When experienced professionals in India think of getting an MBA, the Indian School of Business (ISB) is the first name that comes to mind. This is a testament to ISB's truly magnetic stature in the business education league in India.
Here, I will dive deep into the surface level requirements – academics, professional experience, leadership to really unravel what can make someone an attractive applicant for ISB.
Note: If you are a re-applicant to ISB also read this--
How to succeed at ISB, IIMA and other Top B Schools as a re-applicant I will not put academics as the first point because I am recently seeing an interesting phenomenon where folks with very average undergrad scores and low GPAs (sub 680s) have also made it to ISB, provided they had the right balance of the following parameters. The shift in ISB's first essay in the last cycle’s prompt to include a direct P2P learning essay also indicates that the school now places great emphasis on the value you can bring to the cohort. So here I throw the first one -
1. ISB Wants to Admit Future LeadersYes, above all else, ISB wants to admit future leaders. Like most top-tier global MBA programs, they want to be associated with applicants who are already on a fast track in their careers and who have the potential to make a big impact in the world. If you can demonstrate that you have the drive, ambition, and talent to succeed, ISB will be very interested in you.
Career ProgressionOne of the best ways to show ISB that you have market potential is to demonstrate your career progression. This means showing how you have taken on bigger and better responsibilities over time in your career. Have you started your own business? Have you been promoted several times in your current job? Have you made a significant impact in your field - as a doctor, as a pharma business owner, as an educationalist, as a tech founder? If so, ISB will be very impressed.
My advice for average/common profilesIf you haven’t attained much of what I mentioned in the previous paragraph, you should think hard and create your “ISB Marketing handle”, your selling USP that can get you through the finish line. Your marketing handle is a pitch that the ISB adcom should remember long after they have skimmed through other profiles. Not everyone at ISB needs to be an outlier. If you are a young applicant with only 2-3 years of experience, you should try to showcase how you are different from other similar applicants given your early promotions, thorough industry insights, project management and crisis management exposure and mature overall outlook.
WHAT MAKES YOU MEMORABLE? Pick 2-3 themes and structure your pitch around these. Here’s a real example from one of our successful ISB PGP admits with exact 2 years of professional experience (not an EEO admit) -
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I am a supply chain analyst at Fractal, who has acted as a consultant leading projects with FMCG clients such as Unilever, Mars and Walmart on business projects. I have amply spent my leisure days in my family’s agriculture business in Neemuch town in a 5 generation agrarian family, observing operations in agricultural markets(mandis). But professionally I chose to start my journey in the FMCG supply chain analytics space before I build my business at the intersection of agriculture and technology.”
The above is not a goals statement, but a solid guiding statement that then helped the applicant to build his entire essays around the above pitch.
2. People who understand their goalsEvery year a plethora of folks who got rejected from ISB reach out to me for ding analysis, and when I go over their goals essays, I see very poorly written goals. And mostly always, always, the entire interview experience is also focused on the goals, where the applicants recall being grilled on the goals strategy and professional experiences.
How hard can it be to not take seriously just the thing that makes you worthy of any MBA program in the world, which is - to rationally answer why do you need an MBA, and what are your goals? Why are you willing to undergo the effort and bear the expense if you do not know clearly what you want?If I were to put it directly -Applicants should do a thorough research on their goals and should be able to substantiate their goals strategy in the ISB goals essay with examples of networking with the right industry experts, ISB alumni, and citing other relevant sources of information. Your goals must be pragmatic and well-researched, yet should make you stand out by being aspirational (or even inspirational).
Read in detail about the pitfalls you must avoid when working on your goals strategy: Avoid these pitfalls in goals essays.
Read more on what to expect in ISB interviews:
Fail-proof strategy for acing that ISB Interview3. The right AcademicsOne-year MBA programs are very rigorous academically, and one of the major concerns that ad Coms have when evaluating applicants is whether the admitted students would be able to cope with the intense finance and quant-heavy curriculums while juggling recruitment and social activities.
It is for this reason that I say Indian applicants must demonstrate a strong quantitative aptitude, irrespective of how their performance has been in the other sections of GMAT/GRE. This is non-negotiable, especially for folks who did not study finance or business in undergrad, or mathematics in college.
ISB is no exception to the above, and they seek applicants with a strong academic record. This includes good high school academics, a strong undergraduate GPA, and a high GMAT score.
Read more on how to navigate the challenge of a low GPA:
Navigating the challenge of a low GPA in your application4. All the work and no play is a No GoAs Indians, having spent a lifetime chasing academic and professional triumphs in an extremely competitive environment, people often put their interests and leisure pursuits on the backseat. Demonstrating a balanced right brain thinking is also important for future business leaders.
To know about your extra professional pursuits, ISB has a dedicated section for extra-curricular activities and achievements where you could speak about your interests in hobbies, sports, music, travel, etc. Having a good mix of extra-professional engagement can really help you stand out. Although, if your extra-professional engagements have been more than just a hobby, I would advise you to make good use of those experiences in ISB Essay 1, which is usually centered around your personality traits.
If you are someone who has come to realize the dearth of extra-curricular activities in your profile, take ideas from the following successful examples to weave a narrative that still shows you created broader perspectives and developed a well-rounded personality.
Small actions make a big impact A successful applicant talked about helping her family during a financial crisis by taking up odd gigs such as organizing coaching/tuition classes for neighborhood kids, starting a homemade snacks business she marketed through social media connections, and starting a women’s dress boutique at home where she worked with artisans on a profit-sharing basis. Through her undertakings in adolescence, her entrepreneurial bent of mind is evident even before she started college.
Show that you took a stand on social issues in your society/communityAnother applicant talked about participating in theater and dramatics since her college days. She set the context well by saying she comes from a conservative and regressive rural society where vices such as female infanticide, domestic violence, and AIDS are prevalent but frowned upon when discussed openly. She decided to create awareness on such issues by writing and directing street plays which her team performed in villages to echo a strong message, often under protection from police vehicles.
Are you an inclusive team leader at work? If your time is all consumed at work and you do not have any active interests outside of the office, talk about how you make your office a better place for others. Another successful applicant talked about creating an apprenticeship program for women employees to make the onboarding process more women-friendly in a highly male-dominated field sales team (his LOR also substantiated this). Another successful applicant talked about organizing book club events at her US office where books from economically emerging countries were read and discussed leading to a more inclusive work environment.
An important thing that I would like to iterate in the end is that you should never try to follow a fixed template for your ISB essays as that will keep you from shining among thousands of applications received by ISB. How hard you work in preparing your essays conducting thorough research and introspection will also reflect in your interview performance eventually.
Want to craft solid Post-ISB PGP goals? Read some tips-
Strengthen your post PGP goals strategy Feel free to reach out
Aanchal Sahni (ex INSEAD interviewer)
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