Calling all ISB Applicants - (2014 Intake) Class of 2015

Admitted!
Question:
Is the scholarship results out as well? Curious!

Hello!

This is Sandeep. I am working as an Assistant Manager in ICICI bank from 4 years.

I have one confusion running through my mind about applying for ISB R2.

Recently I wrote GMAT and could score only 610 (AWA-5, IR-2,Q-47,V-28). Should I take a chance this year or is it very less to be considered......anyone please advice..

Hey Sandeep,

I got admitted to ISB during R1 admissions this year itself.As per my understanding, the competition gets much more stiff for ISB R2 admissions. Your GMAT score of 610 is considerably lower than the ISB average GMAT score of around 710. I would advise you to take GMAT again and apply for ISB next year. This is also because ISB treats reapplicants in a different manner altogether, so it gets more tough if you are a reapplicant. Hence, my sincere advice for you would be to try and score above 700 if you could do that and then apply next year with 5 years of experience.

Less than 10 days to go for the R2 deadline. Anxiety levels must be high. Based on our experience with numerous applications till now, here are a few 'Do's & Dont's' for the essays that may be your biggest concern at this point:

1. Essay 1 is looking for proof of your skills/knowledge/attitude. It is easy to make tall claims. If you are strong at something, you must have used/shown it couple of time. Provide us at least 1 instance. It is not required to spell out that you have awesome Team Skills. Tell us a story that proves it.

2. Essay 2 talks about your Career Goals and how ISB will help you fulfill them. It is impractical to know what exactly you will be doing 10 years from now. But you need to know the direction you want to take your career to. And your short term goal will be decided based on that, which will ultimately tell you if you need an MBA or not.
To justify why ISB is the best place on earth for your MBA, it is not enough to pick an "ELP" or a "Wadhwani Centre" or some fancy electives from the ISB website. Put the reasons in the context of your needs. eg. If you think that the 1-yr advantage that ISB provides is really exciting to you, don't stop there. Tell us how a 1-yr MBA fits perfectly in your scheme of things vis-a-vis a 2-yr program.

3. Essay 3 is about your most significant achievement indeed, but it's not about the certificates or the awards you won. Put it in the perspective of a B-school and try to figure out if your story translates to a differentiating factor that ISB will be interested in. It's great to captain the state football team and receive an award for the best player from the CM, but it's greater if you can tell us about a team conflict that you managed well, which helped the team regroup.

4. Essay 4 is optional, alright. But it is also an opportunity for you to let the adcom know more about you. Use it to show the kind of person you are, the kind of things you do, any instance that helps the adcom develop a connect with you. With close to 4000 applicants, there are at least 12000 essays to be read. It is tiring for the team. If your can write something that makes them feel good, nothing like it. But don't overdo it. This can be a double edged sword. So play safe and leave the space blank if you get the slightest doubt about the usefulness of what you are writing.

All the Best!
'ISBmantra'

Hey guys, I am in waitlist for the ISB class of 2015, and was wondering if anyone here knows where to send the update email?

Hi guys I am applying for ISB in R2

can anyone please tell me how should I get my photo done to upload as a part of my application.

The website says that the photo should me of A4 size, so they want a half body pic, or a passport style photo enlarged to A4 size. ISB should upload sample pictures for reference, or have I missed this (please provide the link if I have).

Please help.

Thanks

Hi!

They want you to upload a passport size picture on an A4 size sheet. Don't enlarge the picture. Just upload a passport size pic, when you will print your application, the picture ( in passport size ) will print on an A4 size sheet. What I did is that I clicked a picture with my camera, uploaded it on my computer, cropped it, converted it to pdf format and uploaded it.
Hope it helps!

I got your point, but the main doubt I have is, that the passport size pic will be too small for an A4 size paper, of the wanted a passport size pic, they could have just asked for the same in pdf format?

one guy told me that he took a half body pic in a suit. suit will be required this is confirmed i guess.

As I mentioned earlier, I had uploaded a passport size picture and it worked. I had applied in Round 1 and got an admit, so I guess it was fine!

I think picture is not a big deal. Just get your pic converted into pdf from any online tool. It will automatically convert the pic into a A4 size pdf. You can upload the same pdf. Not an issue. Even suit is not madatory. I uploaded my pic with not-so-well-groomed face and it worked fine.

Hi All,

Congrats for the admits
fod daala
Was off in a long vacation so did not see the thread at all.
How are the preparations for R2 going??
And how come so less posts on the thread ...

So how many candidates were offered admission in R1? I think that can help to assess the number of seats available in R2.

Usually 45%-50% of total seats are filled in R1.
The facebook group has more than 280 members (some of them are existing students though). So at least 300 admits is a safe number to assume.

Finally done with the application. Now just keeping the fingers crossed.

submitted for R2

All the best to all ... For all who have submitted their application, just chill now and if you are applying to other schools, pay attention to them. For those who have not yet submitted the application. try to do it as early as possible and do not wait for the very last moment. For things not to do in the application or the interviews, you can contact me if you want

All the best!
Ankur

Finally submitted, big relief