ISB is ranking higher every year globally

Recently, Career 360 ranked ISB as the no. 1 B-school in India. Career 360 is part of the Outlook group. This ranking followed a methodology where the parameters for rankings were quite exhaustive. Looking at the parameters, one can easily guess that ISB deserved to be ranked higher. Although I am delighted with ISB earning this achievement, in my personal opinion, these rankings should not be used as a means of comparison among B-schools. Other schools IIMA, IIMB, IIMC and others are equally good. It all depends on your personal and professional preferences.

In late January 2010, the Indian School of Business was ranked 12^th in the Global MBA Rankings by the Financial Times of London. This is an amazing accomplishment for a school that just started 9 years ago. ISB has been featuring in the top 20 continuously since the last 3 rankings. Starting with a Global ranking of 20 in 2008, it moved up to 15 in 2009. This year's 12 is definitely a positive testimonial to the fact that ISB has tremendous potential to compete globally. While it gives a sense of pride and achievement to the whole of ISB community, the fact that it is ranked above global programs such as Kellogg, Stern, Tuck and the likes prompts readers to look into the FT rankings deeply.

The criteria used

As per Financial Times, "Three main areas are analyzed to create the top 100: alumni salaries and career development; the diversity and international reach of the business school and its MBA programme; and the research capabilities of each school." Digging deeper, we understand that "Weighted Salary" and "Salary percentage increase" each have a 20% weightage in the overall score, and the salaries are measured in terms of PPP adjusted dollar value. This skews the results a bit in ISB's favor considering most of the students are placed in India, where incoming salary is quite low. Post MBA average salary was Rs 19 lakhs per annum in 2008 and 15 lakhs in 2009, while the incoming batch had an average of Rs 7 lakh CTC. On an average the salary percentage increase is 166%, where ISB scored the top. Is it because MBA is overvalued in India, or is it that undergrads are paid very less? This is something to think about.

Another factor where ISB scored higher was the percentage of students placed, recorded as the % of students employed within three months of graduation. The figure stands at 97% for ISB, which is excellent for ISB. This is just because of the difference in placement culture between India and other countries. While in US and other countries, students find their job on their own, using their own networks, the school of course facilitates the process. In India, the school takes the responsibility to help you find recruiters, arrange for your interviews on campus and ensures that the whole batch gets placed. Well, it worked for ISB, isn't it? J

Where ISB ranked lower

Alumni Recommends. ISB is ranked 53 in the "recommends" criteria, which is saddening. But it is understandable, since the softer aspects of an MBA program may be more desirable, like International Students (3%), International faculty (16%), International Experience (rank 78), etc.

It has been repeatedly said that in an MBA program, you learn as much in class as outside from your peers. This makes the peer group requirement as diverse as possible to promote outside classroom learning from each other's experiences. Although ISB does maintain diversity to some extent, it still does not attract as many international students as a global B-school should. I have been close to ISB for so many years and I can see that the factors that attract international students (placements, Indian living standards, ISB brand, infrastructure, etc) are becoming much more favorable to foreign students, and the trend is changing.

What it means for ISB

The FT ranking sure provides credibility and global awareness to brand ISB. As someone said, "ISB should not just be an Indian B-school, but a global B-school located in India." With international faculty increasing, more international students joining the program and working for ISB, more cutting edge research, and increasing dedicated alumni base, ISB has a great potential to compete with Global B-schools, even if any rankings criteria change.

Having said that, I repeat, prospective MBA students should not use these rankings to compare B-schools. These rankings are just a mere tool for a B-school to prove credibility in the global space and are just an indicator of their potential.

thinkISB.com - A venture to guide ISB Aspirants

Recently, I had a chance to interact with some of the ISB alumni who have started a venture called thinkISB.com. I feel that is a very good initiative, coming from someone who has gone through the process, and more so, gone through the ISB journey. There are many applicants who are clueless regarding how to best project our personal story to the admissions committee. I feel that for admissions, more than a thorough understanding of the admission process, it is important to understand the MBA program and what the school has to offer. This is where initiatives like thinkISB.com come into the picture to provide accurate and targeted information.

Delving into the history of how, why and by whom thinkISB.com was started, I found that thinkISB.com, was born with an aim to guide aspirants (both, fresh and re-applicants) through the admission process of the Indian School of Business (ISB). The founders, all alumni of ISB, have diverse industry experience and have worked in close coordination with ISB Admissions committee in past.

The admission process of ISB might appear daunting and overwhelming for fresh applicants and may not be clearly understood by the re-applicant pool. It is believed that only the best make it to best b-schools like ISB. But a lot of brilliant aspirants, for the lack of personalized guidance or unclear understanding of admission process, fail every year to project themselves well to the admissions committee. Quite undeniably, in many such cases, professional admission guidance can make the winning difference. thinkISB provide that guidance to ISB Aspirants.

For more information, feel free to reach them at

EMAIL: info@thinkISB.com
PHONE: 9010917222 / 9010918222
WEB: www.thinkISB.com
BLOG: http://thinkisb.com/blog

ISB Application 2009-10 Essay Analysis

The Admissions for the One Year PGP for the class of 2011 is now open. The application portal is also LIVE. Here is the link for the same. http://pgpapp.isb.edu/user/default.aspx

The application deadlines are:

Cycle 1 Application Deadline September 15, 2009
Cycle 2 Application Deadline December 1, 2009

I had written a note on previous years’ Essays:
* Essay Analysis for Class of 2009
* Essay Analysis for Class of 2010


I did a simple analysis of this year’ essays and provided a personal opinion on the same. Take this just as my personal opinion and ISB has no official connection with the same.

Essay 1: Give 3 reasons as to why you should be selected to the class of 2011. These reasons should ideally differentiate you from the applicant pool and should be backed with some data. (300 words max)

According to me, this is the most simple and at the same time, the most important question of all. You simply have to differentiate yourself but remember: You do not have to be an overachiever to differentiate yourself. You do not have to do something away from the normal to achieve differentiation. Just sit back, reflect on what you have done and you will find the answers. Here are some tips to find the answer:

1. Just imagine that all people from your industry or company are put in a room together. ISB has to pick one person of them. What selling points do you have?
2. Jot down everything that you have done since graduation, be it extra-curriculars, achievements at work, involvement in social clubs, etc.
3. Use post-its: Write one bullet point about yourself on one post-it each. This point need not be an achievement, but can be rather normal (to you). Spread them out. Now make three boxes marked “Personal”, “Professional” and “Community”. You can make different boxes, according to your needs. Now classify each post-it to a box so that you have 3 clusters in front of you. In each box, start removing the least important post-it. Repeat this activity for each box until you are left with only one post-it in each box. Here is your answer.

Some general pointer on the purpose behind this question

The batch strength of ISB is 560 and every B-school wants each student to bring something worthwhile to the community that he/she can contribute. Consider the fact that learning in an MBA environment is not limited to classroom. Peer learning forms an important part of education here. To achieve this, a B-school must ensure that its batch is diverse enough that each person contributes as much to in-class discussions as to outside classroom interactions. These diversity factors can be in terms of international work experience, excellent academics, good leadership initiatives, start-up experience, and so on.

Structure of the essay

In my opinion, do not give any introduction or ending summary. Just come straight to the point, considering 300 word limit. If you really want, just give a one-liner introduction mentioning the three factors that you are going to talk about. This introduction is important if you are blending the three points in the essay and not separately listing them out under different headings. There is no one right approach. Just write it with your heart and make it either a story like essay or 3 points under 3 headings. Both are fine. The important thing to remember here is to be precise.

