ISB Interview

I had my interview at 9:10AM today. It lasted for 40 minutes. There were three people in the panel - Mr. Menon (Director of Admissions), a Lady Professor, and Mr. Vijay (alumnus).

The interview was conversational. It started with me talking about my background, the decisions that I took regarding my choice of college and course, the reasons for my long term goal and finally how ISB fits into the picture. Spent around 5-7 minutes here. Mr. Menon interrupted me and so I had to cut short my story and had to quickly link my past to my present and my goals.

Then followed questions on my extra-curricular activities, interests, leadership experience, financial crisis and a case.

Vijay: You have captained cricket teams in the past. How would you go about arranging a cricket match between your company's cricket team and the ISB cricket team?

Lady: Please mention an experience that made you a better person. It can be one that is professional or personal.
Me: I asked if I could give two examples - one professional and the other personal. The personal experience happened to be my experience as a young captain of a I Division League Cricket Team.

Menon: Staying with cricket, estimate the amount of popcorn that a vendor might sell at an ODI cricket match between India and England, here in Hyderabad.
Me: I asked him if the match is to be played on a weekend. He said that I can make my own assumptions. Therefore, I assumed that the match will be played on a weekend and that the stadium, capable of seating 45,000 people, would be packed to capacity. I also mentioned that popcorn is something that people from all age-groups enjoy and that it adds to the entire jovial atmosphere. Then I went about estimating the number of people who would bring their own eatables, who would prefer something other than popcorn, who wouldn't want to eat anything at all, who would have popcorn multiple times during the day - came up with a rough estimate for the number of cones likely to be sold and multiplied it by 200grams (popcorn served in a cone) and announced the result. People in the popcorn business would love my estimate for its sheer magnitude! (If there is a better way to tackle this problem then I sure would love to hear it.)


Vijay: You have mentioned that you love travelling and have visited Africa and the Middle-east. Why do you like travelling so much?
Me: I gave my reasons and also linked them to my interests in dance, music and culture.

Menon: Can you explain the financial crisis and possible remedies?
Me: I had just finished explaining the crisis when Mr. Menon stopped me and said that he is fine with the explanation and told me that I needn't talk about the possible remedies.

Menon: I think we should be done. (Confirms with the other members) Do you have any questions for us?
Me: I wanted to know whether it will be possible to lure some of my target consultancy firms to campus for placements. I also wanted to know more about the Wharton Global Consulting Practicum and whether it is possible to pursue the WGCP in addition to the ELP(the answer is yes). I also asked how a PGPM student typically contributes to the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and how he makes use of the resources it has on offer. My questions were answered well.

Before the interview I was asked to write a short essay on the word 'Apply'. I chose to highlight my reasons for applying to a business school, and specifically ISB, in the essay.

Well, I think the interview turned out to be pretty decent - as is the case with a majority of the applicants. I have my fingers crossed...

ISB Essays

First, I'd like to thank all my readers for following my blog. I am happy that it is helping you in some way or the other.

I received quite a few mails requesting advice on writing the ISB essays. Hence, I have decided to post an analysis of the essays. So here we go...

Essay 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)

Needless to say, this essay is going to be the most important essay in your application. You have been, explicitly, asked to state the factors that distinguish you - qualities that make you special.

Think of instances in your life when you have been challenged and had to take decisions. Talk about the emotions that urged you to take those decisions. Choose your words carefully because the application portal won't allow you to enter more than 300 words for the essay. So, keep your sentences short, well-formed, and precise. Impact is the key here. Use examples. The adcom loves to hear more about the actual 'you' and your accomplishments. You may have one example where you have shown the three different traits or you may use three different examples.

I used three different examples - one professional and two personal. I concluded the essay by stating my short term and long term goals and how these differentiating factors would help me contribute to the ISB class and achieve my goals.

A couple of things that one must keep in mind:

1. Never project reasons like honesty or integrity as differentiating factors. These are qualities that you are expected to possess.
2. Avoid situations where you succeeded in doing something but doing that 'something' wasn't a decision that you made. For example, I studied in eight different schools and had learned six different languages before my eighth grade. I could have used this as an example for my willingness to learn and adapt but the decision to learn these languages was not mine to take. I was young and it was forced upon me. It will leave a stronger impression on the adcom if you describe circumstances where you were in control of the situation and the outcome was directly impacted by your thinking.

Essay 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)

Now, the situation is such that you have already been admitted and are contesting elections to be the President of a diverse and active Student body. Many would find it difficult to choose between describing their leadership skills and elaborating on how they can contribute to the school. I felt it best to present a good blend of both.

This essay gives you ample scope not only to highlight those instances where you have shown exemplary leadership skills and portrayed your ability to work in teams but also to project how much you know about the school and how you intend to utilize your time at school.

While choosing leadership and team work examples, I picked my stints as Captain of Sports teams and Coordinator of various clubs. This allowed me to highlight instances where I had displayed good inter-personal skills.

As far as writing about your plans for the school is concerned, you need to research as much as you can about the school and also about the responsibilities of the GSB President. Good place to start would be the ISB website. You could also talk to current students and alumni. Presidential candidates do soapbox presentations before the start of the election. Try getting hold of these presentations. Talk about those activities that interest you and will help you make positive contributions to the community.

The school wants to know as much about you as possible. Through this essay, you can also emphasize on the fit quotient.

Essay 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).

You have already differentiated yourself. You have described your leadership skills and your interests in the school. Now, comes the opportunity to clinch your admit by portraying your problem solving ability.

While it is quite easy to get intimated by this question, it, nevertheless, allows you to be at your creative best. No answer is correct or wrong but every hurdle posed in the question allows you to project traits like practicality, resourcefulness, negotiation skills et al.

