A few days ago I received this email from Insead. In a nutshell, it threatened to defer my January admission to September if I was not able to meet their language certification requirement. In nice language, mind you, but deadly serious.
I called to chat, as the email suggested, and spoke with Christina Vincensini. I relayed that I was scheduled to take the DELF and DELE in the next few weeks. She said that she would need my results by November 1. I pointed out that this would be unlikely, given that these tests are scored by the French and Spanish governments respectively. "Then you must come to Fontainebleau and test here," was the response.
This is troubling for a few reasons. The DELF and DELE are only given once or twice a year, usually in the October/November timeframe, so it is reasonable to expect that one could take these exams and use them as proof of language proficiency. Indeed, the Insead Language Policy suggests exactly this possibility. But it seems that you couldn't get accepted and then take the exam, because it would not be scored in time. Likewise, if the qualification was earned more than two years prior to entry, it would not be considered current and would be disallowed. From a student's perspective, this is extremely frustrating. Having paid upwards of $200 in exam fees and now faced with an unexpected trip to France in the next two weeks, it's not the best financial planning that could have occurred.
Ms Vincensini was firm in her denial of my request for a extension. She understood that the timing was less than optimal, but left me only one option to come to France and test there.
So now I am faced with the tests of my life. I have to go to France and prove my competency in French, or Spanish, or face automatic deferral; an amazing spanner in my works.
I called CALV (Insead's designated language center) and spoke with Bente Evans, who is a marvelous woman. She has two children at Insead at this very moment, so she completely understands exactly how I was feeling. We spoke a bit in French and she offered that it was "not unreasonable" that I would pass the exam. Cold comfort, but it's all I have right now.
Manic now, I ran around trying to see if I could sort out flights to France. Luckily, I work for a travel agency, so this was not too difficult. We have people who do just that for a living, after all. I think it will only cost a few hundred dollars in the end (and I might even get to see Reykjavik at last).
Finally, I knew I had to find a tutor, so I jacked into the Net, slid the tiles around until I found a few paths. It wasn't 60 minutes later that I had set up my first tutor session with a native French lass. I love jacking into the Net.
All of this happened in the space of a few hours' time. High stress for something that should not have even happened. Of course, I should have done all this last summer, but I didn't. In the end, perhaps that is the lesson I should learn.
9:25:08 PM 
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