INSEAD MBA News

  Hello and welcome to Friday From the Frontlines, Clear Admit's weekly account of the adventures of the b-school blogosphere.  This week marks a lull in applicant updates  as most notifications have gone out for R2, and now its a matter of waiting for final decisions, preparing for matriculation, or starting the application process again for next year. Current students however, have taken time to reflect on the quickly approaching end of the MBA journey, as well as discuss the experience of being a veteran at Wharton and give an interesting insight into Harvard Business School's  newly launched HBXCORe.  Read more

Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly ramble through the ruminations of the b-school blogosphere. This week, our stalwart applicants are continuing to filter their impressions of the application process, while contemplating what comes next. Current students are likewise contemplating how their lives have changed since starting business school, whether this year or last, and are looking forward to welcoming the class of 2016. MBAReapplicant continued his streak of good news with admits from both Tepper and Darden. With a successful end to the reapplication process, MBAReapplicant can finally chose between several exciting options for next year.  Timbob, another class of '16 successful applicant to Harvard Business School,  took a brief moment away from preparing from his upcoming wedding to share a post-decision publication timeline of events.  Much of it involved giddy celebration, and skillful procrastination.  Another across-the-pond blogger,  Sara'sMBAJourney, continued to share impressions of her trip to the States, including her enjoyable visit to Duke, as well as the terrible state of American roads and the terrible drivers on them.  Domontron continued his series on elements of an MBA application by addressing ways to research target schools. He highlights students blogs as an excellent way to get a more direct and unfiltered sense of the school's community and opportunities. Your Fridays From the Frontline editor could not agree more! Read more

Far fewer MBA students from Europe’s top business schools are choosing careers in finance than they have in the past, opting instead for jobs at Facebook, Amazon and other tech firms, according to a recent report in the Financial News. London Business School (LBS), Cambridge’s Judge Business School, Oxford’s Saïd Business School, INSEAD and HEC Paris all report significant drops in the number of MBAs who have accepted full-time roles and internships at finance firms as the heaviest portion of the annual recruiting season comes to an end. Read more

To mark Women’s History Month, INSEAD has filled March with a string of events celebrating women and showcasing their achievements on its campuses in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and beyond. INSEAD’s first women’s event is a speaker session entitled, “Women @ Work.” The event will take place later this week, on Thursday, March 3rd on INSEAD’s Asia campus in Singapore. Claudia Zeisberger, academic director of INSEAD’s Global Private Equity Initiative (GPEI) and an affiliate professor of decision sciences and entrepreneurship and family enterprise, will lead the discussion examining women’s journey in the workplace from the sideline to center field. A networking event will follow. Read more

Harvard Business School (HBS) appeared at the top of the Financial Times Global MBA annual ranking, released yesterday. It was HBS’ second consecutive claim to the number-one spot and its fifth time topping the rankings since they debuted in 1999. Stanford Graduate School of Business also remained steady this year, reclaiming the number-two spot it held last year. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania slipped to fourth as London Business School stepped into the number-three spot. Columbia Business School and INSEAD tied for fifth. The FT compiles its annual global MBA rankings based on two surveys of the business schools and their alumni. (For this year rankings, alumni who graduated in 2010 were surveyed.) Based on the responses to these surveys, the MBA programs are measured according to the career progression of their alumni, the school’s idea generation and the diversity of students and faculty. Read more

If you are a Round 2 applicant to INSEAD Business School from a developing country, you could be eligible for a €10,000 (~$16,448) scholarship. The INSEAD MBA ’91 June Endowed Scholarship, created by the Class of 1991 on the occasion of its 20th Class Reunion, will be awarded once a year to a disadvantaged candidate from a developing country who can demonstrate financial need. Applications for the scholarship’s second round open tomorrow, January 14th, and the deadline for submission is January 31st. To be considered, prospective applicants must complete an online scholarship application, which includes providing answers to the following essay questions: Read more

Leading international business school INSEAD this week appointed Professor Ilian Mihov as its official dean. Mihov, who is currently interim dean of the school, will be INSEAD’s first dean to be based in Asia, though he will travel frequently between INSEAD’s three campuses in Fontainebleau, France; Singapore and Abu Dhabi to engage the school’s entire global community. A newly appointed deputy dean and full academic and administrative team will ensure that INSEAD’s presence in Europe – its home for the past 53 years – will remain strong. “We are fortunate that our predecessors foresaw the rise of globalization and established a school destined to be the pioneer in the internationalization of business and education,” Mihov said in a statement. He pledged in his new role to uphold the values of the school’s founders, nurture its intellectual environment, support innovation in teaching and increase the school’s reputation. Read more

Entrepreneurship, innovation and cost cutting are increasingly important amid shifts in global healthcare systems, presenting important opportunities for business schools offering healthcare-focused MBA programs, the Financial Times reports. “The healthcare system is about much more than just treating patients,” Steve Chick, head of INSEAD’s Healthcare Management Initiative, told the FT. “The coordination of care is critical and that’s where business schools can play a big role.” Read more

~ A CLEAR ADMIT EXCLUSIVE ~ American-born Mary Carey stepped into her current role as director of the INSEAD Career Development Center in September 2012, but she was not new to INSEAD nor to France. Before last year, she was executive director of INSEAD’s Global Leadership Center, and before that she worked in career development at another leading European business school, HEC. She began her professional career in southern California, working as a CPA with KPMG as well as in financial services before heading back to school to study leadership development and career development. When she had the opportunity to come over to France, she jumped at it because she wanted the international experience. “It really opens your eyes to the world,” she says. That was seven years ago, and she’s still there. Read more

The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which owns and administers the GMAT exam, has commissioned a new book examining challenges confronting graduate management education, from technological advancements and globalization to how to measure program quality other than through rankings. Disrupt or Be Disrupted: A Blueprint for Change in Management Education, out this month, contains contributions from leading academics and thinkers such as Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana and Former INSEAD Dean Dipak Jain on how to reimagine curriculum content and delivery, student engagement, faculty development and more. Read more

INSEAD, with campuses in France and Singapore, boasted a global MBA program well before many other top business schools began to establish satellites for their programs in regions around the world. Having now added a new Abu Dhabi module to its core MBA program, INSEAD is expanding its international reach even farther. The Abu Dhabi location got its start as a research center in 2007 and grew into a full-fledged campus in 2010, offering executive education and executive MBA programs. As part of the new module rolled out this year, students can now spend a week in January, a week in February and a concluding weekend in March as part of the core MBA program, enjoying lectures, guest speakers, field trips to and group projects with local companies, alumni networking and visits to recruiters. Read more

A new Masters of Finance degree program and a new Singapore section of the INSEAD Global executive MBA program are among the developments Peter Zemsky chooses to call out in the interview that follows. Zemsky, a professor of strategy with a focus on competitive strategy, industry evolution, value innovation and action learning, is the acting dean and dean of the degree programs and curriculum at INSEAD. He also teaches the core competitive strategy course in the MBA and eMBA program. Zemsky doesn’t waste words in his answers to our questions. Read on for his concise, practical tips on how to make your application to INSEAD stand out. Read more