Luckily, this week has been much better than last. Since we last spoke (ha!), we have actually started normal classes, and we are beginning to establish a routine.
I'm more excited than ever about this year. So far the profs have been excellent, the content is fun, and the people are outstanding. The best part of INSEAD (so far at least...) is that there is real diversity. I remember when I went to U of M there was a huge focus on diversity, but really that meant that there were lots of different people, but none of them mixed. At INSEAD, we are all totally mixed, and the largest nationality population (Americans...) is less than 10% of our class.
The basics:
INSEAD has two campuses. One is in Fontainbleu, in France, and the other in Singapore. Our intake (or promotion, as they call it here) has 450 people, and 300 of them start in Fonty (as it's called) and 150 in Singapore.
The program is 10 months. At the school at any given time, you will find two different promotions, because INSEAD has two promotions per year - a class of December, and a class of July. Basically, they graduate 900 people per year. That's a lot.
The year is split into five periods (P1, P2, etc.). For P1 and P2, we all have the same classes, with the same people, in the same classroom, in the same seats. We do the group work with the same group. After P2, people can switch campuses. Apparently more than 60% of INSEAD students go to more than one campus. The school also has an exchange with Wharton during P4. I'm still deciding what I will do about this. Switching campuses (especially to Fonty...) seems to be part of the INSEAD experience, but I have a lot to consider before I decide what I'll do.
Right now (P1) we are taking "core courses." This includes: stats, microecon, finance, accounting and leading groups. In college and grad school I took many semesters of stats, one of micro, one of finance and a whole degree about leading groups. We have basically gone over everything I knew already in the first class. :) Not really...but I think I will be learning a LOT!
Our class has people from 65 different nationalities. If you look at a group of people, it is really rare that you will ever see two people from the same country.
All classes are conducted in English only. You need three languages to graduate INSEAD, and you need two fluent languages to get in. My two are Hebrew and English, and I just found out that I passed out of the Spanish requirement. Phew. I don't think I could focus very well on that when I have things like accounting to worry about...
My group is made up of five people - a woman from the Philippines, and the rest are guys. One is from Taiwan, one from Korea and one from Portugal. We haven't yet worked so much together, but I KNOW we will have plenty opportunity!
Hopefully this will give a context into my postings as this year progresses...
2 comments:
I just found out that I have two semi-relatives (brothers) who did their MBA's at INSEAD (the campus in Fontainbleu). They are from Europe, though they both did undergrad degrees in the U.S. Anyway, they both have very good jobs and are quite successful. I'm sure that means you will be, too. I'm glad your beginning is going well, because it was wonderful seeing Matt for a couple of days!
Hey Mel! Glad to hear the program is starting out so well. It sounds like it will be a lot of work but a lot of interesting work:-) How cool to study with people from all over the world. Glad you found your kitty too!
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