A 7 min read

Spanning 3 different regions of the world with its campuses in Europe (France), Asia (Singapore) and Middle East (Abu Dhabi), INSEAD offers its candidates a truly unique and global experience in business education. In addition to its own campuses, INSEAD also has alliances with several top universities including Wharton, Kellogg, MIT Sloan and many more.

INSEAD calls itself, ‘The Business School for the World’, with a special focus on embracing cultural diversity and varied expertise. The school’s 145+ renowned faculty members come from 40 different countries. Each batch of more than 1400 students is a reflection of a potpourri of talent from various regions, backgrounds, ethnicities and work experiences.

INSEAD does not publish its official acceptance rate. That being said, the school is popularly known to have different acceptance rates for different nationalities, since one of the core philosophies of INSEAD is to have enough diversity in each batch.

Along with a good GMAT score, which plays a crucial role in getting noticed by the admissions committee of any B-school, a robust profile can be a make-or-break parameter for those applying to INSEAD. The institute has many unique and stringent requirements for the admission process, which one should go through before they plan to apply to this distinguished institute.

To be able to determine a good GMAT score for INSEAD, this article will take a look at the past data as well as the data available from the latest applicant pool

Here’s what you will read next:

• 4-year GMAT score trend of INSEAD
• Methodology
• Observation
• Inference
• What is a good GMAT score for INSEAD
• What is a good GMAT score for Indians applying to INSEAD

4-year GMAT score trend of INSEAD

To be able to determine what a good GMAT score for INSEAD could be, it is crucial to look at the available information from the past batches. Here’s a 4-year trend report of average GMAT scores of the incoming classes at INSEAD from the year 2015 to 2018.

Lesser than the average scores for many B-schools ranked below it, INSEAD’s average GMAT score has been in the range of 701 to 711 in the past few years. However, a gradual increase in the scores can be noticed from 2015 to 2018.

In our previous article, we have elaborated in detail a simple 5-step process for figuring out a good score for securing admission in some of the top B-schools in the world.

This process calls for adding 20 points to the average GMAT score of the latest batch. According to this, 730+ seems like a good score for INSEAD. However, to verify this basic derivation, we will empirically analyse data available from the latest applicant pool for the class of 2021.

If you are applying for other top B-schools as well, you might want to take a look at the 5-year GMAT score trend report of 50 top US and European business schools

In the next section, we will try to determine a good GMAT score for INSEAD by making observations and deriving inferences from data available on the scores of applicants, shortlisted candidates and admitted students.

 

Methodology

For the scope of this article we will refer to gmatclub INSEAD decision tracker page. This data has been collated for candidates who have applied to INSEAD’s January Intake class of 2021.

Here’s a quick summary:

 

Observations

• The GMAT score of 710 saw the maximum number of applicants (14)
• Number of admissions seem to be almost evenly distributed in a range of 710 to 750 with an interview rate more than 40% and conversion rate more than 60% in this range
• A score of 740 saw an 80% invite rate and 100% conversion rate (admission to interview rate) with 4 out of 5 applicants securing admission at INSEAD
• While only 4 applicants with a score of 690 applied to INSEAD, 3 of them succeeded in receiving an interview invite and also the final admission offer
• Interview invites have been sent to scores as low as 640. 1 candidate with this score received an invite

 

Inference

• A score in the range of 710 to 750 is a good score for INSEAD with the conversion ratio also being quite high in this range.
• However, nationality, as well as profile, play an important role at INSEAD, which is why we can see a number of interview invites being sent to applicants with scores lower than 710.

For those scoring in the safe range of 710 to 750 (or above), the next step is to differentiate yourself from the rest of the applicant pool.

Feel free to go through one of our previous articles on  10 ways to boost your MBA profile

We go a step further here to take a look at the scores of the waitlisted candidates and see if good GMAT scores make a difference.

From the data available to us, only 4 candidates were waitlisted. 3 of these candidates had a GMAT score 720 or above. But none of the waitlisted candidates were able to receive the admission offer from INSEAD. However, this is not the case always.

For the class of 2020, 2 waitlisted applicants were able to get off the waitlist- both had a score of 730. We can hence see that a good score might be a point of consideration while waitlisting candidates and while considering them for confirmation.

Here are some interesting ways to get off the MBA waitlist

What is a good GMAT score for INSEAD

As mentioned earlier, INSEAD gives a significant amount of weightage to nationality when it comes to creating a balanced batch of students.

Candidates from countries like Israel, Mexico and Vietnam are at an advantage since the applicant pool from these countries is smaller.

On the other hand, candidates from countries like India and China which have a huge applicant pool, have to score much higher to be able to receive an interview call or to finally secure admission at INSEAD. We will talk about a good GMAT score for Indian candidates in the next section.

On the basis of the data discussed above, if we are to give a country-agnostic recommendation, we would suggest a score of 730 as a good GMAT score for INSEAD

 

What is a good GMAT score for Indians applying to INSEAD

For Indians wanting to apply to INSEAD, the road ahead is arduous, to say the least. Coming from an over-represented candidate pool, Indian applicants face a huge challenge in securing admissions in most top B-schools. Moreover, with so many Indians scoring high, the competition becomes even tougher.

Hence, it becomes crucial to analyse the data of Indian candidates separately. Here’s a summary of the GMAT scores of Indians who applied to INSEAD for the incoming class of 2021.

• 13 Indian candidates applied to INSEAD
• 4 received invites with scores 760 (1), 750(2), 730 (1)
• 2 received admits with scores 750 and 730

As is evident, the conversion rate for Indian candidates at INSEAD is extremely low, with only 2 out of 13 applicants being able to receive admission in INSEAD (from the current data).

Also, Indians with a higher GMAT score receive preference over those with a lower score.

The benchmarks being much higher for Indian candidates, a good GMAT score for Indians applying to INSEAD is 750, which is 20 points higher than the country-agnostic score recommended above.

One of our students, Mansi Dhiman, scored 770 on the GMAT and went on to receive admits from 5 top business schools viz. Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, and INSEAD.

If you want to try out the e-GMAT course that helped Mansi score a 770, sign up for our Free Trial. 

We can also help you with a personalized study plan and give you access to quality online content to prepare. Write to us at acethegmat@e-gmat.com. We are the most reviewed GMAT prep company on gmatclub with more than 1840 reviews (as on July 17, 2019).