ISB applicants - Ask GyanOne!!

Hi Sachin

- 77% at MU is excellent. Well done. The GMAT is not that high though, but at your experience level it could work
- ECA is decent and work ex pretty strong both in terms of quality and quantity
- Focus on preparing a good app and you should have a shot

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

Hi.
Thank you for the response Gyanone!

Best Regards,
Sachin

Hello GyanOne,

Thank you for rolling out your valuable support to the ISB aspirants. I am applying for 2017-18 batch. I'll post my profile below. Kindly help out with your analysis.

1. GMAT second attempt- 700 (Q50, V34); IR - 8; AWA - 5
2. GMAT first attempt last year - 680
3. 10th board- 94.8%
4. 12th board- 85.2%
5. Undergraduation- BE Chemical Engineering- 7.69/10
6. Work ex- 40 months
a) First 8 months in Reliance Jamnagar Refinery as GET.
b) Then 1.5 years in a sports startup (Non-Profit) handling multiple responsibilities. Majorly BD and strategic planning. Pitched the project to international sportspersons and brought them onboard. Made many associates and business partners. Unfortunately the project did not work out.
c) Then moved to an education startup as Market Development Specialist. Worked there for 8 months and then moved on to a bigger education entity as Territory Manager, current job.
d) Also started a video production house in January 2016. Have been handling digital marketing and BD.
7. Extra curicular- Heavily involved with team building activities during undergraduation. Built a street theatre team and did vvarious street plays for communitu service in villages and for social causes.
8. I'm a reapplicant to ISB. Last year I applied but did not get interview call. Although I am pretty sure I was the last applicant.
9. I want to pursue MBA in Marketing and further build my career in marketing management.

I hope I have furnished relevant information. Kindly help out with your analysis. Thank you in advance.

Hi GyanOne,

request you to evaluate my profile for R1 for an ISB admit:
1. GMAT: 690 (second attempt had cancelled first attempt)
2. 10 std: 93%
12 std: HSC 88%
Graduation : bcom 87%
3. I am a female Chartered Accountant working in EY for 2 years now in corporate and international taxation as Consultant
4. Passion is dancing: 7 years of bharatnatyam, 3 years of belly dance I have my own FB page and small batch of classes
5. Work profile: advising various overseas technology and telecommunication companies in connection with taxability of their Indian operations; structured an optimum India telecom model for a US’ fourth largest telecom service provider to mitigate potential tax cost of approximately USD 2 million. Represent the world’s first USD 2 billion open-source technology company in their Indian operations before the Mumbai tax tribunal: mainly litigation, advisory and regulatory taxation work including international taxation
Did my articleship in top 10 CA firms in India- mainly leading audits of broking and housing finance sector.
6. Was a delegate in Humanitarian track at HPAIR 2016 (Harvard Project for Asian & International Relations (HPAIR) 2016 held in Hongkong)

Do let me know if I should retake GMAT or I have chances of a call from ISB in Round 1.!
Thanks!

Hello everybody,

My profile as follows

10th- 92 %
12th- 88%

B.Tech- CGPA 5.9/10 (Mumbai university)

GMAT- 660

Work ex- 6.5 years with a leading manufacturing company split into

1 yr- Quality assurance- Won an award on national level for my project
3 yrs- Logistics, production planning
2.5 yrs (Present function)- Commercial counterpart for R&D projects which includes product costing, project budgeting, cost
controlling etc.

International exp- Well, being in manufacturing setup, on-site work is absent. However, in my current function, I work primarily with international colleagues, I am not very sure whether this can be counted as international exp.


Extra currics- Decent..nothing extra ordinary

Request the seniors to comment on my profile standing a chance for ISB Round 2.

Hi Gaurav

Here is our assessment:
- Your work experience and functional exposure is excellent. International experience at ISB is not requirement, so no worries for you on that front.
- The mix of your college GPA (even if it is an engineering degree from Mumbai University) and GMAT score is not very competitive with respect to the ISB applicant pool. We would advise that you look into raising your GMAT score a bit and applying in R2.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

Hi bhav10

Excellent, excellent profile. The GMAT score is just about ok, but given the rest of your profile should work very well.

Focus now on building a strong app and applying. You have a high chance of selection. No need to retake GMAT at all.

