Sample INSEAD MBA Extracurricular Essay: NASA

Insead
Describe all types of extra-professional activities in which you have been or are still involved for a significant amount of time (clubs, sports, music, arts etc). How are you enriched by these activities? (approximately 300 words) *

In the third example, we look at the journey of an applicant who wanted to be an Astronaut from a young age. Following the footsteps of Kalpana Chowla, who had her beginnings at a college that the applicant’s mother went to, she works hard on her physical endurance, Math, and Science. To keep refining her understanding of the subject, she joins her mother’s non-profit to teach underprivileged children in the Slums of Mumbai. A solution that she builds is an achievement that she highlights for the narrative.

While the applicant was meticulously groomed to be an astronaut, a health development puts an end to her career ambition. The second half of the essay is about the alternative career and a problem that she solved that could only have happened because of her scientific thinking, developed through her numerous hours with the non-profit.

Sample Essay 3: Extra-Curricular and How enriched you are (292 Words) (NASA and Scientific Thinking)

I wanted to be an Astronaut. My mother encouraged me and pasted photos of Kalpana Chowla on my bedroom wall with a marker highlighting each of her milestones by Age. Knowing that she had humble beginnings from Punjab Engineering College, my mother’s alma mater, I began working diligently on my physical endurance, math, and science acumen. Joining my mother as a Teaching assistant for her non-profit, I began teaching students from Grade 5th  to 8th  in the Slums of Mumbai. Through explaining concepts in Algebra, Numerical System, Geometry, and Probability, I could revisit the concepts. While mentoring them, I learned that acquiring water was the biggest distraction from their study time. By developing a

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Download the Complete INSEAD MBA Extra-curricular Essay and 19 Sample INSEAD MBA Essays

 

F1GMAT's INSEAD MBA Essay Guide

Question 1: Provide a summary of your career since graduating from university, explaining the rationale behind your key decisions and career progression. Include a description of your current (or most recent) role, covering the scope of your work, major responsibilities, employees under your supervision, budget size, clients/products, and any notable results achieved. (500 words)

Question 2: Describe your short and long-term career aspirations, including your target geography, industry, and function. How do you plan to bridge the gap between your current position and these goals, and how will INSEAD help you achieve them? (300 words)

Question 3: Give a candid description of yourself as a person and a leader, emphasising the strengths and weaknesses you recognise in yourself. Explain how you are actively working on your development, sharing key experiences that have shaped you, providing specific examples where relevant. (500 words)

Question 4: Describe a highly stressful situation you faced and how you managed it. What did this experience teach you about yourself and your interactions with others? (400 words)

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About the Author 

Atul Jose

I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.

 

For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.

 

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