Essay 2: Describe a challenging assignment you have handled (at work or outside) to date. What were the challenges and how did you handle them. What were the personal learnings you derived from this assignment. (300 words max)

Challenges contribute significantly in developing professional and personal maturity. Answer this essay with a story to describe a challenge that helped you gain a mature approach towards life and work. Just pick one story, keep it simple and short and focus more on the learning part. This is a great opportunity to highlight your resilience and ability to learn from even the most difficult circumstances. Basically, you have to highlight how you grew either because of the experience or in spite of it.

A suggested structure to this response can be

* Story – Describe the initial challenge
* Comment on your thoughts and actions in response. If applicable, comment in internal thoughts as well as external reactions to display the nature of the challenge


It is not necessary to have overcome the challenge. You may still be in the process or have failed to overcome it completely. But the positive change did that bring in you is more important. Remember that your thoughts and response to the challenge should display maturity, and a common theme of sincerity towards improvement should come out.

Essay 3: Briefly assess your career progression till date along with your assessment of your future career goals. Discuss how your career goals will be met by the ISB’s one year program. (300 words max)

This is a very simple factual question. But the challenge here is put your story and future plans in 300 words. This exercise will take a lot of time and effort. In my opinion, the steps to structure this essay are:

* Jot down everything you have done till now in your professional life
* Answer a why to every decision that you took
* This should result in a chronological story with reasons for every step
* You have to tailor some things to show not that your decision was a consequence BUT because of your original plan, you took a decision. Basically, your decisions should be a consequence of your master plan
* Finally justify how an MBA fits into the overall plan regarding the next steps
* Now when everything is in place, put everything together. Make an attempt to bring out an interesting story that answers the reason of all your decisions and brings certain qualities evidently. Make sure that those qualities are coming out clearly and the user should not have to struggle to find those out.
* If space allows, you may also add a line or two about how an MBA from ISB specifically will help you. This answer will require some amount of research from your side regarding what ISB offers and how it fits into your expectations from an MBA program.


All the best for your application.

Nominated for Best of Blogging 2008-09

April has been a month of surprises and events for me. I joined the Indian School of Business (ISB) on 11th April and began my MBA. As many have heard, an MBA can be too hectic. So I wanted to enjoy my share of free time before starting the stressful year. I traveled to Goa and got tanned on the beaches. Then I went further down in Kerala (God's Own Country) and visit the tea estates of Munnar and the back waters in Alleppey. It was indeed a holiday well spent and got me ready for the MBA.


2 days ago when I got my laptop back from the local IT guys from ISB, after they made sure that my laptop is ready to use here, I got another pleasant surprise. I have been nominated by Clear Admit for their Best of Blogging Awards 2008-09. I feel honored and motivated at the same time to update my blog more often.

For those who do not know, Clear Admit is an admissions consulting company that also have an MBA Admissions Blog that helps share information by other applicants and current students. In addition, they also keep updated on various activities happening in B-schools all over the world.

I really feel elated and proud. This goes out to all my readers who are my real motivation. I wish to keep updating my blog on application process and life at ISB.

Last day at ISB - Graduation Day '09

Today, 4th of April, 2009, was the Graduation Day at the Indian School of Business (ISB) for the class of 2009. Today also marked my last day at ISB as a spouse. Today, my wife, became an MBA, an ISM alumnus and my senior.

Today the campus was abuzz with high activity. Families have arrived on campus to attend the Graduation Day, people are busy packing their stuff as most would be leaving ISB in a day or two. Coming back to the G-day.

The Chief Guest of the evening was Arun Sarin, ex-CEO of Vodafone. The other distinguished guests were Rajat Gupta, chairman ISB and ex-McKinsey head and Dipak Jain, dean, Kellogg School of Management. The evening started with a speech by Ajit Rangnekar, current dean of ISB. He talked about what ISB has achieved in the 8 years of its existence, what ISB is all about and what ISB plans to achieve in the short and long term.

His speech was followed by the guest of honor, Arun Sarin. He talked at length about what leaders are, the importance of integrity in business, and what a dream job should be. Considering the gloomy placement scenario this year, he did motivate by asking the students to follow their dream and not just run after 'any' job. He also mentioned that luck is definitely a factor in your life. While everybody knew that they will get a job soon, it was good to hear it from someone and of course, a boost is required.

After Arun Sarin, came Rajat Gupta. Although he too talked about the same motivational thought leadership stuff, but he accompanied that with his story. Let me share it with you. He went to Harvard Business School right after undergrad from IIT. But the year he graduated was in the middle of an economic slowdown, so jobs for student visa holders were less. Since he was there with 0 experience, hardly any company offered him any interview. He heard from McKinsey, did 2 interviews with them but then was turned down because he had no experience. After a while, at a chat with one of his profs, he came to know that his prof was the McKinsey interviewer's past colleague. On knowing that Rajat did not get an offer, the prof wrote to McKinsey, asking them to interview Rajat, recommending him and thus Rajat secured a job with McKinsey. Rest everybody knows. It was quite motivational.

This was followed by the awards/certificate distribution ceremony.

At the end, Kellogg dean Dipak Jain came to speak. He also serves on the board of ISB. I must say his speech was the stealer of the night. I have never heard such an influential speaker in my life who can grab the attention of audience of all ages. He impressed not just me, not just hte students, but everyone sitting there including the parents. That man, is so humble that you will never feel small. He will connect with you and make you feel empowered. He shared with us stories of life and that was what made us connect with him. While talking about the economic recession, he also touched upon the luck aspect but accompanied with an analogy.

He said life is like a game of playing cards. You can get very bad cards every time they are dealt. But, if you know how to play them, you cna be a winner. A person with very good cards can also lose. So just know how to play your cards and you will do well in life. Moreover, talking about the mood of students which was obviously not very good, considering the placements, he gave another hit.

He said humans should follow the refrigerator principle in life. If things are kept cool, they stay fresh for a longer period of time.

Isnt that the ultimate mood booster? With that the ceremony came to an end and everybody had photo sessions and a sumptuous dinner.

It was not over yet. A late night party continues and is going on as I write. This party is required my everyone to say the final goodbyes. Tomorrow, I am also leaving the campus and will return when there will all be new faces to make new friends. I will go now to say my goodbye to the friends I have made over the year. ISB is just not a good school by itself; it is made good by its people, who are amazing. I am sure the next batch, my classmates are amazing too.

It is 1 am and I am off to the party now.

My Journey to ISB

Now when I have decided that I will be joining ISB (Indian School of Business) in April, I thought of writing the whole story down. I want to share my story of why I applied to ISB again and again and why was an MBA so important to me. Ok, I know "An MBA is just a means to an end and not an end in itself". It's just that with each passing year, my aspirations changed and what started as a necessity without reason became a reason for my career progression.

How it all began

In my final year of engineering I decided to write the Common Admision Test (CAT) for admission to IIMs (Indian Institute of Management). I pursued engineering from a well recognised college and for some random reason wanted a brand for my MBA too. So IIMs were the obvious choice. Little did I know the significance of an MBA and just wanted to follow the herd going into the Goldmans, Lehmans and McKinseys. But anyhow, I just did not want "some" job. I wrote CAT and secured a decent enough percentile, that was good enough to satisfy MDI but my verbal was not good enough for any of the IIMs. I sat for MDI interview and cleared it. Then the IIM bug hit me again and decided that if I ever do an MBA, it will be from a top school.

I joined one of the largest IT Services firm in India. I excelled at work and at the same time, religiously wrote CAT every year. CAT for me became a routine, like a festival that "has" to be celebrated every year. Every time I was stuck with 98 something percentile, not good enough for IIMs. Man! High population has its own effects.

