My ISB application experience
How I started thinking of Masters and got into ISB for its 1 year MBA program
I’ve been thinking of writing about this for a while now. Probably more than a year. Now that I have finally committed to it, I think it can wait just a bit more. Because I want to start from the point when I first thought of higher education.
***
2009-10. A beautiful, green, coastal place near Mangalore. I had just started my first year of college, and I already started hearing from my seniors about their plans for a Master’s. I felt I had to do it. It all sounded so exciting! They’d talk about summer internships at foreign universities to “build a profile”. GRE scores, SOP letters, and scholarships from US universities. Most of these seniors were excellent at studies and got very high grades though. As years passed, my band average grades started the process of disenchantment for 2 more years of studying electrical engineering.
I realized that I was not going to make a career in electrical engineering. Though I still appeared for interviews with the handful of ‘core industry’ companies like Caterpillar and CAE that visited our campus and wrote the GATE exam, all of it without any preparation at all, my final year was mostly about wishing someone would hire me. I did have a “safe” TCS offer already, to fall back on. I finally got lucky with Accenture who decided to hire me for a new IT Consulting division they were starting in India. That’s how I stepped into the world of IT Services.
The next 2-3 years were me thinking about an MBA from one of the IIMs but never really putting in the effort the crack the CAT exam. When some of my friends, who started their careers with me at Accenture, got into top MBA colleges one year, I finally got the fuel of inspiration I needed to take this more seriously. So I joined the TIME coaching classes and started making my way through the vast jungle of syllabi the organizers of CAT expect from IIM candidates. I couldn’t go far.
A friend based in the US suggested I try for the GRE instead. “You’d save more in the US than you make in India” was exactly how he sold it to me. Another big factor was that one can take the GRE any time of the year, unlike CAT. So I figured, why not?! Let me just give it a shot in the next 1-2 months. If I get a good score, I will apply for a Master’s program in the US. If not, I can continue with my CAT prep. I found the GRE a much easier and more engaging to prepare for. English and (simple) Math. That’s it. No curveballs, no crazy mind-boggling puzzles.
I wrote the test sometime in 2016 and got a much higher score than I had expected. I was hoping to beat 320 out of 340, which I knew would be higher than most of my engineering peers who were already studying or working in the US. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the total of the two sections was 331. I left the test center and thought I would believe it only after I got the test report.
I applied for around 6 Master’s programs - 4 in the US, 1 in Paris, and 1 in Singapore. I got into all of them but none of them offered me a scholarship. After going through the entire process, I learned that just having a high test score isn’t sufficient. The most important factor for scholarships is one’s undergrad GPA. I had also deferred the whole financial aspect of studying abroad until this point. As I started talking to banks about a loan, I found that the loan rates were much higher than education loans for studying in India, and they wanted at least some sort of guarantee if there was no collateral. At the same time, I started feeling that I eventually wanted to go for an MBA. The only reason I thought these Master’s programs were worth going for was because these could help me pay for a costly foreign MBA.
I decided to drop the plan and try again. This time, I wanted to apply for MBA programs. I did my research - lots of it. Went through 100s of B-School websites to read about their MBA and similar programs. Looked at rankings like the FT Top 100 MBA programs. Searched for alumni profiles on LinkedIn. 1000s of them over 3-4 months. On the side, I started preparing for the GMAT. While the GRE was being accepted by more and more B-Schools, I felt it may be better to submit a GMAT score instead.
***
GMAT was even more fun to prepare for, than the GRE. I’d spend 30-90 mins attempting 30-60 questions a day, after coming back from work. It was encouraging to get most of them right, from the beginning. Felt effortless. I got ~740 in the mock GMAT tests, that the company that organizes GMAT offers free of cost. So, I decided to book the test and got the exact score I aimed to get (and dreamed of). 770 out of 800.
I had already seen the class profile details on the ISB website. 770 was the highest score in the previous class. I’d read a theory online about B-School admissions - they admit high test score applicants to keep their GMAT average high, which signals quality to future applicants and helps with some of the rankings as well. I believed my admission to ISB was all but guaranteed now. I just had to make sure I didn’t screw up the essays.
