Every year, we receive well-written applications from several exceptional candidates. They showcase a candidate’s leadership potential, quality of work experience, academic ability, diversity, and other factors very well, making it a challenge (albeit, a welcome one) for us to shortlist applicants for interviews. However, from my personal experience, I have also seen that many promising candidates do themselves a disservice by submitting an application that doesn’t highlight their strongest points and differentiators correctly. So this week, I want to share with you some ideas and some questions that you can ask yourself that will help you identify various facets of your personality:
- One of the most important things for you to do early in the process of preparing your application is introspect. What do you want from your career and life? What are your goals and timelines for each? How close or far away from them are you currently? What is stopping you from getting there? How can you overcome the obstacles? How can ISB help you do this? Write them down.
- What have you accomplished so far – at work, in extracurricular activities, in academics, etc? Make a list of all your major accomplishments. Identify which of these had the biggest impact on you, your business unit, your company/organisation, a client’s company/organisation, society, country, the world, or even on a single individual.
- What challenges did you face while trying to achieve all these things? And most importantly, what did you learn from the experiences? You cannot afford to gloss over this part! It should come as no surprise to you that learning and takeaways are the most interesting things to us and we often value them more than the actual award you may have received for the accomplishment. Remember, awards and recognition are the end results, whereas we want to know how you came to receive them.
- Have you had unique life experiences that have shaped the way you think and act today? How have your experiences helped you become the person you are today?
- Have an honest discussion with your relatives, friends and colleagues about yourself and your personality traits. Often times, they see strengths and weaknesses in you that you can’t see yourself.
- Ask yourself, what differentiates you from those around you? Why is it that you aim higher than most of your friends? What gives you the ability to take risks? Where do the energy and drive to make a difference come from for you? Why do you continue to pay incredible attention to detail when others have stopped caring? How is it that you are able to come up with creative solutions when everyone else is stuck? How are you able to keep doing things differently? What makes you so curious about everything? Are you the one volunteering for difficult projects most often? Why has it become a habit for you to go above and beyond what is expected of you? Why do people trust you with important responsibilities? Answers to these questions can help identify not only your personality traits but also the skills that differentiate you from others.
These are just a few ideas and questions to get you thinking and by no means constitute an exhaustive list. I encourage you to use this and/or any other methods that work well for you to discover your own strengths. Once you have collected important information and gained insights about yourself, you have most of what you need to prepare a strong application. Next week, I’ll blog about how you can use these insights to prepare and present great essays.
All the best!
Dear Sir,
Though this is not directly related to the topic presented here, but still I would like to ask you how ISB is going to consider the IR scores ?
Thanks and Regards,
Pradipta
We are not considering IR score this year.
Thank you very much Sir for clearing my doubt.
Hello Sir,
An excellent guidance for a prospective candidate. Thank You.
I can say this is the simplest and most straightforward article to get us headed in the right direction while starting an MBA application. Kudos to you for cutting out all the fluff that we see these days..
Dear Sir,
I am one of the students shortlisted for ISB YLP admissions 2013 (Stage 2). What I have always wanted to ask is how much importance does ISB Admissions Team pay to risk taking capabilities in a candidate.
There is an extraordinary increase in the number of students interested to work for their respective ideas/ventures but many are demotivated, facing the fear of failure.
Thanks and Regards,
Abhay Pruthi
We do get a number of applications from entrepreneurs. These have obviously shown an ability to take risks. We take such applications seriously even if the ventures that they have started have failed. Such failures are not a negative for us, as long as the candidate has learnt some valuable lessons from the failure.
This is very helpful. Thank you
Thank you, these are great guidelines.
This would really help candidates to identify their strengths and weakness. Thanks to you in putting these basics together.
Regards,
Anand
Hello Admissions Director.,
First thanks for sharing nice information about Strengths and Differentiators. Absolutely right, because once you identify your strengths, then only you can be able to find what things needs to process, in which areas you need to focus on, etc…
Thanks again for sharing wonderful insights!
Hello Sir!
One question for you from me,
The applicant who is near to complete 2 years of experience in the industry can they apply for November cycle or do they need to wait for the next cycle ???? and if the GMAT is score is good and above 700 will they consider the work experience??
If you have 2 years or more experience as on 30 March, 2014 you can apply either in the September or the November cycle. All applications are reviewed holistically before making an offer of admission.
If a person wants to make a career in academics and wants ISB-PGP as a bridge course to secure admission in world top 30 B-School Ph.D programmes, is ISB-PGP a good option. I am having 10 years of academic and industry experience in teaching and my age is 35.
We have examples of our PGP students who have gone on to pursue PhD programmes in top B-schools. Some of them have worked for some time in industry then come back as Research Assistants (RA) to our faculty and then gone on to the PhD programme. We also have instances of other graduates and postgraduates who have joined our faculty as RAs and then gone to the PhD programme. A significant stint as an RA to a faculty seems to be a good facilitator to getting into a PhD programme of choice.
Hello,
I started a green venture (rather a small one) to satiate my desire to impact society.
But I worked on it parallel to my full time job.
Should I mention this venture in my essay or will it leave a negative impact on ADCOM regarding my integrity towards my full time job.
It depends on the agreement you have with your current employer. If the agreement specifically prohibited your participation in any such venture, your activity will be viewed negatively. However, if there were no restrictions to this venture, the initiative taken may be viewed positively.
Dear Sir,
My answers are “no” for many questions you mentioned in point # 3 of your blog. But I really want to make into ISB. I don’t know where to start from as I am not from IT background.
