The final exam has just ended. People are streaming into the school bar, congratulating each other. Some even start hugging their friends and bidding teary farewells. A typical bunch of graduating MBA students, you say? Not quite. That was the scene played out last month when we finished Period 2, only four months into our ten-month MBA.

• Read more about Choosing INSEAD’s MBA for its Global Identity

A week after graduation, I still don’t feel like leaving campus. I’m literally writing this post in a breakout room reminiscing the past few days. Friends, academics, recruitment, trips, parties and so on. Looking back, one of the best decisions I made was about where to start my MBA journey.

• Read more about Maison Royale: Our Beloved Home Away From Home

I am writing these lines sitting on a plane. I am flying back home for Christmas, and I look strange bringing a winter coat on top of my luggage in the humid, 30-degree Singaporean weather. When the aircraft took off, I mentally reviewed the last 12 months. What a year.

• Read more about The Legacy of the MBA and the Importance of a Fit Mind.

Part two is written onboard EK355 from Singapore to Dubai, on my way to France. So excited to start my journey with the school! This post will focus specifically on the INSEAD application process, and the preparation that I did.

• Read more about The INSEAD Application

P4 has been quite a different experience at INSEAD. Now that things are a bit calmer I can finally take a step back and see the bigger picture. Recruiting time. It's something that you can actually feel in the air.

• Read more about The Light at the End of the Recruiting (T)Funnel

Writing this on board of GA821 from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, I am filled with both sadness and excitement. I'm sad that I left the family I built in KL, but excited to go back to school soon. This post is also intended to help me sort out my thoughts and hopefully help you in one way or another. In the following blog, I'll focus on my career journey and why I opted to do an MBA at INSEAD. 

• Read more about From Tech to Start-up, Consulting and Finally, an MBA?!

International motivation is listed as one of the criteria for being admitted into the INSEAD MBA programme. But what does it actually mean? How do you actually prove such a thing? International motivation is one of the things I like to talk about, as it is key to the mission of INSEAD, bringing together people, cultures and ideas to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society.

• Read more about What is International Motivation?

A Bellifontain is an inhabitant of Fontainebleau, the small French town where INSEAD is located, and part of the MBA experience is about adjusting to life here – not exactly French life, but Bellifontain life, which is a very particular subset of the French culture. As the seasons change, let’s say you are an authentic Bellifontain when: You complain that there is nothing to do in Fontainebleau, but your schedule is always full.

• Read more about You Are an Authentic Bellifontain When…

The project to run and track our collective progress via an app first started as an effort to keep the GEMBA19 cohort together when physically apart, and to help get us into better shape (fit body, fit mind). We also wanted to showcase our diversity and lastly, but most importantly, to be a force for good. 

• Read more about None of Us Is as Good as All of Us!

1. Do your homework. Check out the school and the programme curriculum on the website and be prepared to explain why you chose INSEAD, why this programme interests you, and how it can help you to achieve your career goals. Make a checklist of key features and dates so you don’t get it mixed up with another institution and end up talking to Stanford about INSEAD’s campus in Singapore! Choose the information you will post on your own social media profile wisely. You have checked out their website, chances are they will check out your profile too.

• Read more about Interviewing for a Top Business School? Here's My Advice