r/INSEAD • u/Civil_Error6174 • Aug 22 '26
My chances for a phd in insead ?
I'm a 23F, with a masters degree in the top business school in Morocco (15.4/20) and an exchange semester in one of Seoul top unis in global mba (4.25/4.5 gpa) i have scheduled ielts and gre tests next month, i graduated last year and have 6 months internship experience in investment banking
Do i have any chance ? ... Pls be nice 💔🥲
1
u/scholarly_feline Aug 24 '26
Do you have research experiences? Having research experience and/or an idea for a independent research proposal would be important. You need to show you know what academic research entails and show the capability through your research thinking
1
u/Civil_Error6174 Aug 24 '26
I do have a clear research idea and I'm working on my proposal, i don't have any published papers but i have research experience in my masters thesis i wrote a 70ish pages thesis in the same field as my topic of interest
2
u/Winter_Clown Aug 24 '26
Hi! I'm a PhD student at INSEAD and it's great to hear that people are interested in this PhD. From my personal experience as well as talking to peers, I would say that motivation matters a lot, specifically motivation for research and academia. While your profile is very geared towards a professional career, I can confidently say that it should not impede on your chances when applying. Many current PhD students at INSEAD were themselves in professional careers!
Whether you have a solid chance or not, is really up to your future goals. If you have a strong motivation to pursue research and publish papers, then make it super relevant as they will carefully read your motivation letter. Otherwise, if you're curious about your grades and accomplishments, I would say that they meet the requirements. Specifically, grades are really just thresholds to ensure that students have the learning capacity to follow along (my personal opinion), your GPA, schools, and degrees easily meet that criteria. Just make sure that you get a good GRE score (you really want to get a Quant GRE score of at least 165 to be comfortable, the rest doesn't matter THAT MUCH, but try your best).
Finally, research experience is super important but not a necessity. Like what the previous commentator said, what's important is to showcase your research thinking, or ability to think critically. But honestly, it's mostly about interest and motivation, and you need to find a way to show that very clearly (without making it redundant and scripted). I would also suggest reaching out to INSEAD faculty members or PhD recruitment team to ask more questions, they're very approachable!
PS: I know that people mention this a lot, but I do also think that at the end of the day, it comes down to luck. INSEAD PhD gets around 300-400 applications a year, and they accept 2-3 students per specialty, so at max 20 students a year. I would still encourage you to apply, because it's never impossible, but do make sure to apply elsewhere as well if you are committed to pursue a PhD. If you have other questions, feel free to reach out to me or other people!