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INSEAD ESSAY GUIDE INSEAD ESSAY GUIDE 2 © 2014 STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING INC. w

INSEAD ESSAY GUIDE INSEAD ESSAY GUIDE 2 © 2014 STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING INC. www.StacyBlackman.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright © 2014 by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc, Los Angeles, California, USA. www.stacyblackman.com Cover design by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Contact Stacy Blackman Consulting at ebook@stacyblackman.com. ISBN-13: 978-1-61755-915-0 ISBN-10: 1-61755-915-6 Visit www.stacyblackman.com/store for the latest Stacy Blackman Consulting ebooks. DISCLAIMER: This guide is designed to assist in your MBA Admissions application, but does not guarantee admission to INSEAD. INSEAD ESSAY GUIDE 3 © 2014 STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING INC. www.StacyBlackman.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: The Stacy Blackman Consulting Essay Guides 4 PART ONE: What is INSEAD looking for? 6 PART TWO: Essay Strategies, Tactics, and Tips 11 THE CAREER GOALS ESSAY 12 Overview of the Question Essay Tips TIP #1 Express your passion and enthusiasm 15 for your future career with a career vision statement Sample Essay 1 Sample Essay 2 Sample Essay 3 TIP #2 Describe a realistic, logical course for the future 16 Sample Essay TIP #3 Complete extensive school research and be very 18 specific in your answer to “Why INSEAD?” Sample Essay TIP #4 But what if I “just” want to be a CEO, or a banker, 20 or a strategy consultant, or a venture capitalist...? Sample Essay TIP #5 Explaining unemployment 21 Sample Essay THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND FAILURE ESSAY 22 Overview of the Question Essay Tips TIP #1 Write about the times you’ve left “footprints” 24 in your areas of passion Sample Essay TIP #2 Feature recent accomplishments 24 with some exceptions Sample Essay TIP #3 Consider both “I” and “We” accomplishments 25 Sample Essay TIP #4 Own your mistake and demonstrate self-awareness 26 Sample Essay TIP #5 Show initiative 27 Sample Essay TIP #6 Disappointment can demonstrate inner growth 28 Sample Essay THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES ESSAY 29 Overview of the Question Essay Tips TIP #1 Highlight your strengths without bragging 30 Sample Essay TIP #2 Demonstrate specific ways you have 31 addressed your weakness Sample Essay THE PERSONAL ESSAYS 32 Overview of the Question Essay Tips TIP #1 Choose your topic strategically 33 Sample Essay TIP #2 Showcase global awareness without 34 global work experience Sample Essay TIP #3 Enriching extracurricular activities 35 Sample Essay THE OPTIONAL ESSAY 36 Overview of the Question Sample Essay CONCLUSION 37 ABOUT STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING 39 INTRODUCTION: The Stacy Blackman Consulting Essay Guides MBA program applications require you to respond to a series of essay questions on a variety of topics including your career progress, career goals, accomplishments and setbacks, and potential contributions to the program’s student community. Before putting fingers to keyboard, it’s a good practice to first consider who your reader will be, what the subject matter is, and your objective for the writing assignment. The answers to these three questions are fairly straightforward: WHO IS MY READER? The Admissions Committee WHAT IS THE SUBJECT MATTER? My attributes, strengths, achievements, and goals, which combine to form a complete picture of me WHAT IS MY OBJECTIVE IN WRITING THESE ESSAYS? To earn an acceptance letter The next question isn’t so easy to answer: WHAT SHOULD I WRITE ABOUT? The subject matter of the essays – your attributes, strengths, achievements, and goals – is decidedly broad. At this point, most applicants feel a bit stumped. As they consider possible directions for their essays, one question crops up again and again: WHAT IS THE ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE LOOKING FOR? If they only knew what the admissions officers were looking for, then they’d have a much easier time selecting essay topics and stories that will feature those relevant attributes and talents. It would be helpful if each school’s admissions committee told you exactly what they were looking for. Representatives of the program from admissions officers to current students certainly offer plenty of clues, but there is no definitive source of reference. The dean of admissions for one of the top programs responded as follows when asked what his program was looking for: “We look for people who will contribute in a meaningful way to our community.