The incoming Class of 2017 at INSEAD features more than 70 nationalities seemingly reinforcing its claim to be the “business school for the world”.
But there is hardly any “dominant” nationality. Americans and Indians have the highest representation at 9% each followed by and French and Chinese students at 7% each with Canadians coming third at 6%.
Even 93% of the faculty is from outside France. They are also highly qualified with 97% having doctorates.
With the business school’s insistence on students being fluent in at least two languages and learning a third by graduation, the Class of 2017 has, apart from English as the medium of instruction, French, Arabic, Hindi and Portuguese among the most common spoken languages.
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The class is also diverse in terms of passions and occupations of the participants. Evegenia Armstrong from Russia with master’s degrees in law and finance, is into skydiving.
Serban Dick, who worked with PwC in London and Papua New Guinea, has done night diving in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Hila Shabtai had served in the Israeli Army as the first ever female commander of a reserve company prior to her stints at KPMG and Procter & Gamble.
Yet not all of them are great outdoor people. Ivo Vassilev with deep interest in arts and spiritual quests wants to pursue a career in Finance. Having recorded three songs, he is also a theatre actor and sometimes writes poetry. Claudia Kampel, a classical guitarist, is into management consultancy.
The average GMAT score of Class of 2017 moved up by three points to 708 from the previous year. Women’s representation at 30% was the same as in the previous batch.
Following the same trend as in previous years, undergraduate business and engineering majors comprise the majority of the class, at 31% and 28% respectively. They were followed by economics (12%), sciences (8%), law and political sciences (6%), and humanities and the arts (6%).
In terms of professional experience, consultants at 28% are up 2% from the previous years. The corporate sector forms the biggest chunk at 40% followed by financial services (21%) and technology, media, and telecommunications (11%).
Meanwhile, INSEAD’s MBA became the first one-year programme to reach the number one spot in the Global MBA Ranking 2016 of the Financial Times.
With campuses in France and Singapore, the school is ranked fifth for international course experience. Its alumni are also ranked third for international mobility.
The 2015 graduates saw their starting base salaries go up from $89,400 to $107,100, with sign on bonuses increasing from $19,400 to $23,000 in the process.