To B or not to B?

I attended an Insead marketing event last night. The goal was to find out more about the school, and since I went in there with pretty much no knowledge except that it was located in France (and I was only half right about that), it was pretty easy to sucessfully achieve that goal. 

Condensed version of what I found out:

1. Two campuses: Fontainebleau, France (about an hour outside of Paris), and Singapore

2. Fees: €50k 

3. Program duration: 1 year

4. Enrollment: Just above 900 per year spread over 2 intakes in January and September.

5. What makes it stand out: Students come from more than 70 different countries, making it arguably the most diverse business school in the top 10. Feels like UWC all over again.

I found the Q&A session to be particularly interesting, more because it illuminated the type of Malaysian who bothered to attend information sessions like these rather than because I got to find out more about the school. There were the usual questions on minimum GMAT score and such, but the most amusing question of the night was this - Does Malay count as a language?

One of the four major criteria of Insead's selection process is a person's international background - they want to know if you'll be a good fit in such an internationally-focussed school, so if you have a background working/living/studying in different countries, it's a definite plus. Part of that criteria is knowing at least two languages when you enter the program and three when you leave, so the person's question on Bahasa Malaysia's status as a language was, I suppose, a relevant one. 

While reading the furious and frequently verbose but often inane arguments for and against the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English in the papers, I've often wished that the powers that be will just hurry up and decide one way or another. Instead we were told just last week that they are still taking their sweet time to make the decision. In my view, there are so many advantages to teaching the two subjects in English, foremost of which is that it will strengthen Malaysian's grasp of the language, because let's face it, English is the language of the world. 

We have already lost one generation, possibly two, to the government's decision to lower the standard of teaching in the language. Sentences are sometimes so poorly constructed, and the language is so badly mangled that I can't help but wince. Even the English dailies cannot be praised for having flawless English. When I tell foreigners that I'm from Malaysia, they are often surprised at my level of competency in the language. I shudder to think what specimens they have come in contact with to be that shocked by my grasp of the language. 

And for what purpose have we made this sacrifice? Only to ask, at the end of the day, does Malay count as a language?

But I digress. Back to B school. Insead definitely sounds like a good program for me. The international aspect of it appeals to my UWCian soul. Of course to get in is another question entirely. The admit rate isn't published, but I'm sure it will be even more competitive than Princeton was, and that still seems like a fluke to me. Apparently some guy spent a whole year working on his admissions essays. A bit much, don't you think?