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ISB 2015 (Co 2017) Essay Analysis....
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11 Aug 2015, 01:35
Essay 1: If we were to admit just one more student, make a compelling argument as to why that student should be you by describing an (only one) achievement in your personal / professional life that you are most proud of. What did you do that sets you apart from others? What did you learn? (300 words max)
This essay gives you a phenomenal opportunity to tell the admissions committee in as many words, as to why they should choose you for this prestigious program. This is an opportunity for you to let them know that there is more to you than what your resume and your GMAT score suggests.
So your achievement could manifest behavioral traits such as perseverance, leadership skills, and motivational skills. It should however be noted that just mentioning a laundry list of attributes will not take you anywhere. For each attribute that you mention, it is important to substantiate how your achievement manifests that attribute.
This essay needs lot of thought and introspection. It gives you the flexibility that the achievement can be either from your personal life or your professional life. The thing to keep in mind is that the achievement need not be some earth shattering event. We believe that rather than saying:
I got rank in top 10 in JEE in my first attempt, a more impressive achievement would be: I did not get through JEE in my first attempt, but got through all other engineering entrance exams. However, I decided to not join elsewhere, worked all through the year and made it to JEE in my second attempt.
The reason this is more commendable is because it shows aspects of your personality such as perseverance, determination and doggedness. It shows that you don’t just take the easy way out and settle at no less than what is the best.
On personal front, the most trivial looking philanthropic activities that you perhaps have been associated with, are candidates for achievement, if articulated well. After all, your activities could have changed someone’s life forever, and for good!
Essay 2: Describe a (only one) defining moment in your personal / professional life when you had to make a risky decision, and explain what you did, why and the outcome? (300 words max)
Defining moment can be a daunting word. That moment can be from either professional, or personal experience. The best way is to enumerate the various options that you considered, when confronted with a challenging situation. Subsequently, your essay should elaborate what considerations made you choose one option over the other.
In hindsight, if you thought that choosing some other option could have resulted in a better result, that would also be a learning you would want to mention in the essay. As much as the situation/incident is important, what is also important is to elaborate on the learning; because while failures in life are inevitable (ineluctable is the right word), what is more important is the lesson you derive and the learning you imbibe.
Or
Essay 2: Describe a (only one) situation in your personal / professional life when you had to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. How did it affect you and what did you learn? (300 words max)
The reason why ISB thinks that this is important, is because the boundaries of operations of all big businesses are getting diluted by the day. In fact, any business that is worth mentioning, now operates globally across continents, and across cultures. That makes cross-cultural awareness, and ability to work with heterogeneous teams, extremely relevant for business leaders of today.
Recount instances from your own personal and professional life, where you have been a part of such multi-country and multicultural teams.
Essay 3: What are your post ISB career plans and how will your past experiences and the Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) contribute to taking you there? (300 words max)
This is the good old classical statement of purpose. ISB wants candidates to be very clear in terms of how they want their careers to shape up, especially in the near future (3-5 years after MBA).
This essay is best addressed along 3 major points.
a) First what you have done in life so far (primarily on the professional/academic front)
b) Second what you want to do in future
c) Third how does MBA fit into the scheme of things
Clearly there are some experiences, attributes, and interests that you already have. This is your past. You have aspirations to do something in the future. Now, based upon what you have done in the past, and what you want to do in future, there are certain gaps in terms of skill sets, in terms of network, or in terms of competencies, that you want the b-school to bridge. So, you need to build a case that equipping yourself with these skillsets, network and competencies will help embark you towards your future goals.
It is also very important that you do a good research on the unique offerings of ISB that would be directly relevant to your aspirations. Please note that mentioning ISB's attributes such as great faculty, good peer group and interactive classes are in most cases a waste of space in the essay; this is because almost every applicant would mention these; imagine what the evaluator of the essay will go through, reading the exact same words one essay after another.
So, what will pay off are the very specific and unique offerings of the school. These could be specific student interest clubs, any flagship events in the area of your interest, any centers of excellence and any specific research area that the school focuses on. In fact, if you have had a chance to visit ISB, ISB's Information sessions, or personally interact with any existing student, do highlight it, since this would demonstrate your interest.
Essay 4 (Optional): Please use this space to explain any career breaks / provide any other information not covered elsewhere in the application that could significantly impact your candidature at ISB (200 words max)
Typically this would be a place where you would like to provide explanation for any weaknesses that you might have in your profile. Typically these would be areas such as unexplained gaps in your academic/professional life, low GMAT score or low academics.
Note that if rest of your application does cover everything that you would want the admissions committee to know, then this is an optional essay.