First Visit to INSEAD

(21-Aug-2007)

In my first day in France I had some spare time (probably something I am going to miss), so I went with my wife to see INSEAD in my own eyes. The GPS took us right there, and we only had to circle the complex twice to find parking space. Then we walked for half an hour trying to figure out where the main entrance to the building is (that do not require a magnetic card to open).

We finally found it and were very hungry (don’t forget that we didn’t eat anything good in the past 24 hours) so we went straight to the cafeteria (and still we haven’t eaten anything good). We found out that there is free internet there, so refugees as we are we decided to hang around. We spent half an hour to send and receive emails, and I took notes of addresses of banks and telephone companies in Fonty, then we drank a crappie cup of coffee and even worse sandwiches for 6 Euros (I hope it will not cost as much once I am a student). Also, I hope that INSEAD students don’t eat sandwiches everyday cause I am on a diet.

INSEAD is a bit of a gray place. The buildings are old built with red stones, giving them a New-Yorkish appearance, that someone installed on them a lot of high-tech windows, so it appears almost modern. There are several buildings but the place is not very big. The main building contains several amphis were lectures are taken, and many many cubicles for group study. Also I found lockers for the students, fitness area (with a pool), the cafeteria, and a reception desk where we were issued a temporary visitor tickets. The building is equipped with WiFi, but you must have an INSEAD username and password in order to login (or you can just go to the cafeteria).

We saw that people wore badges, so we asked the receptionist to give us one. We only got a temporary visitor badge for the week, which fell off after a couple of minutes.

The library is the building near the main building. It has a room with copy machines (you must pay by loading your magnetic card) and some payphones.

The campus is surrounded with grass and green, and it is quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. Overall it is built in a way to help the students study all day every day (if in lectures, groups, or alone). It is not as beautiful as Oxford, and not as modern as LBS, but it sure has its grace.