Calling all ISB Applicants - (2017 Intake) Class of 2018

ISB has released deadlines and essay topics for class entering in 2017.

Cycle 1 deadline is 15 Oct 2016 and Cycle 2 deadline is 15 jan 2017.


Here are the essay topics

Essay 1: If we were to admit just one more candidate to the Postgraduate Programme (PGP) at the ISB, why should it be you? (400 words max)

Essay 2: Describe your your short and long term career plans. How does the PGP fit in with those? (300 words max)

Essay 3: Please use this space to provide any other information not covered elsewhere in the application that could significantly impact your candidature at ISB. Note: It is not necessary for you to write this essay. Please use this space only if there is something really significant that you would like us to know.
(200 words max)

Essay 3 is optional. Pls note that re-applicants have to write an additional essay.


Apphelp Team

Hi Guys, Just wanted to let you know that we have posted a detailed analysis of admission trends at ISB and acceptance chances of applicants. Do take a look at the analysis and feel free to put your observations in this thread. calling-all-isb-applicants-2017-intake-class-of-217553.html#p1678894

Good luck to all!!

Hi Guys,

ISB has started accepting GRE scores, any idea what score range will they look at and how will they compare GRE score to GMAT score?

Any information would be appreciated.

The acceptance rates of Round1 vs Round2 seems counter intuitive. Do we have any information on the number of students admitted in each round? Percentages have a way of obscuring information.

Number of applicants is given at the bottom of the chart. Using that figure and acceptance rate we can figure out number of admits. 162 were accepted in R1 and 144 in R2

Take a look at this for R1 vs R2 fight

https://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2013 ... dmissions/

A substantial number of B-school aspirants always deliberate on which round to apply to. This mass always wonders which of the rounds holds the maximum probability of getting in the desired B-school. ISB has 2 rounds of admissions each year. The school gets a chance to interact with as many applicants as it can and choose only the best in class. ISB makes it a point to intake the same proportion of diversity in both these rounds.

This article uncovers various facts around admissions to ISB.
Fact 1: You have to introspect and think through your present professional life. If the much awaited promotion or recognition will happen only after or around round 1 deadline, then you are better-off to apply in round 2. The recognition/promotion gives you another talking point in your application essays.

Fact 2: If ISB is your dream school and you have strong professional, academics and extra-curricular experiences then it makes sense to secure a seat early on and relieve yourself off the pressure to wait till the very end. Round 1 is for you here.

Fact 3: If you are meritorious or in need for a scholarship then apply in round 1. Although ISB will give you lot of opportunities to apply for scholarships throughout the year, most of these scholarships are exhausted in round 1 itself. The scholarships offered in round 1 cover majority of the tuition fees.

Fact 4: If you dream of other B-school than ISB but would like to pursue an MBA in the upcoming session anyhow, then you may apply in round 2. You can optimize the intake rounds to the maximum and to your advantage. Your dream school should be priority 1 and thus apply there in round 1. Thereon. keep on decreasing the priority based to the desire of getting into the B-school. The priority should evaluate to the round that you should apply into. This gives you a chance to wait for a final offer from the choice of your school while not missing on other options.

Fact 5: Application essays are the most time consuming part of your entire application. Hence, irrespective of the round, it is advisable to start with the essays early on. If your essays do not reflect or thought process and the round 1 deadline is approaching fast then defer your application. A well-laid down essay structure is always better.

Fact 6: In case of reapplication, you should know why your application was rejected in the previous attempt. For the feedback you could either get back to the school or take help from professional consultants. Once you are clear on the reasons for not making it to ISB, you may like to talk about the major improvements in you since the last time you applied. The above mentioned facts apply to reapplicants too. Hence the reapplicants should also look at where they are in their career trajectory and may like to apply in round 1 if things are positive.

I got this from the ISB wikipedia page :

"However, because ISB PGP is not recognized as MBA or Post Graduate Degree/Diploma by AICTE unlike the PGDM offered by the IIMs, authorities outside India do not recognize ISB PGP as an equivalent of MBA and hence do not consider the same as Advanced degree. As an illustration, someone who has a four years bachelor's degree and one year ISB PGP would still be considered a Bachelor's degree holder by US Citizenship and Immigration Services for US Visa and Green Card purposes."

Is this true?

It's true and the reason behind it is that AICTE doesn't approve of one-year management degree which ISB offers. There are also some top Bschools that are on AICTE's unapproved list such as ITM, Great Lakes, ICFAI, and Amity. I don't think this impacts ISB greatly because it has already got global accreditation called AACSB.
*Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home ... 975374.cms
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home ... 151176.cms

ISB Admission Facts (Stated by ISB Admission Officers and Students)

In last two years we conducted many live Q&A sessions on GMATClub with ISB's admission team and students. I am posting here compilation of important comments of ISB adcoms and students made during these chats. I think this information will provide useful insights into ISB's admission process and hope that applicants will find it useful.