2 years passed. It was November again and I screwed up CAT. Again. Then I looked at ISB as an "option". Ok, I have some idea what I want to do with my life and an MBA was utterly necessary. ISB's R2 deadline was due Jan 15 and I had one month to prepare. This preparation included writing GMAT and the essays. Tough task. But I decided to give it a shot. It was pure gamble with my career. In fact, I should give this warning to my readers "Don't try this at home!!!" I wrote my GMAT in a month's time on Jan 5 2005 and secured a 710. In another 10 days ISB app was in. I received an interview call, screwed it up and the result was an obvious Ding.

The Second Attempt

The first attempt was an eye opener. I realized that there is something that I lack and that something was professional maturity. I would only gain that with proper experience. I decided to take additional responsibilities at work, looked at the bigger picture always and thus gained some good recognition.

But still, there was something missing. I needed something different now and decided to make a move to another company that would provide me with a completely different exposure. I joined a product firm in a dvision that was formed after that giant acquired a startup. This was something unique. I always looked for opportunities to contribute towards a change in my organisation that I work for. This helped me in two ways. Excellent recognition, fast promotion and greater responsibilities were one. At the same time, I strengthened my application for an MBA.

Till the year before this I was religiously writing CAT. The CAT festival was celebrated every year.

Then came sanity and I wrote another ISB application. In R2. Same story again. Interview followed by a Ding. This was a setback. I was pretty sure this time but something went wrong.

My Confidence

By this time, I had started doubting my abilities. Maybe I am not an MBA material at all. Let's excel at what I have. But it was temporary. I kept telling myself that I am strong and I have to get into my target industry (why MBA). M/B/B (Guess) became my dream and I firmly believed that I am an MBA material. In 2006-2007 I strengthened my application. I spent a lot of time on introspection and assigned "Why?" to everything that I had done in life till then. This helped me a lot.

I wrote the admission test for Mensa and cleared it.
I started this blog and focused on improving my writing skills. (Ok maybe I'm not too god now also but you should have seen how I wrote 3 years ago)
I got a substantial international work experience.
I made significant positive changes at my work place.
I wrote GMAT again. (You may ask why again after a 710. I had some reasons)

I was back on my feet again.

The Third Attempt

Should have been my last attempt. I wanted to leave no stone unturned. I wrote GMAT again. I worked harder on my essays and was ready.

Of course, it was a different time and I was admitted. I had achieved what I wanted to and am now prepared to begin another journey. Although I felt a sense of achievement, I knew it was not and is a new beginning in my professional life.

The ISB admit means a new beginning. It means that I am capable. It means that I am part of a group from whom I have a lot to learn from. It means I am in.

My ISB Interview Experience - 2008 - Part Deux

I was happy. I was excited. I got the much awaited interview call from ISB. This was my third interview with ISB and I am not ashamed of this fact. I have never failed. To me, all unsuccessful ventures were termed as "learning experiences" and not failures. But it was the third time and that got me highly nervous during the interview.

Anyway, it was 8-Nov 2:50 pm. My interview was scheduled for 3:20 pm. I reached the venue just to find the whole floor deserted. All the rooms around were empty. "Did I read the correct date?" Yes it was. Then I rushed to the Admissions Office just to find out that the interview venues had been shifted to the Executive Housing (EH) because of Belgium's King's visit. I found out that had I come through the main entrace, there was a security personnel guiding you to the new venue. I was already on campus so I did not use the main entrance. Anyways, I was late and I had to run now for my interview. Gosh, it was so hot that day. By the time I reached EH, I was sweating. Thanks to the sun and the suit, I was feeling so fresh now. I got the 100 words essay on the word "fathom"; with one hand I was wiping my sweat and trying to write with second calmly. I was blacked out. Where was I? Did I prepare for this interview? What answers did I prepare? What do I have to say? What's happening?

At around 3:40 I was called in. There were three people: an adcom senior person (M), a lady from the adcom, Jayshree (F) and a current student (S). I just sat down with the essay sheet in my hand. I expected them to ask for it but they didn't, immediately.

[[ I am writing each and everything that happened in the interview including the answers I gave. I know I am out of the race but I want to help R2 applicants and other readers of my blog. ]]

F: So you are applying for the third time. What happened the last two times?
Me: Well, the forst time was in 2005, and I was waitlisted after the interview.
F: Oh.. (asking another panelist) Was there a waitlist policy?
F: (To me) So why weren't you selected?
Me: The feedback that I received...
F: No. Not the feedback. What do you think were the reasons? How did the interview go?
Me: Ma'am I believe the interview went great. I think I wasn't prepared for an MBA at that point of time. I had 2.5 years of work-experience.
F: Ok, What happened the second time?
Me: Last time I applied in 2007. In fact, I was interview earlier this year.
F: So you were called for an interview again?
Me: (C'mon, I'm not that bad) Yes Ma'am. The intervew went great again. I got the feedback that I needed to show more energy and enthusiasm during the interview. Based on that and based on the discussions that I had with current students and alums, I think I was not able to present myself effectively.

F: Ok.. So tell me. What are your career goals?
Me: I want to open my own network integration firm 5-6 years down the line. I have had good amount of exposure in telecom business ranging from telecom software services to product development. But before that...
F: To open your own firm.. (Me: oh please let me complete) why do you need an MBA?
Me: Ma'am before starting my venture, I want to gain experience in the business developement area of a high-tech firm. Once I feel I have gained sufficient exposure I will take the plunge. An MBA will provide me with the required knowledge and I will build a sound network, that will help me again when I start on my own.

S: So what if you don't get selected? Will you never achieve your goal?
Me: Of course I will. I will find ways to get into sales or business development in my organisation. But that will take more time. An MBA will facili...
F: No we are not asking why an MBA will help. Anyway, why are you so desperate about doing an MBA?
Me: I am not desperate about doing an MBA. (I was totally blacked out by this point. Somebody, please get me out of here) I have a specific plan in mind and I am working towards it.

M: So when you said high-tech firms, what are the firms that you are looking at?
Me: Well, high-tech firms not only include telecom firms but other networking firms too. Like Cisco, BT, for example that offer BD roles in ISB.
M: Ok. Why you only chose network integration business? Isn't there too much competition there?
Me: I agree there is. But over the years I have gained competence understanding the technology and I think I will do well. As far as competition is concerned there are firms like X, Y, etc that serve GSM or 3G networks. I want to enter into 4G equipments and thus would target only a small segment at first.

S: What is your goal? MBA or ISB?
Me: (I think they had already made up that third time means two times failure. Let him go) Sir I think it's neither. Opening my own firm is my goal and MBA is just a means to achieve that.
F: There are so many technocrats these days that venture into entrepreneurship without an MBA and are successful. So why do you want an MBA?
Me: (didn't I already tell that?) blurted out the same thing.

F: Okay, your application says you organized an event in college... (Specfics about that incident)
Me: (Smiling) Well, that was one interesting event. (Told them in detail)
F: Tell me one thing. When I moved from "Why MBA" to extra curriculars I saw a big smile of relief on your face. Were you not feeling comfortable during that time?
Me: I agree I did smile (I was smiling then too) but that was not a smile of relief. I was just reminded of that event and thus smiled.

Some more extra curricular discussion.

S: I see you are a Mensa member. What is Mensa and what prompted you to join it?
Me: Answered in detail.
S: Ok. solve this puzzle for me.
Me: (Took some time. Halfway through I hought of giving up too. but finally managed to solve it)

F: I'll give you a simpler problem now. Tell me how many paper cups would be consumed in ISB per day.
Me: (Good. estimation question. I was more confident now) I was solving and as the usual tips say, I was trying to think aloud. I was calculating weekly numbers. She stopped me twice correcting "Just give me the daily numbers"
Me: Sorry ma'am I was just trying to think aloud.

I got so confused by that time by interruptions that I mixed up some weekly and daily numbers and gave the answer as 3000. I think it is huge and I deviated a lot.

