INSEAD held their open day in Fontainebleau for the incoming class of 2008 this year. It was a great first taste of what the next year will be like….10% of the time learning, 90% networking. Hopefully I can get that ratio to balance out a bit when the real courses come. Open Day should have been more aptly called Open Weekend. Those who had arrived by Friday evening were invited out to a pretty decent Italian meal with a few current students. The dinner was not part of the official agenda, but nonetheless, it was covered by INSEAD. A very nice gesture I thought…I know, I know, we pay for it through ridiculous tuition. But it is nice to see some of it coming back in unexpected ways.
Several students then found their way to the big party thrown by the existing students to mark the end of British/ Irish week. Seems that DomoDomo caught some the same debauchery the rest of us saw (I love the random photo of some chick's chest!). It was a fantastic time! I am starting to think that I need to revisit my MBA budget to take into account all of these theme parties. Thanks to the organizers who made sure all of us newbies were able to get in and witness the more fun half of the legendary work hard / play hard culture at INSEAD.
The official Open Day was Saturday. It was an exhausting morning & afternoon of information sessions broken up by moments when everyone would try to meet as many of the fellow attendees as possible. The student mix was amazing. One of the speakers said it very perfectly….you know you belong at INSEAD when someone asks you where you are from and you start by saying “well, it’s a bit complicated”. It was also great to see so many partners in attendance…40 of them to be exact. Unfortunately they were treated to an exceptionally poor information session put on by two of the current spouses living in Fonty. I would have hoped the school would have done a better job screening out the spouses who would describe a typical day as “sleeping in as long as possible so there is less time to kill”. I think most partners who planned on joining their other half at INSEAD realized that they would be able to make much more of the experience if they wanted. All in all, everyone I spoke with came away from the weekend more excited than ever to start the year. I certainly am.
After the festivities this weekend, my (non-trailing) partner legitimately asked me if I was going to pay 50k EUR and not take the learning seriously. Well of course I am, but the real challenge is to find the proper balance. I think I really need to spend the next few months defining exactly what it is I want to get out of the 10 month INSEAD program. Without a game plan, I think it will be exceedingly easy to get swept away and end up paying too much for a long vacation from work and a nice name on the CV.
Several students then found their way to the big party thrown by the existing students to mark the end of British/ Irish week. Seems that DomoDomo caught some the same debauchery the rest of us saw (I love the random photo of some chick's chest!). It was a fantastic time! I am starting to think that I need to revisit my MBA budget to take into account all of these theme parties. Thanks to the organizers who made sure all of us newbies were able to get in and witness the more fun half of the legendary work hard / play hard culture at INSEAD.
The official Open Day was Saturday. It was an exhausting morning & afternoon of information sessions broken up by moments when everyone would try to meet as many of the fellow attendees as possible. The student mix was amazing. One of the speakers said it very perfectly….you know you belong at INSEAD when someone asks you where you are from and you start by saying “well, it’s a bit complicated”. It was also great to see so many partners in attendance…40 of them to be exact. Unfortunately they were treated to an exceptionally poor information session put on by two of the current spouses living in Fonty. I would have hoped the school would have done a better job screening out the spouses who would describe a typical day as “sleeping in as long as possible so there is less time to kill”. I think most partners who planned on joining their other half at INSEAD realized that they would be able to make much more of the experience if they wanted. All in all, everyone I spoke with came away from the weekend more excited than ever to start the year. I certainly am.
After the festivities this weekend, my (non-trailing) partner legitimately asked me if I was going to pay 50k EUR and not take the learning seriously. Well of course I am, but the real challenge is to find the proper balance. I think I really need to spend the next few months defining exactly what it is I want to get out of the 10 month INSEAD program. Without a game plan, I think it will be exceedingly easy to get swept away and end up paying too much for a long vacation from work and a nice name on the CV.
3 comments:
Hog, I feel you on the 10 month vacation bit. Look at it this way, though: one of the reasons you're going to INSEAD is for the exposure to ideas/fields/jobs you'd never otherwise think about.
Who knows; at the end of P5, we could both be Maserati F1 test drivers...man, I want that guy's job.
Man - I envy you being able to attend the open day. So far, let alone attending the open day, I haven't even managed to meet fellow admits in Boston/NYC. These posts already make me really want to start off tomorrow ;)
I'm starting at INSEAD in January 2008 and came across your blog by accident in a Google Search on "Open Day".
Seems you like the social life there. I would have assumed it to be pretty weak, given that going out and drinking/partying in a student body that is some 22% female sounds like the world's biggest sausage fest.
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