INSEAD Names New Dean of MBA Program

Last week INSEAD announced it has named named Professor Jake Cohen as the new Dean of the school's MBA program, effective September 1. Cohen has been with INSEAD for more than five years as a professor, and has also served as Director of the school's joint research program with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Cohen currently teaches a variety of finance, accounting, and business law courses at INSEAD's campuses in France and in Singapore. He founded the Business Foundation program, a pre-matriculation program that prepares the incoming MBA class for INSEAD's quant-heavy subjects. Before INSEAD, he was a Senior Teching Fellow at Harvard Business School.

Cohen will succeed Professor Antonio Fatás, who has served as the Dean of the programme since 2004.

To learn more about INSEAD, visit the Veritas Prep INSEAD information page. If you are just starting your application, find out how Veritas Prep MBA admissions consultants can help you get in to INSEAD.

INSEAD Application Essays and Deadlines 2008-2009

INSEAD has released its application for the 2008-2009 season. The following are INSEAD's deadlines and essays for the coming Sep. 2009 intake, with our italics in comments:

INSEAD Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 1, 2008
Round 2: November 26, 2008
Round 3: February 11, 2009
Round 4: April 1, 2009

INSEAD Application Job Essays

1. Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)


2. Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)


(No changes since last year. INSEAD is unusual in that it explicitly separates out applicants' job-related and personal-themed essays, and this practice remains for 2008-2009. Question #2 is interesting because they really want to see that your career is on an upward trajectory, and that you're not pursuing an MBA just to bail out of a dead-end job.)

INSEAD Application Personal Essays

1. Give a candid description of yourself, 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. (400 words)


2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words)


3. Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words)


4. Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career? (500 words)

Please choose one of the following two essay topics:

a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words)

b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words)


5. (Optional)Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words)
   


6. (For reapplicants) In case of reapplication, please use this page. Your essay should state any new aspects of professional, international, academic, or personal development since your last application. We would also like you to explain your motivation for re-applying to INSEAD. (400 words)


(Again, no changes since last year, but note INSEAD's emphasis on cultural awareness and the value of mixing international cultures. More than just about any other business school, INSEAD puts a very deliberate focus on the value of an international perspective.)

For more advice on applying to INSEAD, visit the Veritas Prep INSEAD information page.