F: Ok. Thanks a lot.
Me: (What?? That's it? No "Do you want to tell something else?" No "Do you have any questions for us?")

If that's it, then that's it. I got it up, thanked everyone and left. The interview lasted around 30 minutes and I did not get a good feeling after that. Went for a swim later and washed away the worries.

I ruined it and it took me 2 days to get over it. In the meantime I met Ashwanth who had come over for interview the next day. Ashwanth, I think you have a good chance. All the best.

I am off to my other apps now.

ISB Interview Invite and Other Updates

It has been more than 3 weeks since I updated my blog. I have been rather extremely busy at work. I traveled to Germany for around 10 days for customer meetings. I must say it was an immense learning experience in terms of exposure to real customer expectations management and product release planning. Anyway, this visit and loads of work is my excuse to submitting only one application in R1 (Tuck), in addition to ISB. Yeah, I know I am bad at planning, time management, etc. But now I am targeting at least 3 other schools in R2.

ISB Interview Invite

I received in invitation to interview with the ISB Adcom on 8th November at 15:20 hours. Last weekend, I met a couple of friends and acquaintances who had come to ISB for interview. It was good to get me into the feel of the interview and help me get into the interview mode. Well, there are some advantages of staying on ISB campus.

Anyway, I am off to preparing for ISB interview. This being my third ISB interview, I want to overprepare and leave no stone unturned. Let's see what happens. All the best to others who are yet to interview and to those who have already interviewed.

ISB Application Submitted

I hope I can justify my long break from blogging. I was too much into the ISB App. And finally when it is submitted, I am feeling a sigh a relief.

The fact that I am staying on the ISB campus has certainly helped me. Having interacted with so many people here, I developed very good relations. So there were a lot of people to review my essays and provide valuable comments, beyond pointing out cosmetic errors. Anyway, the night of 14th September (15th being the deadline) was very long. On 13th, I thought my essays are near completion and I made 14th afternoon as my target. But on 14th morning, my final reviewer gave solid comments that required me change my 1st essay completely.

I spent the whole day on the 1st essay itself and getting that reviewed twice again by other friends here. But at the end, I was satisfied. The new essay had come out very well and was a true reflection of who I am. I learnt a lot of things with respect to essay writing. I was highlighting a lot of aspects of my personality, but I was not highlighting my best. When people probe you, that brings out the best in you and that is what you have to focus on in your application essays.

I was awake till 6 am on 15th and slept only after I had made the final payment. There were a lot of things to do. The word limit specified by ISB (300) was too stringent. And guess what, you are not even allowed 301 words. So I guess it is strict and it involves a lot of word play, reframing of sentences, etc. At times, you feel the essence or the meaning is lost if you forcefully eat up words. So it is advisable that you complete your drafts long before the deadline and try to reframe the sentences in a logical manner so as to not lose the meaning. Believe me, it is possible.

Monday was a bad day since I showed up at office only at 3pm. It took me two days to get bac to my normal schedule. Now too much of procrastination and break from essays, I have to get back to another set. Now let's see what I have:

Tuck (EA 15th Oct)
INSEAD (R1 1st Oct)
Darden (28th Oct)
Haas (4 Nov)

Well, it's a pretty difficult target considering I have a lot going on at work and a few work related visits are also planned in October that will not allow me to give my 100% to essay writing during that time. But then, I have no other choice but to squeeze out every minute and put into essay writing. You do not procrastinate over important decisions in life. Let's get to Tuck, I love that school.

Subscribe in a reader

ISB Application 2008-09 Essay Analysis

It is application season again and ISB is out with its essays again. Well, it has been quite some time now. I was just thinking about those essays and thought of analyzing what an applicant is expected to write. Basically, ISB must have some purpose behind giving out those topics. We should analyze that. This year's competiton is going to be tough and there are multiple reasons.

1. ISB has been ranked 20th in the FT Global MBA rankings. That made sure ISB gets enough media coverage and international popularity.
2. ISB has been growing at an exponential pace. With its awesome faculty and impressive placement numbers, ISB sure will make it big time in the international B-school community.

I wrote the analysis of last year's essay topics too. ISB sure does come out with a unique essay each time that stumps the applicants and the applicants who are writing multiple apps must write at least one essay that is unique to ISB. (At least, I am stumped!!!). Last year it was "million dollars or knighthood" dilemma. This year it the "Zumba river" ethical dilemma essay. Let's see what this year's essays have in store:

1. Please give three reasons why ISB should admit you into the class of 2010. These reasons should ideally differentiate you from your competition. (300 words max)

This essay is similar to last year's essay 1 that clearly asked about your diversity factor. Most of the B-schools today focus on peer learning. Of course, in today's times, a business graduate needs to be aware of the functioning of different industries, needs to have an open mind, develop a global adaptability and be responsive of different cultures. To achieve this, a B-school should ensure that it has the right mix of students that learn from each other well. This calls for a diverse batch:

a. diverse in terms of nationality:the FT rankings will attract applicants from different countries. the current batch has 4% of international students (international passport holders). For a global school, there is a long way to go.
b. diverse in terms of industry: As is a fact, there are a lot of engineers and consultants applying to a lot of B-schools. While discussing a case, you expect a different opinion from your peer group. For example, while sitting in the entrepreneurship class, you may want to hear the legal implications from a lawyer, you may want to learn how to approach a VC from someone who has already done so. Just imagine the amount of practical learning you get.
c. miscellaneous: There are other ways to differentiate yourself. Maybe through your work-experience, your contributions outside of your work, your extra-curricular achievements. It can be anything.

Just think of ways how you can differentiate yourself from people of your background and how that will contribute to the student body. Breeze!

2. You are contesting the election to be the President of the ISB Student Body. Write a speech you will deliver to the student body on why they should elect you as the President? (300 words max)

This is a typical and an atypical essay. It is a typical leadership essay where you have prepare a manifesto and do a sales pitch for yourself. But what does ISB have to do with that?

This is an opportunity to present yourself as a leader. You need not be in a leading position at your workplace. Just identify the qualities of a good leader: taking initiatives, thinking out of the box, looking at the bigger picture, etc. Just reflect back on your work-life and bring out examples where you have shown such traits. These examples help identify people with natural leadership bent of mind. The examples may not be necessarily of the workplace. You may want to show how active you are outside of your workplace and taken initiatives in community activities too. This is the place to show just that.

Coming to the second part. Keep in mind that this is about ISB's Student Body president. So obviously you need to know about ISB and what contributions you will make at ISB. Of course, there are always things to be done for improvement at any place. So do your research. Find out what are the responsibilities of the ISB Student body and what is the role and scope of the president. Connect with ISB and think of how ou can contribute were you the president.

3. CASE : You have been appointed to head the team to build a dam across the River Zumba. Success in this project is critical for your company and would earn you a promotion. Failure would mean that your company would be bankrupt and will take along with it, its investors and its employees. Building a dam across the river would result in deforestation of a portion of the rainforests and would mean relocation of the tribals and destabilization of wild life at Zumba. There is resistance from environmental groups against your project. You are meeting the head of the resistance movement in one hour wherein you would have to explain your decision. Describe what you would do and why? (You will be evaluated on the creativity and practicality of your solution). (300 words max)

An Awesome Essay!!! I loved it.

A very practical situation. A similar ethical dilemma can be faced in any industry at many situations. You are presented with two positions: one is profitable for your company and the other for mankind and environment. On the first look, it looks like a dilemma. But if you think deeply and passionately for one stance, you can convince anyone why our position is stronger.

You are expected to come out with a practical and creative solution to come out of the situation and be a winner. As always, you have to show what qualities you have and be a convincing and effective leader in this situation.

