Parallel admission to ESSCA relies on two oral exams - a 30 to 45 minute motivation interview and a 15 to 20 minute English oral - which follow the review of your application file. Unlike a typical job interview, the panel mainly assesses the fit between your background, the Grande École program and your professional project. Preparing for it without understanding these specific expectations is the surest way to fail an otherwise accessible admission.
What the ESSCA panel expects
According to information published on the official ESSCA website 🔗, the motivation interview checks the consistency between your prior background (preparatory class, vocational degree, bachelor's), the content of the Grande École program, and your career goals. The panel doesn't expect a fixed career plan, but a well-argued line of reasoning: why ESSCA rather than another school, why a parallel admission rather than another path, and what you intend to do with the remaining two to three years of the program.
Admission runs through the Concours ACCÈS 🔗, shared by ESSCA, ESDES and IÉSEG for parallel admissions - worth knowing, since some panel questions test your understanding of the network and each school's specific positioning.
A standard structure for the letter
Before the oral exam, your application file includes a cover letter that acts as a throughline for the interview - the panel often uses it to build its questions:
- Opening: your current background and the precise reason driving a parallel admission.
- Coherence of your project: the link between your prior education and ESSCA's specializations (finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, international).
- Why ESSCA specifically: a differentiating element (campus, specialization, international dimension) rather than a generic line that would fit any business school.
- Mid-term career project: a realistic goal, consistent with your background, without sounding like a plan set in stone since childhood.
Questions asked during the oral
The most frequent questions reported by candidates and prep organizations cover:
- Your background: why you chose your initial field of study, why you're changing direction now.
- Your knowledge of the school: program, specializations, student life, international dimension.
- Your professional project: target sector, intended role, and how it fits the program.
- A case study or current economic topic, to assess your reasoning skills on the spot rather than your technical knowledge.
- Your strengths and areas for improvement, a classic question that tests your self-assessment skills.
Example of a well-argued answer
Question: "Why a parallel admission to ESSCA rather than an M1 at your current university?"
Answer: "My Master 1 in business law gave me a solid legal foundation, but my career project - working in corporate finance at a firm or a finance department - requires a dual competency in numbers and strategy that my current program doesn't cover. ESSCA's corporate finance specialization and international footprint match this goal directly, while letting me build on my two years of law rather than starting from scratch."
This answer works because it ties a concrete fact (the M1 content) to a precise project, without disparaging the original degree - a reflex panels tend to value.
💡 Go further: our article on the ESSCA parallel admission CV explains how to structure the written file that accompanies this letter and sets up the interview.
Mistakes to avoid in the interview
⚠️ Warning, these mistakes come up often among parallel admission candidates and weaken an otherwise solid application:
- An overly vague career project ("I don't know yet, I'll see"), which suggests a fallback application.
- Poor knowledge of the ESSCA program beyond its ranking, when the panel expects precise knowledge of the specializations and how the program is run.
- Disparaging your prior education, which raises doubts about the coherence of your path rather than highlighting it.
- Preparing only for the letter, while neglecting the English oral, which weighs just as much in the panel's decision.
- Missing concrete examples to back up the qualities you claim (rigor, autonomy, teamwork).
Once your argument is solid, don't let a poorly formatted CV or letter undermine your preparation: FinanceCV automatically structures your application file so it stays readable and professional, a detail the panel notices as much as the content.
Ready to prepare your parallel admission file? Write your cover letter for free in a few minutes.