Succeeding in Grenoble École de Management's parallel admission exam isn't decided by the academic file alone: the cover letter and the admission interview carry significant weight in the jury's final decision, often more than candidates focused on their test scores realize.
What the GEM jury looks for
According to the official terms of the AST exam published by Grenoble École de Management 🔗, admission relies on an application file completed by an oral motivation interview. The jury isn't looking for a letter reciting the school's institutional positioning, but a demonstration that the candidate understands what sets GEM apart from another business school - its focus on tech and managerial innovation, its finance and data specializations - and can connect that positioning to their own career project.
A letter that could be sent as-is to any other Parisian or regional school fails to convince, even when the academic substance is strong. The jury reviews hundreds of files every year and quickly spots generic applications.
Building a convincing letter
An effective cover letter for the GEM AST exam generally follows a three-part structure: the background that justifies the application (education, relevant experience), why Grenoble EM specifically (a specialization, a partnership, a project-based teaching approach), and a career goal that shows genuine reflection rather than a vague "I want to work in business."
Avoiding generic phrases like "rigorous and motivated" without backing them up with a specific fact - a quantified student project, an internship with a measurable result - often makes the difference between a letter that gets lost in the pile and one that stands out. Recommended length stays short: one page is more than enough for a jury handling a large volume of applications.
💡 To build a complete and coherent application, our example of a parallel admission resume for Grenoble École de Management explains how to structure education, internships, and digital skills on the resume that accompanies this letter.
Questions asked at the interview
The oral motivation interview at Grenoble EM takes the form of an individual interview, generally paired with an English test. Questions most often cover the candidate's background (why this initial education, why this internship), their knowledge of the school (specializations, teaching format, student life), and their medium-term career project.
More unexpected questions, on economic news or a managerial innovation topic, may also come up to test the candidate's ability to react beyond a prepared speech.
Example answer
To the question "why Grenoble École de Management rather than another school?", an effective answer avoids listing rankings and favors a concrete connection: "I'm particularly interested in the finance-data crossover that GEM offers, notably through [a specific specialization or partnership identified beforehand]. My internship in management control showed me the growing importance of data visualization tools in finance roles, and I want to deepen this dual skill set in an environment that explicitly values it."
This answer ties a concrete experience of the candidate to a specific element of the school, which demonstrates real preparation rather than a generic memorized pitch.
Common interview mistakes
⚠️ Watch out: certain mistakes come up repeatedly among AST candidates. Not knowing the school's pedagogical specifics beyond its ranking, reciting a cover letter word for word without any spontaneity, or having no clear answer about your path after the school, are all signals that weaken an otherwise solid application.
The exact terms of the exam - submission dates, interview schedule, application fees - change every session. Always verify up-to-date information directly on the official exam page before finalizing your preparation.
Preparing a cover letter and an interview that present a coherent picture of your project, on top of polishing your academic resume, is a heavy workload right in the middle of exam revisions. FinanceCV lets you generate a structured resume compatible with what parallel admission juries expect, so you can focus your preparation time on the letter and the interview.
Ready to write your cover letter? Use our free tool at /lettre-de-motivation to get a structured document in a few minutes.