Kindly advise .
Not all our applicants are from an IT background. While the answers to the questions you have mentioned may be “no”, surely you can identify some strengths that you have and also how you have utilised these strengths. Applying to a B-school is an introspective exercise where you delve deep into your own personality and discover what you are good at.
To start, you can log on to our application portal (http://pgpapp.isb.edu) and create a login and password. You will then be able to go through the requirements of the application. The entire process is very user friendly and you may revisit your application as many times as you want to and edit what you have written as many times as needed. Also go through my previous post on Applying to ISB. If you have any other questions regarding the application process, you can write to us at apphelp@isb.edu.
Hello Sir,
I want to know how much the percentages scored in 10-12 stds impact the admission prospects in ISB.
Say one candidate has scored 59% in 12, 83% in B.Tech, has 5 yrs work exp from a diff tech like marine or bio-tech and gets a good score in GMAT ~681-700. Is there a good chance of application being shortlisted?
Thanks
Short-listing decisions are taken based on the overall profile of the candidate. These include the academic performance, GMAT scores, career achievements, essays and recommendations. It would be difficult to comment on your profile based on the information you have provided.
As far as looking at the GMAT score is concerned, does ISB look at a 710 and a 740 in the same way?
A score of 710 on the GMAT represents a percentile score around 91 percentile while a 740 is around 97 percentile. Naturally a score of 740 is better than a 710 and will be viewed as such. Needless to say, we will be looking at the application holistically before we make our admission decision, not just the GMAT score.
Hello Sir,
I am an Engineer from a Reputed college and have been working for an Automotive company for the last 1.5 years. I am applying to the ISB PGP program this year through the EEO. I had applied through the YLP two years ago and reached the interview rounds, however I was not selected. I have a 740 on the GMAT.
Despite my desire to make ISB my Alma Mater, I feel that my cliched engineering background places my application at the bottom of the pile. What can I do to improve my chances this time around?
Also, will I be considered a re-applicant since I applied for the YLP two years ago?
Thanks
You will not be considered a re-applicant if you apply for the EEO this year.
Not sure what gave you the idea that being an engineer gets you to the bottom of the pile. Just have a look at our class profile. Close to 75% of the class comprise of engineers, so it can’t be that engineers are at the bottom of the pile. Admission to the school is competitive and you will have to showcase your strengths through your application, essays, etc to make it. A lot of my advice on preparing strong applications is in this blog. It may help you to go through the posts.
Sir,
I am applying to the ISB through the YLP this year. Though my extra curricular activities aren’t that great, I have strong academic credentials. Do I still stand a chance?
MBA in India with GMAT
GMAT is probably the most important MBA admission exams all over the world and many Indians appear for it too. Though it is widely given in order to acquire admission to MBA programs abroad, many Indian B-Schools admit students with the GMAT Scores too. To know the list of Indian B-Schools accepting the GMAT scores visit http://www.scoregetter.com
The computer adaptive test by Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) assesses candidates on analytical writing, quantitative reasoning, verbal reasoning and integrated reasoning skills.
The exam is continuing to gain popularity with Indian students and major business schools, with GMAT scores accepted for admissions at 230 programmes offered at 112 business schools in India.
GMAT is today by far the most widely accepted and preferred for admissions into the world’s major business institutions, utilised by in excess of 6,000 management programmes in 83 international locations around the world. More than nine million exams later, GMAC makes available a quarter-million GMAT exams year-round at roughly 600 test centres in 113 countries now.
The first GMAT was administered in 1954 on February 6 with 1,291 promising business students at more than 100 sites taking the test. The test was administered predominately in the united states and Canada but also in Paris, London and interestingly, New Delhi.
Representatives from nine business schools, all US-based – Columbia, Harvard, Northwestern, Rutgers, Seton Hall, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and Washington University in St. Louis – had developed the admission test for the graduate study of business.
For further information you can visit http://www.scoregetter.com for more details on this and speak to their counsellors as well.
Dear Sir,
I wanted to know if the essay topics change each year or only once in a while.
Will the topics this year (for PGP ’15-’16) remain the same as last year?
Dear Sir,
I am a MBA passout in 2009 and own around 4.5 years of experience.
Will my MBA degree hamper my admission at ISB ?
Thanks & Regards
Kiran
Please write to us at pgp@isb.edu, we shall be happy to schedule a counseling call for you. Thanks
Hello Sir,
I had applied to ISB through the YLP in 2013 and had got shortlisted for the interview.
I intend to apply through the Early Entry option now. Will I be considered a re-applicant? And do I need to resend my GMAT score?
Regards,
Harshita
Dear Harshita,
You are not considered as a re-applicant.
We already have your GMAT scores. You do not have to resend it.
Thank You.
Team Admissions
I have applied twice to ISB and reached till the interview round but haven’t converted both the times. Is there a mechanism where I could gain feedback on the areas on my profile that need improvement ? The reason I ask this is becauseI have a GMAT score of 650 and a recent newletter from your side communicates that the current class has students with GMAT scores between 600-780. However, the last time I had come down for the interview I was suggested by one of the ADCOM member that I may want to consider regiving the GMAT. This particular person hadn’t even gone through my profile before giving this advise. This makes me think that is it just the score that is a hindrance in my case to convert the call?
Dear Lekhinee,
Request you to place a formal request for the same on our application portal: “http://pgpapp.isb.edu “
Thank You.
Team Admissions