Admissions

• The evaluation process is holistic. All aspects of your profile are taken in to consideration. There is nothing which will just get you in; neither absence of something will get you straight rejection.
  
• GMAT, GPA, Academics, Leadership potential and Personal attributes all carry roughly the same weight.
  
• There’s no definite number of applicants that ISB admits in any application round. It depends on number of applications received.
  
• Acceptance rates typically remain same for all groups; that’s why ISB has 70% engineers in the class. Typically class at ISB mirrors the applicant pool.
  
• Both, Hyderabad and Mohali, campuses are at an equal footing, and the experience is exactly the same at both campuses.
  
• Students can indicate their preferences for campus, but since the allocation of campuses is done through an algorithm, ISB can’t guarantee you the admission at your preferred campus.
  
• For Reapplicants, Essays submitted last year will not be compared with the essays submitted in current year.
  
• While selecting recommenders, make sure your recommender has closely worked with you. He/She should be able to comment on your work, should know you well professionally. Don’t just go by designations.
  
• There is no management quota at ISB.
  
• ISB360 (Android itunes) is very useful app to get insider view on the ISB experience.

Program

• ISB’s 1 year program is a condensed form of a standard 2 year program. The actual classroom contact hours at ISB are 680 vs 720 in a typical 2 year program. Trade off of 40 hours is fair given you save a year.
  
• ISB’s PGP is an intense full time residential programme. Working part time during the program is extremely difficult due to rigorous curriculum and class schedules.
  
• Teaching method at ISB is mostly case based, boosted with experiential learning.

GMAT, GPA, Work Experience, AGE, and Extracurriculars

• There’s no cutoff for GMAT score to apply to ISB. Though higher GMAT score helps, there have been examples of students admitted with 640 GMAT score.
  
• Multiple GMAT attempts doesn’t hurt your application. In case of multiple GMATs, highest score is taken into consideration.
  
• There’s no cutoff for work experience to apply to ISB, but 2 years of experience is must to start a class at ISB. Also quality of work experience is more important than quantity.
  
• One can apply to ISB with <2 years of work experience under early entry option, but a deferred admission will be granted.
  
• All kind of experience after graduation is counted. ISB doesn’t discriminate between experience types. Family, startup etc are all fine.
  
• International exposure is welcomed but not mandatory. 30% of applicants at ISB have international exposure.
  
• ISB looks at all academic scores from 12th onwards, but no any cutoffs whatsoever.
  
• When you mention your extracurricular activities or social work in the application, you are not required to produce its proof to admission committee; ISB trusts whatever you write about extracurriculars in the application.

Interview

• While preparing for interviews go through your application and prepare for possible questions. ISB will evaluate you on your strengths, not weaknesses.

School Culture and Campus life

• Job opportunities for spouses are available on campus.
  
• There are 29 student clubs at ISB, professional and social combined.

Career Development

• ISB provides excellent opportunities for those who want to make career transition. Roughly 75% of students shift industry or function or both.
  
• Placement process is campus agnostic, served via a portal. Students are not allowed to write campus on resume, nor is it shared with recruiters.
  
• ISB is best known for consulting and technology although there are ample opportunities for other fields as well.
  
• ISB has been very focused on entrepreneurship from inception. It has PAEV, Design lab incubator, and offer major in entrepreneurship.
  
• ISB promotes students becoming entrepreneurs right after MBA. And that’s where PAEV comes in. PAEV is planning an entrepreneurial venture course.

Chat Transcripts

The post says, on rolling for international applicants.
Does that include Indians living and working outside India?

ISB's portal says the rolling deadline in only for Non-Indian passport holders, so I don't think it is applicable to Indian passport holders living abroad.

Applying this year? Do these five things NOW


If you are considering applying for MBA in Fall 2016, there are quite a few things you can do to enhance your chances of admission.