-----

The above is just my personal interpretation of the ISB essays. I request all my readers to provide more inputs if there is any other aspect that can be thought of or if I have been wrong in my thought process. All the best to all ISB applicants.

Why was I not selected at ISB

So I am at ISB finally. I always wanted to come here and I have, but not as a student. My wife is a current ISB student and I moved to the campus along with her. Well, both of us applied together and wished both would study together, but it did not happen. But anyways, I have not been wasting time. It was not much of an inconvenience moving here as I was already working in Hyderabad, so just moved out of the house to the ISB provided studio apartment. Anyhow before I get my feedback from ISB, I contemplated what could I have done better to improve my chances of admission here. Rather, what I should have avoided that might have ruined my chances. As I list the reasons, these also specify the lessons I learnt and should be followed by every re-applicant:

Photo by better not bitter

• Apply in R1. I should have applied in R1. If I am a re-applicant, I genuinely show my interest in the program only if I apply early.

• Grab every opportunity to sell yourself, show more passion. I should have been more focussed on selling myself during the interview. For example, when the interviewer asked the last question, "Is there anything else you want to add?", he was literally giving me an option to sell myself and talk about anything I liked. But that was a blackout time, I could not think of anything and moved on. When I was out of the interview room, I could count at least 10 things that I could have said. So guys, now you know how to be better prepared. :)

• Show more maturity and a better fit. As I am a re-applicant, I was supposed to write an additional essay that talks about what has changed since I last applied. A lot was changed. It is two years since I last applied. And you know what I wrote... I mentioned the facts, I talked about the new job, new location, the purpose of my job change, and all. But I never told them what I learnt in these two years, how and if I am more mature now, what perspective have I gained. These are the things that would define me and that's what a B-school wants to know.

It has been three weeks now since I moved to ISB as a 'spouse' and all this time, I have seen life at ISB more closely that made me more motivated to apply again. I always knew that I want to do an MBA, but I'm never applying passionately. This time, I'll apply to more than 1 school to improve my chances of doing an MBA. Since my score is more than 3 years old now, it makes more sense for me to retake GMAT. I have scheduled my GMAT for mid-June and now starting my preparation.

ISB Ding

I went into hibernation after giving my ISB interview, the only school I applied to. 3 days before the results were actually released, I attended the ISB R1 admits and R2 "hopefuls" meet here in Hyderabad. It was a great meet and I was excited to study with those guys once I get into ISB.

But alas, something else was in store for me and one fine morning, when I was early to office, I got an SMS saying that I was not accepted. It really came as a shock to me and for the next one hour I was feeling, hoping rather, that it is a mistake and cannot be true. I mean, everything was in place now. Last time I had applied with 2.5 years of work-ex and was waitlisted. I screwed up my interview last time. This year, I applied with close to 5 years of work-ex and far better essays. My interview was more mature. Considering all this, I had assumed that I will get through this time and had planned everything.

Anyways, now I have got used to the fact that I will not be doing an MBA this year. Right now, am focusing on my job and keeping myself updated on the news on global MBA front. It's time to do some introspection to figure out the reasons for my reject. That is, before I get a feedback from ISB.

Why is ISB ranked 20th in FT Global MBA

The recent news that ISB is ranked 20th worldwide in the FT Global MBA rankings has invited a lot of opinions, objections and praises. Although I personally feel that getting this ranking is definitely good for ISB as the first thing ISB needs to be acknowledged in the global arena is exposure, and rankings is a definite way to achieve it. I do have some points to talk in favour of and discussions on some of the doubts that people might have.

Understanding the criteria
Every ranking institution follow a different criteria to compile the rankings, a fact every individual must understand before deciding whether a B-school deserved the particular ranking or not. I am not concluding anything here, but merely going over the facts. By going through the FT methodology, we see that “Weighted salary (US$)” and “Salary percentage increase” contribute 40 per cent of the rank for each school. This data is collected for the last three years beginning with the batch of 2004.

ISB has beaten the league US-Schools
Well, it comes as a big surprise that ISB is ranked above league schools, he likes of Kellogg, Duke, Anderson, Darden. Again, if you consider the salary percentage increase, it is understandable since the salaries of the above schools are more or less constant over the years and since ISB is gaining more corporate exposure with each coming year, the salaries have been rising at a fast pace. To add to that, the dollar has fallen considerable last year and if you adjust the salaries to PPP, the increase would be a lot.

I am not undermining the potential that ISB has, but I am just stating my personal analysis to acknowledge the position ISB has achieved.

ISB still needs to catch up on student diversity in nationality. Then why?
I agree to the fact that as compared to all other schools, ISB scores the lowest in terms of diversity. International students form only 5% of the batch as per the data, which is too low. But come to think of it, how will international students get to know that a school called ISB exist if it is not in the rankings. You ask yourself, will you apply to a US school which is not even there in the rankings? I won't, even if I have heard a lot of good things through word of mouth. I would like to know where it stands as compared to other schools. So exposure is the first thing required by ISB to attract foreign students, and the first way to get exposure is the rankings.

Why not IIMs?
Again, I do not want to undermine the fact that on some parameters, the IIMs score much above ISB, like Alumni base to talk about. But here we are comparing apples and oranges. IIMs cater to a different set of candidates. It is a totally different debate and I plan to write a new article on this argument. Promise.

Consequences
There certainly will be increase in the number of applications in the coming years, as if the current competition was not enough. :) No seriously, the rankings will attract more students and definitely more from foreign shores. Apart from that, I think this ranking is a major global reputation booster for ISB and would impact its placements in a positive manner.

My ISB Interview Experience - 2008

This post is coming nearly a month after my last one. I know the frequency had been very less and I so much want to be regular on my blog. Anyways, I had my ISB interview on the 23rd of January at the ISB Admissions Office, Hyderabad.

My "Profile" as people have the interpretation of the term:
GMAT 710
Close to 5 years of work-ex in IT Services and Telecom Product firm (Infosys and Qualcomm)
Decent Acads
Decent extra-currics
3 months international experience as a lead

My interview was scheduled at 2 pm and I reached there by 1:20 pm. Was interacting with other waiting applicants when I was given a paper for a write-up on "Finesse". Frankly speaking, I had no idea what the word exactly meant. I knew it is something related to putting perfection in your creation and built something around it. Took some 10 minutes to write and then continued chatting with other interviewees.

Was called in at around 2:10 pm. There were 3 interviewers in the panel. I do not recall the names of two of them (excuse me for the nervousness at the time, was finding it hard to concentrate). The guy who led me in was Joe, is one of the adCom members and I met him first in 2004 when I attended the the ISB Information Session in Bangalore.

Anyways, so here here goes the interview dialogue with P as the Panel member and N as me:

P: So you applied in 2006 too, did you get a feedback on why you were not selected? Were you interviewed?
N: Yes Sir, I was waitlisted after the interview. As per the feedback I received, I guess I was not able to convey my reasons for pursuing an MBA properly.

P: So would you tell the reason now?
N: Told the reason for an MBA and my backing work-ex.

P: So you were in Australia? What did you learn about the multi-cultural experience as you have written?
N: Told them about my experiences, the people I met and a little about the challenging project.

P: What was the challenge in the project and how did you face it?
N: complete description of the experience.

P: Okay, so what do you do apart from work? What are your passions?
N: Told them about my interests in painting, dancing, reading and the recently developed interest in blogging. Talked about blogging in detail, covering my blog and the current trends in blogging.

P: What do you write in your blog. Tell us about what you have written.
N: Gave them a description of the topics on which I write. In addition, I gave them a pointer on the most popular article on my blog which is the ISB application essays analysis.

The discussion became interesting from here when they asked me to share the analysis with them. We had a very healthy discussion on the latest essay topics and my views on them.

