Some helpful pointers gleaned from ISB Info Session

The ISB info session held in kolkata on 31st July was very crisp and professional. They started exactly at 3 pm. Number of participants was around 100. There were total 3 members from admission committee there. One young lady was the alumni of ISB itself and she opened the session by talking about the agenda of session.

The second member was somewhere around 35 and he had great communication skills and sense of humor. He started by showing a video of ISB which compared the career of a person to an F1 race. In that race, ISB acts as pit-stop break to give your career a new vigor. It was pretty cool video.

Then he talked about emerging markets. ISB is very clearly focused on the emerging markets. Someone who has association with emerging markets would definitely has an advantage.

The faculty at ISB is one of the best. They invite professors who are best in their respective fields. Industry leaders also come and take courses which still evolving and they do not just take a guest lecture instead cover a full course.

ISB wants to develop an integrative approach towards problem solving in their students. Innovation and sustainability require cross-functional teams working together. So integrative approach can be developed if students get a chance to work in teams consisting of members who are diverse in profile. ISB stresses a lot on diversity in terms of industry and function.

ISB does not has summer internship. Instead it has Experiential Learning Program(ELP) where real time consulting projects are awarded to students. There are also Faculty initiated Research projects(FIRP) in which students can work with a faculty member in a research area. ISB also has exchange programs in 36 B Schools across the world including Pakistan :). 70-75 percent of students who join ISB undergo career-shifts. So career-shift is encouraged and common in ISB.

The third member was an elderly one. He told that interviews and essays are very important in admission process. To excel in both, the key is self awareness and for that one must do a lot of introspection. Seniors at workplace whose work is impacted by your performance are ideal recommenders.

Last pointer is about essays. One should be clear about his future goals. One should be aware of his USP and what he is bringing to the table. These two factors are playing a very important role in this year's ISB admission essays.

ISB info session

I registered 2 months back for the ISB info session. It was going to be held on 31st July in Kolkata. Covering more than 500kms in a day and spending precious one day weekly-off for a 2 hour session might not be a good deal but it was worth all the effort :)

I reached the venue(Hotel Taj Bengal) 3 hours before the session. The previous morning session was still not finished. So I spend my time exploring the beautiful hotel lobbies, tasting blueberry cake in Deli and having club sandwich plus Jamaican blue mountain in their promenade.

The session was crisp and info provided was more than their website. They talked about their value system and teaching methodology at ISB. There were three people from Ad-Com and they talked about the kind of people they are looking for. There was a Q&A round which cleared queries from the aspirants. After session, there was informal chat with the alums.

My next post would be having some pointers specific to ISB which I gathered at info session.

And Essays

Today in the morning when I was feeling helpless, I started thinking about life after gmat. To calm my nerves, I started imagining that I have scored a perfect score in gmat. But the next step scared me. Application essays seem like an ocean with no predetermined formula or structure. In GMAT, I can quantify my progress and have a rock solid plan but for essays I had nothing.

To be honest essays are haunting me from last one month. I assume my fellow gmat-takers would agree that its difficult to focus just on gmat and not worry about the apps. People say to me about not worrying about them and just focusing on gmat. But I am not able to do that.

In my spare time especially in plant when production is happening smoothly, I tend to think about my achievements, my goals and my influences. I think think think but nothing concrete comes up. Also I am not able to pen down my thoughts because I am unsure what I am doing.

"Begin with the end in mind" - I remembered this line and realized I must understand the essence of admission essays. And right now I am totally clueless about it. Understanding the essence or core is more like a zen thing. Its like understanding poetry or philosophy or music. Only after a person has spend a considerable amount of hours spending on these things, they start to truly understand it.

After preparing for 1.5 years for CAT(Common Admission Test), I now truly understand CAT. After failing 3 job interviews in a row, I now truly understand interviews. After spending 4 years or so reading books about philosophy and spirituality, I truly understand it and after spending 20 years with 4 musical instruments(in an amateurish manner), I truly understand music(at least I think I understand).

I have started to understand GMAT too. But I am a new pupil for admission essays. So again the same line - "Begin with the end in mind" helped me. I have decided to read 3-4 sample admission essays daily to understand what end product I want. There is some pretty good material on the internet along with the adcom's comments. It really really helps. I can get a feel of its powerful impact just in one day when I went through 3 admission essays today morning.

My dear fellow GMAT takers, please try doing this and let me know your opinion...

Love