Hi Awinder

- While your GMAT score, the quantity of your experience, and your ECA are all good, your experience is a bit volatile both in terms of the duration of your stints and the domains that they have been in.
- The reject last year could have been related to this. Building out a consistent, clear, and convincing story on your past career decisions and the need for an MBA will be paramount in your case. Do not attempt a reapplication without ensuring this. This is the crux of your application.
- While your profile does demonstrate a penchant for marketing and business development, your achievements and learning will be difficult to bring out given your short stints and frequent change of domains. Interest in a function is good, but there must be at least some focus in terms of industry as well.
- We dont think you need to really focus on improving your GMAT, or other things at this point. Focus on building a strong app (including having a good reapp essay).

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

Mumbai interview calls (regular decision for R1) have started going out today. More should follow tomorrow and later. Mumbai interviews are slated for 12-13 Nov, 2016.

Hi GyanOne,

We had a discussion where you suggested that i should take GMAT again as my score was low (660) for ISB. I took it again this month but faltered badly in this one
I cancelled my score because I scored 630 this time.

My question is: Should i apply for ISB this year? Based on my profile what will be my chances? I have decent acads and extra curricular and professional experience includes associate at ZS and PM at a B2B startup. Please see our conversation above for reference and details about my profile.

It would be great if you could please guide me.

Best regards
Pranav

Hi Pranav

You did the right thing by cancelling your score. Dont be disappointed - many people are not able to reach their target score in the reattempt. Put this behind you and prepare again.

While there would still be some chance with your 660, we feel you would certainly be in a much better position if you could raise your score. You do not have experience that would be considered excessive at this stage, so you can apply next year. On another note, there is still some time to go for the R2 deadline - you could perhaps take another shot even now.

Getting a higher score will also help you aspire for some good options in the global top 20 list. At this point, there are very few options that are feasible there.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

Hello to all ISB aspirants,

I have been admitted to ISB Co 2018 in Round 1, and credits goes to team GyanOne


If you guys are looking for an edge in your entire application process starting from essay editing to interview preparation, I would strongly recommend GyanOne.

For me, the entire process was so smooth and stress free that I did not have to worry too much about various components of my application , without compromising my hectic work schedule. Also proactive feedback by Rishabh at each step of the process helped me to dig deep within myself and thereby fostered confidence in me while preparing my essays and the application as a whole.

Swati left no stones unturned during my interview preparation!!! Thanks to her, I was able to nail my interview.

The best part of the whole experience while working with them was that Rishabh and Swati, probably by virtue of their experience and more importantly their capacity to associate with my thoughts boosted my confidence tremendously.

Thanks once again GyanOne. It felt like working with an understanding, wise and passionate family.

Cheers!!

Hi Gyan One,

I will be applying in the second round of ISB. I Have taken the gmat twice and have the following scores:

710 (Quant- 77 percentile, Verbal- 83 percentile)
And
730 (Quant- 66 percentile, Verbal- 96 percentile)

Please guide me to understand which would be a better score to submit at ISB? As you can see, one score is a balanced one in both sections and the other is a skewed but higher overall score.

I have around 30 months of work ex. I Scored 94% and 96% in 10th and 12th respectively and graduated in Bcom (H) from SRCC.

Looking forward to your quick response as the deadline is approaching in 2 weeks.

Thank you!

Hi all!!

Most of the users have not mentioned IR scores. I read it on the site of ISB that they are not considering this score for the current class. Did anyone who got admitted felt that? Did anyone with a low IR score but overall a good GMAT score got admitted?

Thanks

Thank you so much for your kind words! We really appreciate your feedback.

Hi Shiv

While IR scores are not an individual criterion by themselves, having a very low IR can give rise to some questions. While many people with low IR scores (but decent overall scores) do make it, would suggest you put in some effort on this to try and get at least a 4/8. If you have already taken the test, and have a decent overall score, this alone should not be a matter of too much concern. Be ready to answer a question or two on this in the interview though (they are known to occasionally ask).

Hi Prerna

Submit the higher score, and include some explanation for your high quant ability in the optional essay. ISB values the absolute score a bit more than balance in both sections. The rest of your profile looks decent from what you have reported (can't comment on work-ex etc as no details for that included).