…We don’t just look at one thing – we look at the whole picture and think about the fit.” When reviewing your application, the admissions committee is trying to determine if who you are, what you’ve accom- plished, and what you hope to achieve in the future is a good fit for their institution. With this in mind, we can refine our answer to the question above about your objective for this essay writing “assignment.” Your end goal is, of course, to earn an acceptance letter, but the way you do so is to persuade the admissions committee that you fit. You must look at your strengths and achievements through the lens of the admissions officers. The essays are your opportunity to communicate those strengths and provide multiple reasons to believe that you will fit in next year’s class. INSEAD ESSAY GUIDE 4 © 2014 STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING INC. www.StacyBlackman.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may be saying to yourself: “OKAY, GREAT! BUT WHAT SHOULD I WRITE ABOUT?!” This essay guide will help you answer that question in three key ways: 1) Based on over a decade of experience with the admissions offices of the most competitive MBA programs, we will offer some insight into what constitutes “fit” for the program being discussed. By listening carefully to the admissions officers over the years and by paying close attention to the profiles of successful applicants, we have assembled a list of the fun- damental qualities and attributes that each program values. As you might expect, there is some degree of overlap between programs, but we have tailored the discussion in each guide to the specific program being evaluated. 2) Keeping this list of qualities top of mind, we will offer analysis and advice on the typical essay questions asked by this program. We will share the most important lessons we’ve learned over the years while working with our clients on these essays. These practical lessons should significantly enhance your ability to choose the right subjects and stories for your essays and will help you to avoid the pitfalls that trip up many applicants, thereby saving you time and improving the quality of your output. 3) Many of the lessons and the do’s and don’ts will be illustrated with essay excerpts and, in some cases, complete drafts. Not only will we show you essays that worked and analyze why they worked, we also will show you essays that didn’t hit the mark and demonstrate how a different strategy or story was better suited. In other cases, we will discuss how to improve the execution to make a particular essay more effective. By applying these case study lessons to your own work, you will greatly improve your execution on the stories you decide to share with the admissions committee, enabling you to assemble a set of essays that represents the best of who you are. INSEAD ESSAY GUIDE 5 © 2014 STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING INC. www.StacyBlackman.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PART ONE: What is INSEAD looking for? “Our aim is to build an exciting, dynamic and diverse student body.” - INSEAD Admissions With representation from over 70 countries, INSEAD is a unique global program that allows MBA students to obtain a degree in ten months of study. The program has campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi, with an opportunity for students to study at Wharton as part of an exchange program. The ideal INSEAD candidate has a diverse background and enough work experience to bring maturity to the group learning experience. INSEAD students are required to speak fluent English as well as one other language, infusing the culture with a global mindset. Along with a global mindset, INSEAD values flexible and creative leaders. Successful applicants hail from every kind of background and nationality, yet share the ability and desire to be global business leaders and manage across cultures and personalities. Flexibility and the ability to solve problems with a range of soft and hard skills are a necessity in this envi- ronment. Applicants to INSEAD have to be prepared to make the most of the one-year program, because the time to learn the skills you need from your MBA is limited. As the admissions committee says, “Life at INSEAD, whether inside or outside of the classroom, is stimulating and intense.” INSEAD is looking for students who know where they are going and how INSEAD will make their goals a reality. Based on over a decade of experience helping our clients garner admissions letters from INSEAD, we’ve assembled a com- prehensive list of the qualities that interact and overlap and combine to form candidates who fit with the culture of INSEAD. Global Awareness Analytical Skills Collaborative Leadership Self-Awareness Maturity Creative Intellectual Curiosity Entrepreneurial Mindset An effective set of INSEAD uploads/Management/ insead-essay-guide.pdf