P: Okay, so what companies are you looking for post MBA?
N: Gave them a couple of names related to my field (telecom) where I would like to be in that can offer me the role I want.

P: What specific role are you looking for?
N: explained it.

P: I see you have learnt French. To what level do you know the language and why did you learn it?
N: Told them that I have completed it till Level I where I can have basic conversation in present tense, and my motivation behind learning it.

That was it. I asked a couple of questions on their courses which could help me in my entrepreneurial venture. Another question on the current status that ISB has applied for rankings and its future impact.

All in all, it was a very friendly discussion. No grilling involved. I am not sure what to make out of this. Just keeping my fingers crossed till 15th Feb.

My advice: you should know what you have written and have a convincing experience to back everything. Just be yourself and know your application well.

ISB plans to set up second campus; to go global

Source: Business Line

The Indian School of Business (ISB) will be setting up another campus in India besides actively exploring the feasibility of going to foreign shores.

“There has been a consensus in our board that an additional campus in India is highly required keeping in view the growing image of the school,” Prof. M. Rammohan Rao, Dean, ISB, told Business Line here.

The school, however, has not zeroed in on any location for the proposed campus and was currently weighing various options.

Further, the school is also mulling launching a campus abroad as well. “All these goals and strategies to be adopted are being hammered as part of Vision 2030 on which we are working for the last six months,” the Dean said.

To cater to the growing demand from the corporate world, the school will also ramp up its class strength from the current 425 to 560 from 2009-10. “We are constructing another student’s village to support the increased numbers,” Mr Rao said.

Consequently, the permanent faculty would also be doubled to 45. “In addition to doubling, we will be introducing special incentives/programmes to attract talented faculty and retain them,” he said. As of now, ISB has seen only two faculty quitting from a team of 22 in the last three years.

To increase its focus on research, the six-year-old school would introduce pre-doctoral course from the next academic year.

“It would be a two-year foundation course in methodology and one’s basic area of interest/research. After completion the students would be sent to the New York University and other universities with which we have tie-ups for doctoral programmes,” the ISB Chief said.

A dedicated centre of leadership innovation would be launched next month.

“This will also take up extensive research on best management practices and on what takes to be a successful global leader.

“We are trying to synthesise some of the management/leadership principles enunciated in Indian economy, philosophy and culture with the current corporate needs,” he added.

On the funding requirements for the expansion, the board members are ready to extend significant funding. “There are many options and the exercise is on,” he said.

ISB Interview Invite!!!

The fact that I am a reapplicant did not quite instill that excitement in me on receiving the interview invite email. I will be satisfied only by winning the complete battle, that is, on a final admit. But, I have put in a lot of effort this time into my essays, I must say. On reading my previous essays (was waitlisted previously), I could feel the innocence of a young applicant and an immature mind. It has been two years now and my essays, and of course my personality, show a lot more maturity in terms of my aspirations and my experiences.

Of course, this is a personal opinion and it would matter only when the ISB adCom feel the same. For me, the tryst for an MBA had been a very long journey and I will share my story with everyone once I get into a program. This journey would end where another journey would start on a separate dimension. Enough of philosophical blabbering, my interview is on 23rd January, 2008 in Hyderabad at 2 pm.

Now is the time to reopen all those emails on the isb-pgp group where R1 applicants have shared their interview experiences. The first thing would be to collate all of them and prepare a set of questions. Next obvious step - hack my application. Read through all my essays and prepare all possible questions that could arise. Keep an example handy for all situations and strengths mentioned. I'll probably forward my application to a couple of experienced friends and ask them to point questions from that.

Let's see what happens this time.

One Down!!! ISB!!!

It has been a really long time since I am off the blog. There were a lot of things happening and keeping me on my toes. I got sick, got well, submitted the ISB app, got panicky at the end, and finally on 15th Nov, 10 pm, I clicked the submit button.

At 8:30 pm, I got some review comments that required me to change a lot of my second essay, my option of million dollars was not very convincing and some rewording was required. I was on the verge of a heart attack when suddenly I saw a red coloured message flashing on ISB's website saying that the deadline had been moved to 16th. Although I was relieved but did not want to push it to one more day so I skipped dinner and completed my application.

As soon as I got over with that, I got busy with my pending work at office. It is no longer a 9 to 5 job. It is 9 to 10 literally speaking (it is not 1 hour duration. With a little IQ applied, it would translate to a duration of 13 hours). And then came the festive season - Diwali. I believe Diwali is not well spent if it is not spent with your family. So I was on a break, a real break and wanted to forget work and application for a few days.

And since I have been back, I had attended an out-station wedding and worked even more. Now I realized that again I have little time left if I want to complete at least 3 US applications. Those include Darden, Anderson and Haas. I cannot cut down this list as these are my dream schools where I think I stand a chance in at least one.

So all this has been happening in my life. Now I am off to my application and would be regular on the blog. There is an interesting story associated with my ISB application. Will share it ones I am done with the interview and final results. :)

Do I procrastinate too much? Moved Darden to R2

This has happened again. While I moved Anderson to R2 as my essays were not in good shape, I repeated the same with Darden. I was targeting at least 1 R1 application and that could have been Darden but till today, 2 out of 3 essays are in bad shape. So a kind soul recommended me to apply in R2 with a stronger application rather than hurry up and submit mediocre essays.

Actually, if I go back and introspect, I actually started quite late. Although I had taken my GMAT long back, I had not decided to apply to US this year. Then I changed my mind and started with my app in late September. This explains a bit. Another factor which contributed was my work load. I am working 10 hours non-stop on weekdays. By the time I get home I do not have any energy left to think about my essays. The last and the biggest reason, I am slow. I think a lot and write down one point and build on it. Or maybe my approach of getting in the perfect words in the first draft itself is incorrect.

In fact, I worked hard on meeting the deadline. I had put in 6-7 hours per day on the weekend, that accounts for my nightouts. Anyways, what has happened has happened. In the meanwhile, ISB R2 deadline (15 Nov) is approaching and I decide to work hard on that. Since ISB is high up on my priority list, I do not want to miss that deadline. Immediately after that, I decide on finishing off my Anderson and Darden apps as both are rolling. Let’s see what happens.

Vintage ISB email: Experience from the initial days

I can't help smiling after reading this email I found in my mailbox sent on a yahoogroup. An Akshay Soni forwarded an email from his friend who shared his experience of initial days at ISB, probably from the first batches. The email dates back to Jul 17, 2001.

Note the excitement of the guy on receiving his "high" config laptop. Interestingly, it seems the students in the that batch were handpicked and had the "wow" factor in their profile. It's a little long but I'm sure those who are related to ISB in anyway would treasure it. :-)


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi There
Sorry about not replying earlier. Have been very busy the last few days. In fact, I have been sleeping only 4 hours a day on an average the last 8 days (i.e. since I joined ISB). & coming from me, that REALLY means that we have had a lot of work to do because I never ever compromise on my sleep ;-) But of course, u already know that.

