all elements of the question and maintain focus on your current role.
You’ll have plenty of room to discuss your past career choices and future ambitions in other essays, so make sure you give the adcom a full picture of what you do on a daily basis.
If you’re currently working on a particularly interesting project, you can include information about the project and your related responsibilities, but don’t bog your reader down with an exhaustive list of every project and result you’ve ever obtained in your current role.
Should you feel a little bit of context is necessary to understand your current role, feel free to provide it. Keep in mind, however, that you’re given an entire essay to discuss your career choices leading up to the present day.
Finally, make sure to include the data they ask for, specifically related to the budget and the number of people you manage.
2.6. Job Essay 2
What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company instead of going to business school? (200 words).
Depending on how complex this next role will be, this might be a very short answer or a slightly longer one.
Here, focus on your next logical step in your current organization (whether you intend to return post-MBA or not). By asking this, the committee is attempting to gauge your career progress and momentum thus far.
Thus, highlight how the complexity and scope of your position would increase, especially making sure to note any additional leadership or management responsibilities. You may also want to mention a feasible timeline for being promoted to this role.
2.7. Job Essay 3
Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university. Describe your career path with the rationale behind your choices. (300 words).
Here, INSEAD does not want a 2-page dramatic retelling of your CV, so make sure you start writing this essay with your ultimate goal in mind.
We suggest applicants take this opportunity to show the “whys and hows” of their career choices thus far, specifically focusing on what led you to move from one company or role to another and what you learned. It’s also a good practice to highlight any of your “blockbuster” moments to establish a track record of excellence in your career.
Furthermore, show the adcom your career is on an upward trajectory by including information about increased responsibilities with each new role.
As for size, try to keep it short, but use your best judgment. If you’ve had 10 positions since graduating university, your essay will likely be longer than someone who has had 2-3 positions at one company in the same amount of time.
Though this is not a traditional goals essay, you may find it helpful to think of this as the “setup” section of a goals essay, since you’re required to demonstrate how your trajectory thus far has prepared you for the goals you plan to pursue post-MBA.
2.8. Job Essay 4
Discuss your short and long term career aspirations with an MBA from INSEAD. (100 words).
Unlike many other schools, INSEAD poses a very straightforward goals question that asks you to discuss your short-term and long-term goals, as well as your need for an INSEAD MBA.
Considering the fact that you’ve just told the admissions committee about your past experiences, we recommend jumping right in and starting to discuss your short-term goal, namely, the job you hope to have right after graduation.
Then, continue by discussing why you want to pursue this goal, before moving on to stating your long-term goal (this varies, but somewhere in the 5-10 year range is a good target) and the reason for wanting to pursue this goal as well.
Though it can be tempting to be vague or generic here, that’s not going to help your application.
INSEAD, like all elite business schools, will use this essay to determine your career risk (i.e. the likelihood of you getting the job you’ve said you want after graduation). As such, specificity is an absolute necessity (include both title and industry).
Finally, if you’re pursuing goals that are very loosely related to what you’ve done thus far, make sure you fully explore why you’re making such a drastic change and give any evidence you can that you’ll be successful in making this big shift.
Show the admissions committee you recognize that you still need to grow as a person and as a professional in order to successfully reach the goals you’ve laid out. To do this, consider key skills that you need to build or develop that are specifically related to your plans.
For example, if you’re planning to pursue partnership at a major consulting firm, pitching clients will become a huge part of your job description, so improving your abilities to do so is important.
On the other hand, if your post-MBA goal requires managing a huge team, you may want to think about how you need to grow as a leader and manager to successfully rise to the occasion.
After you’ve identified your skill areas, show how specific elements of the INSEAD experience will help you develop.
Source: @insead on Instagram
Finally, it’s worth mentioning how and why you might benefit from being part of INSEAD’s highly global MBA. Regardless of what you choose to write about, make sure you do extensive research into the INSEAD program and deeply reflect on your future goals before you start writing.
TOP TIP: Not sure how to define your goals for your MBA application? Check out our guide on the topic here!
2.9. Optional Job Essay
If you are currently not working or if you plan to leave your current employer more than 2 months before the programme starts, please explain your activities and occupations between leaving your job and the start of the programme.
If you are currently unemployed or plan to leave your position early, make sure to show how you will use this time off to develop your skills and bring yourself closer to reaching your short-term and long-term goals.
Ensuring you offer specifics about what you’ll be doing and showing how you intend to be enriched by your activities will be a convincing argument in showing your commitment to pursuing an MBA and your goals beyond.
If you’re not sure if you’ll leave your job early or not, we recommend not writing this essay.
3. Make Sure You Get into INSEAD
Are you almost finished with your application but are still worried your essay is not quite perfect enough to send?
At Ellin Lolis Consulting, our goal is to add more value to your application than you ever thought possible by giving you the tools and positioning you need to write outstanding essays that help you gain admission to a top MBA program.
If you’re struggling to put your core values into words, or aren’t sure you’ve really nailed the brief for INSEAD, let our award-winning editors use their expert storytelling abilities to help you transform your essay from average to attention-grabbing and land an INSEAD interview.
That’s how we helped our recent client Georgia navigate her application.
After all, you don’t get into a prestigious business school without standing out!
4. INSEAD Deadlines
INSEAD has two deadlines each year, one for the September intake and one for the January intake. Please check INSEAD’s website directly for the most recent information about deadlines!
You can start your online application by clicking here.
Real MBA Essays That Got People In
School-specific sample essays that got our clients accepted
