Making My Way to INSEAD
Hey there! I feel it will be a good idea to briefly introduce myself before I start my blog. My name is Sona, an Indian living in a small country on the coasts of Persian Gulf, Qatar for the past four years. Like many other people, I had an opportunity to visit Europe two years back during an amazing short trip with friends. But now, it’s for the first time that I am living in Europe for the long term starting this fall as I got accepted at INSEAD to pursue my MBA.
My journey to INSEAD has been a long one. I spent around two months preparing for GMAT and that’s when I had decided to apply to INSEAD. Spending long evenings reflecting on my life journey and finding a fit with the school through its values, I submitted my application and got to interview at my location with school alumni. I must admit that INSEAD interviews are very conversational and make you feel comfortable.
After a long wait, I got my acceptance call and it was so surreal that I could hardly hear anything after the phrase “You have been accepted at INSEAD”.
The journey from then to now (three days into programme) has been amazing and I already feel completely immersed into life at INSEAD.
I arrived in Fontainebleau a week back; it’s a pretty town surrounded by forests. Weather is just perfect now to fall in love with the place. There are great options for hiking, bouldering etc. in the forest. I spent the first couple of days getting to know the place, stocking up on groceries and meeting people with whom I have been interacting with on Whatsapp group chats so far. It feels almost like meeting old friends again. There are 302 students in my batch on the Fonty campus from different countries and cultures. I think of INSEAD as a mini world having representatives from all countries. In my opinion, one can’t find a better place to learn and experience so much in such a short span of time.
As people come from all corners of the world, visiting the place just to find an accommodation in person wouldn’t be practical and hence, house owners have kept the process very easy for students and their families. The pictures of the house can be checked through websites or via emails and the bookings can be made online by signing the housing contract. Generally, in the first two periods, many people prefer to live in shared houses so that they get familiar with each other and have some great time hosting dinners and parties with friends. Some people go for individual housing also as per their personal choice. I live in Maison Royale which is a beautiful house shared by nice people, with all facilities and is a short 10 minutes’ walk from the campus. We have already had a house dinner which was an amazing experience for all of us. People living far from the campus can opt to have a car or a bicycle.
A very important aspect I want to cover in this blog about MBA education is financing the course fee. I can’t emphasise more on how easy and smooth my loan application process has been with Prodigy Finance. For people coming from countries where banks have several conditions to sign an education loan, prodigy finance is like a boon taking away all your problems. After submitting the loan application and all required documents online, the loan amount is approved and disbursed to the school directly. One doesn’t need to visit any office or bank even once and I think that’s the biggest advantage of this whole procedure.
With lots of hope and excitement, I am looking forward to a great journey at INSEAD and will be back to share tons of my experiences about the program in my next blog.