Well, a brief recap of what happened over the past few days:

Our apartments were not ready on time so we were put up at the Taj Krishna (which is a Taj Luxury hotel, not a Taj Business or a Taj Value hotel). I registered on the 26th of June in the morning & was given two big bags containing books, course materials & case studies. I also got an ISB mug, an ISB pen, an ISB T-shirt, an umbrella (??!!), a planner & of course, my LAPTOP!! Man, I love my laptop. Its an IBM ThinkPad with a 800 MHz P-III, 128 Mb RAM, 10 GB hdd, 1.44 fdd, a 24x CD-ROM & a 15" TFT LCD which is equivalent to a 19" desktop monitor. It also has an inbuilt 56 KBPS modem and an Ethernet card. I don't need the modem except when I need to send out faxes. I have a data port in my room, which allows me to access the net from my room using our Local Area Network. I'll be getting a wireless card in the next two days which will allow me to surf the net even when I am on the lawns outside my apartment. I wouldn't need any cables to connect the laptop to the network!! Impressed? Well, I am :-)

Ok, well, after registration we had lunch at the hotel & then I went around meeting people and generally chilling out. There was nothing to do that day so I just went through the contents of the bags that ISB had given us & got scared out of my wits. I mean, the course material was really scary. & to top the whole thing off, I came to know that we would be having a course entitled "Take Charge" DURING our orientation week. The course was taken by Prof Dominic Houlder who had come all the way from London Business School for this. & to compound our agony, this course involved 5 case studies, two written assignments, one oral assignments & was to be graded. Matlab fail/pass ka funda bhi tha!! Anyway, the day passed uneventfully with the only thing exciting happening was that I got to meet some really gr8 people in my batch. Would u believe it, we have the Ms. India '97 semi-finalist who is a mech. engineer, was the University gold medallist of her batch, & then helped setup the production line of Tata Indica, was appointed the line-incharge at the Indica plant at pune & was the ONLY female on Telco's shop floor. We also have a member of the Indian Golf team; an army wallah who commanded the UN Peace Keeping forces in Somalia, fought in Sri Lanka as part of the IPKF, fought the kargil war & was awarded the Veer Chakra for it; We also have the Nivea Ms.Photogenic' 99 who incidentally happens to be in my study grp (the whole class is divided into two sections of 65 each which are further sub-divided into study grps of 5 each). & the best part is that since Ms Nivea & I are positioned next to each other in the class (we have fixed class settings), we also end up being partners in the class discussions where sometimes the class id divided into pairs!! ;-) & hey, Ms Nivea is not a dumb bimbo. Be4 ISB, she worked at Arthur Anderson, Merrill Lynch, KPMG & has a GMAT score of 710.


Day II (June 27):
I met Dean Sumantra Ghosal, Ex-Dean Don Jacobs of Kellogg B-School & Dean Deepak Jain (also of Kellogg B-School) in the space of 30 mins. I was really thrilled. I mean meeting people like these is a gr8 learning experience in itself. Anyway, there was nothing on in the morning so I just lounged around after talking the above three. We had our orientation in the afternoon. We were introduced to the diff people who would be responsible for our welfare, student affairs, placement etc. We were also formally introduced to the dean & the various profs. We then had a photo shoot of the whole batch along with the deans & the faculty & it was this very photo which was published in the Economic Times dated 4th July. We came back to the hotel after this coz we were supposed to prepare for a case study the next day. There was a formal dinner that night at the Taj Residency.


Day III (June 28):
Had our first class in the morning at the ISB campus. The Prof was Dominic Houlder (I've already mentioned this earlier) & the guy was absolutely phenomenal. I mean, the kind of energy & enthu that he radiated would put people 30 yrs his juniors to shame!! Anyway, the class lasted for 3 & a half hours & time just flew. Had gr8 fun that day. We had lunch on campus that day & the food was something!! After lunch we had a tree plating ceremony on campus & by around 3:30 we were back at the hotel. That evening we had "The talent night" at the disco of Taj Krishna. We were divided into teams according to our housing blocks on campus & we were supposed to perform something that reflected on the ISB ethos for about 10 mins or so. Everybody really freaked out that night especially since the disco was booked by ISB for the whole night & after dinner, everyone let their hair down & danced till around 11:00-12:00. Then junta suddenly realized that we hadn't started out on the case for the next day so there was almost a mass exodus from the disco. In less then 10 mins, everybody was with their study group preparing for the next day.

Day IV (June 29):
We had classes at the ICRISAT. I dunno the exact full form but that’s an UN funded agricultural institute. The campus was really beautiful but we hardly had any time to walk around be4 we were herded into an auditorium where we had another gr8 session with Prof Dominic. We then broke up for lunch which was followed by a Treasure hunt (??!!). This was not just any other hunt. The ICRISAT campus is Huge & the clues were scattered all over the campus. so we were given bicycles to ride on. I must have ridden almost 6 kms that day. But at least our team (teams were the study grps) had the satisfaction of coming in first!! :-) After the treasure hunt, all of us got together for tea & snacks & then the radio jockey got out his guitar & started to croon with all of us chipping in. We came back to the hotel by around 8:00pm, freshened up & were down again for dinner. Dinner was followed by another round of discussions with my study grp for Case Study # III which was to be discussed the next day. We broke up at about 2:30 am & went back to our rooms.


Day V (June 30):
The day started pretty early coz I was up at 5:00 in the morning. I had to go through the case again & also had to complete the first written assignment which was due today. Thankfully, the class was to be held at the hotel itself, so that gave me an additional time of 45 mins (the time it took to travel from the hotel to ISB). I barely managed to complete the assignment, get a printout, grab a light breakfast & reach the class on time. The case discussion was superb as usual. We broke up early coz we had to start working on a simulation program where we are supposed to be running an airline company. Based on the decisions that we take (such as %age spend on mktg., airfare, service quality, recruitment, number of aircraft purchased) the performance & share price of the company would be affected. Even the competitors would react according to the decisions that we take. So it was a very exciting & realistic experience. The final objective was of course to maximize the share price at the end of 32 quarters. Our group managed to get the price to around $365 from the original $1.25 while the group that won pushed it to $1283. This activity took quite a long time & lasted till 2:45 p.m. I just had time to go back to my room, put my stuff back & come down in time for the first Dean's Forum which started at 3:00 p.m. The whole faculty along with all the admin people were there & we had some really inspiring moments with the deans. This was followed by a dinner at the ISB campus which was hosted by the ISB Executive board. It was here that I got to meet & talk one-on one with people like Rajat Gupta (MD, McKinsey), Girish Reddy (Head of Goldman Sachs' London office), Rajinder Pawar (NIIT founder) & Anand Mahindra. Man, were these guys good!! & they were so damn humble & down-to-earth that u just couldn't help feeling that they deserved all that they have achieved. Anyway, we also got to look at our apartments-to-be for the first time that evening & it was an awesome experience. These apartments are truly world-class; the student housing Village II is divided into 10 blocks of which 8 blocks have 4-bedroom apartments & 2 have studio apartments. There are huge & beautifully manicured lawns all around the housing village but the coup-de-grace are the 4 beautiful pools between the various blocks. The external lighting around the place really lights up the whole village. There is also one huge tower bang in the middle of the housing village. After dinner, we came back to the hotel at around 11:00 p.m. Now since there were no classes the next day (thank god for that), we had two options - we could either crash & catch up on our sleep or freak out. & guess what?? We actually chose the second option against our better instincts & 7 of us (incl. 2 girls) got together in Vicky's room & had a ball. Vicky & mkg played the guitar while the rest of us crooned along. There was a lot of leg-pulling & general masti happening. This continued till around 4:30 am when one of us had the bright idea to take a stroll down to the swimming pool. & since it was such a wild idea, all of us decided that we just had to do it. So down we trooped & continued with the singing & masti at poolside. We finally wrapped up at around 5:30 am & then went back to our rooms.


