‘The business school for the world’ is how INSEAD chooses to describe itself. Founded in 1957, INSEAD began its MBA program in 1960. It is a new school when compared with likes of LBS, Oxford, HEC or Cambridge. However in less than six decades of its inception, INSEAD along with LBS has managed to become the top B-School on east of Atlantic.
What makes INSEAD special and what are the factors that ensure it has been able to hold onto its enviable pole position in all B-School rankings. The most import factors are:
- Diversity: INSEAD admits 1000 plus students across its 3 campuses (including Abu Dhabi campus). There are 2 intakes. INSEAD believes learning in B-School is not just by academics but by peer interaction as well.
This is the reason why INSEAD selects students from diverse industries, geographies and number of years of experience. The GMAT scores for incoming class ranges from 610 to 780, to accommodate diverse profiles.
- Rigorous program: A short 10 months program divided into 5 cores is extremely rigorous. INSEAD therefore looks forward to admit students who could display superior academic excellence by their previous academic grades. The students though come from as diverse profiles as fashion designing to maritime engineering, have one thing in common, they have either been among the top of class or have showcased academic excellence by high GMAT scores or any other means.
INSEAD has one of the best faculties and research facilities. This ensures the curriculum is reviewed frequently to keep up with demands of various industries.
- A la carte curriculum: A general survey among top B-Schools of the world shows more than 70% of incoming class of MBA students are not sure where they want to go post-MBA, in other words they are explorers who decide their post-MBA career path while at B-School.
INSEAD has 5 cores, of which the first two comprises of mandatory subjects to fortify the business knowledge of students. The rest of 3 cores has option to choose 11 electives. Students can choose these electives from a wide range of Operations, finance, strategy and marketing subjects. This ensures they are well prepared to attend to the needs of their sectors of choice (whether consulting or Finance or any other) and have in-depth knowledge of these sectors.
- Alumni network: INSEAD is one of the few schools in Europe which have such a big network of MBA alumni. Most of the alumni are spread over south east Asia, middle east Asia and Europe. This ensures students can choose to reach out to alumni in their geography of choice and hope to get placed there.
Also, INSEAD alumni is very well represented in consulting and finance sectors. Since these sectors are most sought after by graduating class, the network ensures they get a post-MBA job of their choice.