My approach to this essay was simple. There are three major hurdles and providing feasible solutions to these would win you the opposition's confidence. I tried to think of the simplest solutions to these problems and then built my final solution around these simple solutions. One thing that always remained in my mind was the ultimate goal of successfully completing the dam's construction.


The optional essay

It is not a must that you write this essay but you can use this opportunity to highlight certain items in your profile that couldn't be projected in other parts of the application.

I used this essay to talk about the internship experiences that gave me international exposure and brought me international acclaim. I had hoped that this information would strengthen my application and I think it did!

ISB Interview Invite

Yes...the wait for an interview call has finally ended!

I received my ISB interview invite today (30/10). It has been scheduled for the 9th of November. Quite appropriate that the first school that I had applied to was the first to send me an invite (though the ISB deadline was at least 25 days earlier than any of my other target schools :D). Nevertheless, I hope to get 3 more interview invites :-). There were over 2000 applications to ISB in this round. I am glad that the first hurdle has been crossed and I look forward to wearing my business suit :-).

I had, earlier, planned on blogging an analysis of the school's essays. But now, I have decided against it. The reason - there are some awesome tips that are already available on the web. Many applicants and admission gurus have shared their views and outlined their thoughts.

However, I will be more than happy to answer questions that applicants may have regarding these essays. My response will center around the strategy that I had followed for the particular essay and I hope to help applicants get a better idea of how to present themselves on paper through these essays.

Cheers

To Goa and back again...

And I'm back!

These last few days have been awesome...it was a vacation well deserved! It felt good to get away from work and the stress. My MBA journey also needed this breather.

We hardly slept throughout the journey. Mornings were spent sight-seeing, afternoons at the beach and the evenings partying - and boy were the parties trippy or what!!

Here are some pictures of what I saw and did in Goa...


The road to Goa from Hubli....


The resort that we lived in...


View from our balcony...


The beach...


Can you spot me there??? :-D

It was one fantastic vacation...sad that it had to come to an end.

Meanwhile, ISB has started sending out interview invites to the Delhi candidates. Hyderabad candidates can expect to receive their's around the 20th of Oct. Am keeping my fingers crossed.

Time to grab some food now.

Later then...

GMAT scores, GPA and essays

It is quite obvious that an applicant's GPA and her GMAT score are the major indicators of her readiness to face the academic rigor at a B-school. Although it is true that admission committees view each application holistically, it is nevertheless important for an applicant to judge for herself if her GPA and GMAT score will hold her in good stead while applying to various schools, especially the top 5 schools. I came across Are your GMAT scores competitive? recently and thought I'll share this link with you all. It is not, by any means, a tool that guarantees admission to a school of your dreams but will, no doubt, help you make realistic choices.


Another interesting tool that I recently came across is the Readability Index Calculator. It uses the Flesch-Kincaid method to determine how easy it is to read a text. The higher the score, the better is the readability. For example, comics score around 90 but legal/law documents end up with scores of less than 10. This does not mean that complex text isn't as interesting to read as other stuff. But it is definitely useful to write text that is easy to comprehend. Generally, a score of around 40 is considered to be excellent. This post has a readability score of 49! Pretty useful while writing essays, isn't it?

In other news, the ISB round1 application deadline is today. People are facing problems, big-time, due to server over-load. AFAIK, 1337 applications had already been submitted by late last night. I won't be surprised if the final count of R1 applications touches 2000.


Will grab some lunch now...catch you later...

Submitted my ISB App

So...its been a while since I blogged...about 2 weeks I guess...been a bit busy with work n stuff.

The big news today is that I submitted by application to the Post Graduate Programme in Management at the Indian School of Business. I started filling in this form and writing the essays in the 1st week of June. After many iterations and deliberations, I, finally, hit the submit button today. I believe that I have done justice to my app and, God willing, I should get admission into ISB. A brief look at my profile -

Class X - CBSE - 89%
Class XII - CBSE - 93%
5 Year Integrated Software Engineering - CGPA 9.81/10
GMAT - 710 (Q49, V38, AWA 5.0) - 2 weeks preparation with just about 2 hrs a day :-(
Work experience - 3 years at the time of admission + 18 months internships at 4 different companies (though internships aren't valued as true work experience)
Extra-curricular -
Sports -
School Sports Captain
College Cricket Captain
Cricket and volleyball at the district level
Weight training and cardio
Athletics
Awards & Activities -
Best out-going all-rounder from school
Plenty of awards and prizes in Quiz, Software Project Management, Paper Presentations etc
Open source initiatives - Chief Coordinator and Mentor
Coordinated various other club and association activities.
Entertainment -
Dancer - regular stage performances
Community Services -
Rotaract Club
Donors to Charity Club

Goal - Well set :-D

And its with this profile that I am setting out on my quest for getting into a good B-school. Now that the ISB app is done and dusted, I can concentrate on my application for admission to the Stanford GSB. Oh well...here we go again....

and finally a blog....

After years of just reading blogs on the internet, I have finally decided to start blogging. 'Why now?' one might ask. Well...I wasn't actually lazy earlier but felt it was time I started bacause it is a good way of keeping track of things you do, sharing information with others, meeting interesting people and making new blog friends. And so here goes....



I got up pretty late today...after last night's Euro QF (was hoping that Netherlands win but Russia played well; Arshavin was marvellous towards the end of the match.). Made some breakfast and then got hooked on to the net. Spent some good time reading blogs and articles. Listened to an interview with Dr. Chetan Sankar, Professor, Auburn University. He spoke about the life of an academician. It was quite interesting. Then, I resumed with my ISB essays. Yes, I am applying to ISB this year, round 1. However, I managed to squeeze out some time to watch the French GrandPrix. I was at home the whole day. Wanted to relax a bit and take time off for myself. And I did just that !