Applying to ISB - I

Till date, i have never written a post on request! (probably this might show how selfish i am or how nobody really makes a request ;))

ISB application process and interview experience is one thing which i always wanted to write about, but never knew how to go about!

here, at midnight , i make the first attempt, while Suze Orman is advising on steps to avoid creditcard debt, in TV ofcourse ;) ( i think she's too loud, but it's interesting to see the cases in "Can i afford it?"!)

My GMAT date was Nov 7th. I never had any plans for applying to ISB this year because the deadline for Round2 was Nov 15th and i never had any prior experience or time in writing essays.

Gave GMAT on 7th, went home for diwali on 8th, came back to work on monday, ie Nov 12th.

Till that date, nobody in office knew or even had a guess about my tryst with GMAT.

Told one of my good friends in office. He is one of the guys who also has plans to do MBA that too specifically in ISB for various reasons.

He immediately advised me that probably i should make an attempt this year.
This made me thinking.

According to me (after an analysis and discussion with a few relevant people) following is the list of indirect criteria or expectations set by ISB from an applicant. Or lets just say,following points can make a difference in your application.

Disclaimer: This is my interpretation. Some may not agree.

1. Acads.
Having an excellent acads is a major plus.
2. Work Experience
Ideal work ex for an average candidate is 5 years for Class of 2009.(ISB Link)
There are admits with 2 years experience as well. But they are exceptions, he/she might have had a startup or might have been an IIT Grad with MS in US and worked in Google for those 2 years. So lets not take those cases into consideration here.
3. Undergrad university
This matters. If a candidate is from IIT or NIT, it does make a difference. This might also be mainly because lot of alumni of these institutions end up as alumni of ISB as well. Also, at the end of the day, ISB still has Indian nationals in majority.
4. International experience
This is an added advantage. Nowadays, thanks to onsite assignments, quite a few engineers do have international experience.
5. Social work or contributions
This is another added advantage. It really helps to differentiate a candidate.

I had 4 of the above points to my side except the 5th one.
So i realized, if at all i can come up with the essays in the next 3 days, i might actually have a chance to get an interview call.

Also another important point to be verified was, does ISB accept reapplicants? Because if at all i didn't make it this time, there should be an opportunity to try it out next year or so.
Answer is yes. ISB does allow candidates to reapply, once is better.

Now coming to the essays, ISB had 3 essays with 1 optional essay for scholarship.
Following were the 3 essay topics.
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ISB MBA Essay 1. The ISB culture stresses on a diverse mix of students; life at the ISB is a unique experience for the students. How will your candidature contribute to this culture at the ISB? (300 words max)
ISB MBA Essay 2. A million dollars or knighthood: what would you choose and why? (300 words max)
ISB MBA Essay 3. You have a new manager who has just joined your organization. As a part of the handover, the outgoing manager is describing each person reporting to him. How do you think the outgoing manager will describe you to the incoming manager? (300 words max)
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Regarding the content of an essay, i think it's individual specific and i am sure any applicant should know what to write. I intend to mention here as how to go about writing it. My 2 cents is going to be based on my experience in writing these essays.

1. It is very important to brainstorm on the essay questions first. I started by jotting down the points to be mentioned for each question.
2. Once jotted down, i discussed the list with my friend. This helped a lot because i had left out so many small points which i considered irrelevant, but he helped by giving a new perspective to it. (Infact, i did this discussion with only 1 friend.But i would seriously consider having a predefined set of people for my future essays. For ex, a colleague who is reporting to u, a colleague to whom u reported once, a personal friend, a fellow peer. This whole session might be like a feedback session on ur points. So the more the feedback the better the understanding, but we got to be careful about too much information and confusion as well )
3. After the discussion, things were quite clear. I was able to write sentences now based on the points identified. A first rough draft was achieved.
4. I revisited the drafts next day morning. Taking a break does help. I rewrote a few things. Next came the important activity. How to project the essays in one's own style? This is a very important step and a very time consuming activity. This doesn't lead to any major changes in the essays, but the way how to start, what points to be emphasized in more words, how to have a punching conclusion.
5. Always stick to the word limit. Quite a difficult task, we always feel that we haven't expressed our points to the best that too when the word limit is 300. Probably it's good because we might not end up explaining our blunders to the best :)
6. Once you have a well written essay which you are happy about and quite willing to submit it, go through it with a technical writer or some writer who is good in english writing and whom you are confident about! We are not asking any 3rd person to do any writing for us. This is more like proof reading and also to add a few flairs if possible. Believe me, this does help, we really do not want to end up with any silly grammatical errors in the essay.

These are the main points i followed in writing the essays. It might not have been perfect and i am not sure whether it's enough to write Harvard essays, but it did help me to get an Interview call from ISB.

Will write next about things i intended to do, but never did for ISB Interview prep !!!