Day VI (July 01):
This was the big day guys. The day when ISB was to be normally "opened" (not "inaugurated" - the inauguration is sometime in Nov-Dec). Well, after the wild night, I woke up at around 10:30, missed breakfast & had to make do with the silly biscuits that room-service typically provides. Anyway, went down to lunch at around 12:00 p.m. where over lunch we had a talk by a female named Ms Lata Krishnan, co-founder of SMART modular technologies. She talked to us about her experiences as an entrepreneur, the starting up of the company & the problems that she faced when she started out in the silicon valley. Immediately after lunch, we moved on to the ISB campus where Chandrababu Naidu officially opened ISB. That guy is to be seen to be believed. I mean he's even simpler that he appears on TV or in print. He spoke eloquently about his vision for Hyderabad & how he had managed to convince the ISB board to choose Hyderabad as the venue. After Naidu left, we had a santoor recital by Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma which went on for about an hour. & hey, when Naidu was introduced by Rajat Gupta, he (Rajat Gupta) also announced the appointment of Pramath Sinha as the first dean of ISB. This announcement was greeted by a standing ovation by the student community (since we had come to know this guy so well over the past few months when he had been interacting with us in his capacity as the CEO of ISB). Pramath was really moved by the response & he actually had to brush off a few tears. Anyway, after the santoor recital, all of us got Pramath over outside tha hall & told him that as the founding batch, we will be setting some traditions. The first & foremost of which will be that ISB would be the only B-school where all the students would call the dean by his first name (instead of dean Sinha as he would have been called elsewhere). & then what followed was truly mind-boggling!! We actually lifted Pramath onto our shoulders & then proceeded to give him bumps as our way to congratulate him for his appointment. We are now the ONLY B-school batch in the world to have shouldered the dean!! & while the tradition of calling the dean by his first name would continue long after we have passed here, I don't think there would be another batch which would get the chance to actually give bumps to the dean. man, we got some "bragging rights". After we were finished with this, all of us came back to the hotel at around 6:30 p.m. We then had to get set or the BIG DINNER that night which was to be hosted by Chandrababu Naidu. We walked into the hall by around 8:00 p.m. & Naidu came in bang on time at 8:15. Then as he was being led to the center table by Rajat Gupta, he stopped & walked towards the students. He then proceeded to shake hands with each of us, talked to us personally about our backgrounds, about why we chose ISB & stuff & only after he had met all 130 of us, did he go to the center table. & hey, I was the second student he talked to!! I actually got a whole 5 minutes to talk one-on-one with him!! That has to be among the most memorable experiences in my life. Well, after dinner, it was back to ground realities for us & all of us got together with our study group to study & analyze the case study for the next day. These ISB guys really consider it a personal affront to their egos if we have even a free minute!!


Day VII (July 02):
Had classes as usual the whole day & then half of the junta moved out the hotel that night except for the junta who were supposed to shack up in A & J blocks. & since I am an A blockwalla, I was among those who stayed back at the hotel. There were 32 of us that night & we all went out to Pizza Hut for dinner that night. Freaked out totally there, came back & went back to our books for, what else but, another case study. I also had to complete the second assignment of the "Take Charge" course which was to write an eulogy that ur best friend would say for u on ur funeral!! Believe me, corny as this assignment sounds, it really was one hell of an experience trying to complete it. I don't think that I've ever thought abt my value system ever before more than I did that night. But I did manage to complete my assignment & turned in at around 3:00 am.


Day VIII (July 03):
Moved into my apartment this morning after classes. Today was also the day when our orientation wek came to an end. Lounged around during the afternoon, unpacked & settled in. & then in the night we had another of our "crooning & guitaring" sessions but this time the venue was on the lawns just beside one of the pools. One thing about the ISB campus is that there is a great cool breeze blowing across the campus all through the day & night. & it was the same case that night. The reflection of the moon in the pool, the gentle breeze, the waves rippling across the surface of the pool & around 30 of us sitting there just crooning along was some way to spend the night!! Anyway, the session just broke up around 45 mins back & here I am writing this mail at 2:30 in the night. So I guess I'll just end here & turn in

ISB Application 2007-08 Essay Analysis

I would like to share my analysis of ISB's application essays for 2008 intake. This year ISB has come out with a surprise element of not including a direct "Why MBA?" question. Overall, I feel ISB has done a good job of presenting the applicants with questions asking about (a) the diversity factor, keeping in mind the number of "Indian/IT/Male" category applicants, (b) creativity and (c) your contribution and qualities as seen in your current workplace.

Update: The following is my analysis of ISB's essays for the application year 2007-08. Please refer to my analysis of the analysis of ISB's essays for application year 2008-09 for the latest.

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)

To approach this question, first identify which lot you belong to. Imagine yourself in a room full of people with a similar background to yours and you are asked to differentiate yourself from others. Come up with just 3-4 points and justify your uniqueness in that room. Those points can be about a unique experience, a hobby which you are very good at, a skill that you have acquired which you can share with others.

If this is difficult, just imagine yourself as part of the admission committee seeing just another application same as last 10 applications. You are looking for a "different" background or a different hobby or a unique experience. You do not want to have a class full of people from IT experience with 3-4 years of work experience and the same GMAT score, in which case no one has anything to learn from his/her peers. On diversity, I have written an article on how important and how you can build on it to contribute to a group.

Coming back to the essay, once you have identified your differentiating factors, focus on how those would be a significant contribution to ISB and let it be understood that this is a profile which is rare. Restrain yourself from focusing on your contributions at your workplace. You might have been the no.1 performer but you were supposed to work hard in your job. Secondly, keep those achievements for essay 3.

Finally, you can end the essay with a focus on how you would in turn be benefited from the diversity at ISB and how you will complement the batch of ISB.

2. A million dollars or knighthood: what would you choose and why? (300 words max)

This question has come up as a surprise question by ISB and has put many candidates in a state of obfuscation.

The key to approach this question is to first understand both the situations presented and weigh the consequences in both. The next step would be to choose one option and justify your selection.

If it is knighthood, it will come with a lifelong honor in the "kingdom". You have all the respect and honor by the people world over. Basically it is a symbolic representation of esteem, honor and repute. Here maybe you can talk about why would you take it and what will you do to keep up to the honor. And most importantly, why would you prefer "honor above money".

On the other hand, a million dollars can change your life. You can have a luxurious life and have the backing to pursue your dream which you had always wanted to. You have the option to pursue your hobby. Or maybe you can now start your own business. Here, what the ISB admissions committee is looking for is your attitude and your approach.

Whatever you opt for, you need to display maturity in your justification and do justice to your choice. Consider it a perfect essay to let yourself out and show your creativity.

Summarizing the analysis, just be yourself and choose the one that matters to you the most.

3. You have a new manager who has just joined your organisation. 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)

You have the chance to talk about your professional traits and your professional achievements as seen by your manager. Just put yourself in your manager's shoes and praise yourself. Wow! what an essay!

This essay gives you a chance to speak about your leadership abilities and how god a team player you are. Supplement your qualities with appropriate examples. There is a thin line between bragging and praising, do not cross it. Being humble will help but obviously do not hide exceptional achievements, if any.

Since it is the current manager, focus more on achievements or examples from the current workplace. If you want to include achievements at previous employer, just mention in a line or two about the previous experience which you have brought to the present employer. Just limit the information from your previous employer that could have been used by your current employer to hire you.

Just focus on 2-3 qualities, supplement with examples and do justice to the 300 words limit.

4. (Optional) Please provide additional information, if any, that will significantly affect the consideration of your application to the ISB. Please do not repeat information which has already been stated elsewhere in the application. You may use this to clarify any breaks in education/work, inform about any other item which you think has not been covered elsewhere etc. (300 words max)

Not only ISB, but all business schools provide an optional essay to give the candidates an opportunity to present information which might further strengthen the application and help the AdCom know you better. It is strictly not advisable to write it just for the sake of it, and providing the AdCom with repetitive information.

If there are any major shortfalls in the application/resume, like low undergrad grades, low GMAT score, etc. you can use this essay to justify that. You might be doing a part-time job to support your education and thus the low grades, obviously supplemented with a good GMAT score. If there is gap in education, could be justified by explaining how that time was utilized.

Another instance could be if you have had a significant contribution outside of work which cannot be included in the essays. this is the perfect place to cover that.