INSEAD 2024-25 MBA Essays and Deadlines

INSEAD is recognised as one of the top business schools globally. With campuses in Europe, Asia, Middle east and a hub at San Francisco, it is truly “the business school for the world”. True to this tag line, they do look for students interested in global exposure or ambitions. The essays questions assess applicant’s experiences holistically to determine fit for the program. In this article, we attempt to guide applicants with essay prompts for this year and provide essential information to help you craft strong responses. 

Question 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 maximum)

Applicants can focus on bring out their working style/s and it’s fit with the company (essentially testing if the applicant is self-aware of their values and if they can align with company’s ethos). Quantification of impact with concrete number, illustrating results of the contributions should be emphasised in the response. Establish a baseline to show the actual difference made by the intervention. Applicants should mention nature of responsibilities, involvement in any leadership roles or positions. Highlight any challenges you faced and the strategies you used to overcome them, emphasizing key skills. If you’ve initiated a project or venture, this is the place to mention it. 

Question 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 maximum)

This essay question is designed to gauge your trajectory within applicant’s current company. The committee seeks to understand applicant’s strategies in terms of future plans without an MBA, understanding the how well the applicant understands his or her career plans. It will be important to include additional responsibilities to be added on one’s career trajectory, promotion timelines. 

Question 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 maximum)

In this section, applicants should explain their decisions to transition between organizations or roles, highlighting how their responsibilities evolved with each move. Emphasize the upward trajectory of your career, building a clear narrative around your growth and advancement.

Question 4: Discuss your short and long-term career aspirations with an MBA from INSEAD. (100 words maximum)

Applicants should be honest and should present their arguments in logical sequence. Applicants should highlight if they have taken an unconventional path or have gone extra mile for experiences that aligns with their career trajectory or values or aspirations. Drawing inspirations from the current job or volunteer experience or new interests you (in this case share anecdotes reflecting why these experiences matter). In addition to the course curriculum or teaching style at INSEAD, focus could also be on extra-curricular clubs, locations, network instructors, on-going research work etc. and explaining importance of these elements towards applicant’s career trajectory. 

Optional: 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

The applicant can explain the reasons behind any gaps in employment, such as focusing on upskilling, building connections, volunteering, or engaging in other activities that contribute to their career development.

Motivation essays

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 (maximum 500 words)

Applicant can begin by bringing out aspects of their family, hobbies and decisions taken. Other important aspects of the personality like values and belief system should also be emphasised, ultimately hinting towards the thought process. Real-life examples that illustrate these aspects will help validate the claims and convince the committee that authentic picture of the applicant is being presented. One can include examples from professional domain as well to reinforce the points. Conclude with the discussion on how these values can help during the time at school and once out of the school as well as how they will add value to the entire cohort. Acknowledge any weaknesses and its impact on defining the overall personality, highlight the efforts on how these weaknesses are being addressed. Be sure to use clear adjectives when describing yourself. 

Essay 2: Consider a situation where you failed to achieve your objective(s). How did you handle failure? What did you learn about yourself and/or your interactions with others from this situation? (400 words)

Ensuring the complete context is a must in this section, getting it right is crucial as lack of context can create misunderstandings. Emphasise on the positive aspects of the situation. Highlight insights gained from the failure experience and actions taken as a result. One can additionally include examples of application of these learnings. 

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

This is an open-ended section. Here, cover aspects which you would want the admission committee to know about you. Anything important which you could not explain earlier goes here. Any weaknesses or deviation (say low grades somewhere during your academic journey), you explain here along with any other experiences you might have had. Explain any anomalies. How have such experiences defined or improved your personality? How have you utilised your learnings in your personal as well as professional space. You can talk more about yourself, consider this as an opportunity to tell the committee about yourself, interests, values, goals, motivation sources, evidence of leadership and teamwork.