PhD Programme

The preferred deadline is two weeks before the final application deadline. It gives the admissions team time to check if your application is complete or if you need to provide more information about it. 

On the other hand, if you submit your application on or slightly before the last day of submission, the admissions team will not have enough time to go through your documents and provide feedback. The team will take your application and submit it to the committee members. 

We cannot waive the GMAT or GRE under any circumstances. 

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many applicants are unable to take their GMAT or GRE tests early or in time, given our deadline. If you expect your scores to arrive slightly after the deadline, we encourage you to submit your completed application without the score, on or before the last day of application. On the application form, please leave the scores blank and indicate the future test date of your GMAT or GRE. However, ensure you submit your test-taker score report the week after the application deadline. 

Test-taker score reports that become available after we have submitted them to the committee for their review but before they finalise the admissions decisions will still be passed along for consideration. Suppose your application is still incomplete due to the absence of the test given the current circumstances and denied admission. In that case, we will not count it toward the programme’s lifetime limit of two applications per applicant. Note that the programme also accepts the home or online tests of GMAT or GRE, offered as an alternative during these challenging times. Please visit their respective websites for the latest updates for this type of test. 

The INSEAD PhD automatically waives the TOEFL test if applicants whose native language is not English have a university degree from an institution where the curriculum's medium of instruction is English. With a degree taught primarily in English, applicants are automatically exempt from the TOEFL requirement. Applicants leave the TOEFL section blank and submit their degree transcripts as proof of waiver. 

We recommend you take the GMAT or GRE test by the end of November. The availability of official scores varies between the two tests. GMAT is available within 20 days of the exam, while GRE sends it to us approximately 10-15 days after your test date. Thus, we recommend you plan your test dates carefully so that the scores reach us before the January deadline.  

As mentioned, if you have already finished and completed your application but still waiting to take the test in December, you can submit your application first sans the test. Please indicate your future test date in the test section, and based on that, we will note when to expect your scores. 

There's no cut-off point for either exam, and there is a wide range of accepted scores. We base our selection on the applicant's general profile, academic background, and faculty preferences, and test scores are only one component of the many factors considered. Perfect scores do not guarantee admission, and lower-than-average scores will not invalidate your candidacy. Thus, we encourage all interested prospects to submit their application, regardless of the standardised test score.

Applicants can submit their online applications without the GMAT or GRE test. However, the standardised test is a mandatory requirement. Therefore, applicants must indicate when they are taking the test in the future and before the application deadline. 

In the test scores section, applicants indicate their future test date while leaving the scores blank. Once they take the test and get hold of their test-taker score report, applicants must send the PDF copy of the scores to phd.info[at]insead.edu while we wait for the officials scores to reach us. We will replace the test-taker score reports once we receive the official scores from the test administrators.

The PhD Admissions Office will send to the PhD Committee any standardised score reports that become available after we submit the application files and before the committee finalises their decision. Then the committee will review these applications again once they receive the scores. Thus, we strongly encourage applicants to follow up with the test administrators on the availability of their scores and send them immediately to the PhD Office once available.  

We accept TOEFL iBT Home Edition, GRE ® General Test at home and GMAT Online Exam. Please check with GMAC and ETS on the tests' terms and conditions and availability in your city.

To send your scores to INSEAD PhD, use the following codes: 3244* (GRE/INSEAD's PhD in France), 7324* (GRE/INSEAD's PhD in Singapore) and DL3-S8-08 (GMAT). TOEFL code is 3244. The validity of scores: GMAT or GRE - not more than five years old; TOEFL - not more than two years old. *If you are applying to either campus and taking the GRE test, please indicate only one institution code. We have access to both.

Applicants can submit the online application without the open one-way interview. However, the committee will consider the online application and the recorded one-way interview during the review and admissions process. Therefore, we strongly encourage applicants to submit both.

Visit https://inse.ad/phd/admissions page for the submission deadline of both online applications and recorded interviews.

The online application deadline is in the first week of January. To view the latest deadlines, please go to https://inse.ad/phd/admissions. 

Please note that once you submit your online application and supporting documents, you will receive a confirmation email with the URL to access the open one-way interview. The deadline for the recorded interview is only a few days after the online application deadline. Thus, we encourage you to submit your online application a week before the last day of submission to give you ample time to do your recorded one-way interview. 

We do not require applicants to contact faculty before admissions to discuss their application or research interests in the hope of securing a research supervisor. 

INSEAD faculty receive hundreds of emails from prospective students and regret that they cannot respond to all. Moreover, faculty advisors are chosen by the Academic Director, after admission, during the first year. In the second, PhD students can select their advisors. As such, prospective applicants are encouraged to learn about faculty and their research through area and faculty pages.   

The Open One-Way Interview is an additional requirement for your PhD application. Applicants answer a series of three questions that will help the committee better understand the applicant and their potential to engage in high-quality research.