1. Get good test scores: If you have not taken GMAT yet - this is the best time to prepare and take it. This will leave you with ample time to work on your essays, recommendations and other aspects of your application. In case you have scored below your target score, you might want to consider retaking the test. Here's why:

a. Chances of admission: There is no denying that a good score can help your application considerably. Even if you are not aiming for the top schools (which you totally should), the higher the score, the better your chances. Period. If you belong to certain overrepresented pools of candidates such as Indian Male Engineers, then a higher GMAT becomes even more important.

b. Scholarships: A good score helps you stand out and definitely boosts your chances of getting a substantial scholarship. We have seen several students with 730+ scores (even Indians in the over-represented pool) getting up to 100% scholarships from top B-schools. If you are aiming for a scholarship with a slightly lower score, then you will have to be strategic about your school choices.

c. Career goals: A lesser-known fact is that most of the top Management Consulting and Investment Banking firms look at GMAT scores at the time of recruiting. Usually, the cut-off is 700 and even if you can cross that barrier, you will be competing with many who will have 740 plus scores. Hence, if Consulting or I-Banking is your career goal, then having a good score is critical. If your score is low, the admissions committee might not see you as an attractive candidate in front of your target employers. This could jeopardize your chances of admission.

2. Enhance work profile: Utilize the next 3-5 months you have in your hand to further improve the quality of your work experience. One of the ways could be taking leadership roles in your line of work or in related projects. If that is not possible, then you can simply take initiatives and find areas/ projects where you can leave an impact. At the end of the day, you will be compared against those with profiles similar to yours, so differentiating yourself by showing a superior work experience would definitely work in your favor. The initiatives you take now could also translate into meaningful stories for your essays and interviews- so be proactive and make the best use of the time you have now!
If you are considering taking on a new job/role, this is the right time to do it. It will give you enough time to show your results and also give your recommenders a chance to know you better and comment on your performance in a significant way.

3. Strengthen extracurricular: Strong extra-curricular activities make one stand out and are indicative of a well-rounded personality. The adcom will judge you based on the things you are interested in and the causes you care about. But mind you, it is not simply about having a certain hobby listed on your resume or taking up something new just a few months before the application just for the sake of it. It requires passion, commitment, and involvement. Also, simply being a passive member of an organization will not help your application. It is important to be able to demonstrate the impact you had on a group, a cause or a community. It is all about how your immediate world became a better place with your presence in it. So, take initiative, do something extraordinary, go beyond what is routine and defined, preferably take a leadership role in the organization/ club/ group that you are already associated with and make a positive impact. You will learn and grow and one of these experiences could potentially become a great story for your essays.

4. Perform school research: A sure shot way to improve your application and differentiate yourself from your competition is by conducting an in-depth research on your target schools. Many students skip this part completely and fail miserably at convincing a business school why their MBA program is best suited for the student. On the surface, it appears that all business schools offer similar programs and it can be fairly confusing to decide which program is better and why. But if you dig a little deeper, you will definitely find aspects of different schools that will make it a better fit for you personally. Your application should show that you have put in time and effort and have taken an active interest in filling it out.

The schools spend a lot of time and dime in marketing their programs and would be more than happy to help you with information about the programs. Remember: before you apply, you are school’s ‘customer’. They will (mostly) make a good effort to sell their programs to you. Once you apply, however, it's your application that will try to sell you and it should be convincing. Use this time to schedule campus visits. This reflects your interest for a particular school and all the school’s appreciate it. It will give you a lot of things to talk about in your essays and interviews. If you are overseas and can’t visit the school, attend MBA Fairs and Tours. Many schools travel internationally and fairs provide you with a great opportunity to connect with the adcom and current students and get to know about the MBA programs. In case you are unable to do either, your best shot is connecting with the school via email. Many schools have designated Student Ambassadors and the adcom would be more than happy to put you in touch with the students.

A note of caution: When interacting with anyone from the business school community, act courteous and professional. Assume you are being evaluated in each interaction. It could be your chance to make (or break) your impression.

5. Solidify your post-MBA goals: One of the main reasons for rejection by B-schools is the lack of clarity about career goals. Contrary to what some MBA students might say about not knowing what they wanted to do after MBA, most B-schools expect you to give thoughtful consideration to your career plans after MBA. This includes research on the kind of role(s) you might take up, your target employers as well as your long-term career vision. Please note that we are talking about vision as opposed to a goal, so go beyond the obvious description of what you want to do and highlight why you want to do it and why you and the school you have chosen will be the most suitable and adept in helping you achieve your goals. In this regard also reaching out to current students and alumni could give realistic and invaluable information about your chosen goals.



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ISB defines international applicants as only those applicants who hold non-Indian passports.

Please see this link where they specify this: https://www.isb.edu/pgp/admissions/admis ... rt-Holders

What are the prospects of product management after ISB ? Can someone throw some light on it ? What do they look for candidates with 4-5 years of experience dealing with customers of a software team ?

Very few are active on ISB forum :D I believe it will be more active as we near R1 and R2 deadlines :D

This is because people are still busy in improving their GMAT score!!