I am Trishna Nair, a 2018 graduate of IIT Madras. I received an admit from ISB through the Early Entry option this year, which meant a deferred admission year of 2021. In this article, I will take you through the application process and my preparation.
The Early Entry option has the same application process as a normal PGP but this is only for applicants with less than 2 years of work experience. Usually, Early Entry students make up about 10% of the batch (no official figures are available).
1. Qualifying exam: ISB now accepts GRE scores too (apart from the GMAT score). I had gotten 334/340 in GRE a few years ago. I had prepared for about a month. My vocabulary and reading speed was decent (thanks to my reading habit), but I had some difficulty with the reading comprehension questions. Princeton Review’s book for GRE had great tips that helped me overcome this. I practised using the Official GRE Guide by ETS and Princeton Review’s Book.
2. Application essays: This will take some time. You will have to go over it over and over again, and it still might feel incomplete. I spent a lot of time introspecting and a LOT of time finetuning my essays. I roped in a few friends to help with editing and framing things better, but writing the essays was something that only I could do. After all, you know your story best. You know why you are a great fit for the program. You know why MBA is a great career move for you. You and only you know all the answers. The only help you can get is improving the language, sentence structure etc.
The two essays I was required to write were based on how I would contribute to the diversity at ISB and how the ISB PGP would help in furthering my career goals. Both essays had a word limit and it is very important to stick to the limit.
In the end, apart from a sense of satisfaction, you will have greatly improved your understanding of yourself.
3. Recommendation: One recommendation is required. They need to fill an in-depth evaluation, so ensure that you pick someone who knows you well. I requested my boss in my previous organisation. He knew me well and had been a great mentor too. He has been very lucky for me, since I had asked him for a recommendation for IIM Bangalore too, and I got into both IIM-B and ISB!
4. Rest of the application: You need to fill in information about your educational qualifications, your work experience, some information about your parents etc. The work experience bit is most important here because you need to enter what you have done. You will need to frame points like you do in a resume. Try to ensure that you are communicating the impact created.
5. Interview: ISB interviews usually focus on getting to know you as a person. In my interview, there were mainly questions that can be called HR and behavioural questions apart from questions about my work experience. My preparation involved googling HR questions and trying to frame answers for them. I went over all my work ex, including my Positions of Responsibility (PORs) in college, so that I had ready examples for any question and so that it was easy for me start to start any answer with the best details. Why PGP and why ISB are also very important questions, so I had written and practised these. Additionally, try to look at the website, so if the interviewers ask if you have any questions for them, you can ask them questions based on the website. Overall, the interviewers were very friendly, (though one did try a bit of a stress test) and it lasted about a half-hour.
Some general tips:
- As mentioned on the website, ISB looks for a good academic record (previous grades and GRE/GMAT score), leadership attributes and personal attributes in a PGP candidate. In the first point, you can only change your GRE/GMAT score now. But the other two traits are things you can showcase through stellar essays and in the interview. So buck up and get going!
- In case your hobbies come up, ensure that you know some recent trivia or have a funny anecdote related to it if possible. Do remember that this is a professional setting so your humour should be appropriate.
- It is completely okay to ask for a minute to think. This will help you structure your answer better. I have been doing this since my internship interviews in college (I landed an internship at P&G, a Day 1 company) and I do not think this has left a negative impression on any of the interviewers.
- Unlike IIMs, ISB sends you the interview invite-only a week or so before your interview. This means you will be cramped for time, so you might want to start your preparation earlier.
- Try to finish the application a few days before the deadline. I was not able to mention my internship at P&G because the application showed an error. Had I completed it beforehand, I might have had enough time to reach out to the Admissions Office (which is super helpful!) and get it clarified. At least it worked out in the end. All’s well that ends well!
I hope this article helped. Please comment if you have any queries, I am more than happy to take them up.
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