Over the past period, I’ve received many comments from family members, friends and blog readers saying I sound like I’m on vacation, and I don’t seem to work hard enough on my studies. An important clarification is therefore in order. I don’t think my blog would be a very interesting read if I described every class and every minute of studying in excruciating details. Rather, I prefer to write about travel, parties and other random adventures.
The grading system in INSEAD is unlike what I’ve experienced in other schools. Grades for core courses are relative and normalized. The average of every class is 2.5, with a standard deviation of 1. If you are below three standards deviations from the average (-0.5) you fail and must retake the class.
To graduate “with distinction” on the Dean’s List, you GPA must be above 3.35. You are not allowed to discuss grades with employers on campus, nor are they allowed to ask for them. The only thing you are allowed to say is that you are on the Dean’s List, which may or may not be of any value for prospective employers. Either way, most employers don’t care about grades in graduate school, especially in management.
I did pretty well in all classes. Therefore, I am happy with the outcome of P1.
2 comments:
Is "leading people and groups" similar to Organizational Behavior? Good grief, I hated that class ...
I'm curious ... what do you think about the value of a one-year MBA as opposed to a two-year MBA? I had not heard of a one-year MBA, so I don't know a whole lot about it. It sounds interesting though.
Indeed, LPG is an OB class. A large part of the grade is group work with common grades. It’s quite subjective, and was not my favourite either.
Interesting question about one-year versus two-year MBAs.. Obviously, if I did not believe in one-year programmes, I would not have signed up at INSEAD. If you look at the credit-hours, a one-year programme such as INSEAD is very comparable to traditional two-year programmes, but is much more intense. Three classes a day is the norm, rather than the exception, and the sleep/study trade-off is a daily dilemma. The one-year programme is pretty standard outside North America.
Since I have an undergrad in business, I was looking for a specific skill set from an MBA, and the INSEAD one-year programme fit my profile well. Also, you only forgo one year of salary, and cut the living expenses by two, which is another substantial point to take into consideration.
One of the big downsides of the doing a one-year programme is that they usually don’t offer summer internships, which are key to secure jobs in certain industries.
This issue has been beaten to death on the www.businessweek.com message boards, so you can refer to these if you’re interested in finding out more.
Thanks for reading.
Olivier
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