And how could I? I had more than 4 months to write 2 small essays. The rest of the application was just basic details anyway. I kept telling myself that I’d give it lots of time and use lots of iterations to get the essays ‘just right’. But I didn’t even start. For months. I did everything but. Read sample essays. Essays submitted by candidates for US B-Schools. Spent time on MBA admission forums. Everything but the job at hand.
At one point, I started feeling nervous about the essays. Almost 2-3 weeks before the first round deadline, I finally got to it and completed the first drafts. The revisions were much easier. The thing that wanted to make sure of was that I wrote it in my voice, and used simple words. No fancy phrases and words, just for the sake of making the essay sound “intelligent”. It’s the content that matters - its expression shouldn’t come in the way, that’s all. I was pleased with what I submitted in the end.
I was fairly confident of getting the interview call. I was at home for Diwali, back in Rajasthan with my parents, when I received the email asking me to select an appointment slot. I selected the earliest date I could, after reaching back in Bangalore. That year (2016), ISB decided to change a few things. They created an early admission offer track, to avoid their candidate pool accepting offers from the US B-Schools while still waiting for the ISB R1 results. The admission results for this track were out 1 month earlier than the usual time - around mid-Nov. I was invited to that. Because this was not announced earlier, the candidates in this track were also allowed to take the interview virtually - which was not an option for the rest of the R1 round candidates and in general. COVID changed that, of course.
I opted for the virtual call, just because I wanted to avoid the nerves of being in a room full of candidates sitting in formals and waiting for the call to get in a room. At my place, I could compose myself much better. The interviewers did ask me about it though. They felt Bangalore wasn’t so far from Hyderabad that I couldn’t plan a trip to Hyderabad. Thankfully, they didn’t take it against me. They just wanted me to see the majestic campus and feel awestruck. I did, about 6 months later.
There were 2 interviewers, both alumni of ISB. One of them was from the class of 2010, and the other was from the class of 2013. Both of them had more than 10 years of experience. These are the questions they asked me in a 22 min interview -
Tell us why should we take you. How are you different from the rest of Accenture applicants? Sell yourself to us.
I started speaking and they cut me off, telling me they’ve already read that in my essay. They wanted something new. I mentioned that my strengths are communication and analytical skills. Both these should help me excel at ISB and after that.
Tell us an instance when you used your communication skills at work. Gives us the details of the situation, exactly how or what you did, and what was the impact.
Tell us an instance when you used your analytical skills at work. The situation, How/What did you do it, Impact.
I answered both 2nd and 3rd questions with some anecdotes from work. They were not very impressed. I had to think of things on my feet, and I could have done a lot better if I had prepared for the interview. My answers could pass as “something” but nothing that helped me stand out.
What do you think is a good quality for a trainer? How can one be a good trainer?
Are you a team player? How do you like working in a team?
I can’t recall what prompted the 4th and 5th questions or how I answered them. There may be some qualities that ISB expects from students, and the interviewers may have wanted to talk about those.
In general, such “philosophical” questions are way better, in my opinion, because these open the space for the interviewee to share what they think and how they think. If you have good ideas, but unfortunately haven’t got many chances to execute or experience interesting situations at work or in life, such questions are a lifeline!
Tell me one weakness that you have.
I’d read all the sample answers that suggested answering with a weakness that really isn’t. I did the exact opposite. I mentioned procrastination. Of course, I also talked about how I try to avoid its impact on my performance at work or otherwise. I guess they were fine with it, just because it was honest.
Why didn't you come to the campus, if you haven't visited it already?
I don’t recall what I said to this.
Based on your second essay, your goal seems to be IT Consulting. I think you can go into it within Accenture itself. Why an MBA then?
I told them that I have seen job posts that require a top MBA. So even if I somehow make it happen, not having an MBA would impact my career. Also talked about the potential of function change in the future, with a top-tier MBA from ISB.
They joked about whether I was coming to ISB just for a stamp! However, they agreed that it is a requirement for many high-paying jobs, and also the fact that an MBA from ISB can open many doors.
Do you have any questions for us?
Asked them about how their time at ISB and the association with the school overall helped them in their careers. Why not let the interviewers talk about something they feel proud of for a few minutes at the end? End with a dessert. Sweet notes.
Some of these questions a standard, and they may have asked others the same questions as well. Others came up organically, based on how the conversation flowed.
I got the admission email about 2 weeks later.