isb essay help

MBA Admissions
ISB Admissions
MBA Application Tips
MBA Essay Tips
Business Schools

ISB essay for 2025 intake: How to write, Analysis, tips, and a winning framework

Admit expert.

ISB Admissions , MBA Essay Tips
July 30, 2024

The Indian School of Business (ISB) is one of the premier business schools in India, attracting top talent from around the world. The ISB admission process is highly competitive, and essays play a crucial role in the evaluation of applicants.

In this article, we will provide an in-depth analysis of the ISB essay questions for 2025 admissions, along with tips and strategies to help you craft a winning submission. With insights from ISB alumni and admissions experts, we will guide you through the essay-writing process and help you stand out from the crowd.

Whether you are a reapplicant or just starting your ISB PGP journey, this article will provide valuable insights to help you successfully navigate the ISB application process and help craft an impeccable ISB essay.

ISB Essay Prompts for 2025 Intake

Essay Topic 1: Contemplate situations that have shaped your personal journey. Present what these situations have taught you about your strengths and weaknesses, and how they have shaped your personal and professional journey. (400 words only)

Essay Topic 2: What intellectual experiences have influenced your approach to learning and have led you to pursue an MBA? Please describe using anecdotes from your own experiences. (400 words only)

Optional Essay : Given your experience and aspirations, how do you plan to use the PGP at ISB to fulfill your professional goals? (Optional) (250 words only)

For 2025 admissions, ISB has changed the essay topics. There are 3 essays and 2 of them are compulsory. You must answer those two essay prompts for the ISB PGP admissions for the 2025 intake (PGP). Both essays have a word restriction of 400 words. You must submit an additional reapplicant essay if you did not receive an admit in the ISB PGP 2024 intake or any previous admission cycle.

ISB PGP Essay 1 analysis

What isb admissions committee seeks.

The ISB admissions committee is looking for authenticity and self-awareness in your response. They want to understand the experiences that have significantly impacted your life, revealing both your strengths and weaknesses. This essay is not just about listing achievements; it’s about demonstrating a mature understanding of yourself and how your experiences have shaped your character and aspirations.The committee is particularly interested in:

Personal Growth : They want to see how you have evolved over time. Reflect on key moments that have influenced your values and decision-making processes.
Self-Reflection : Your ability to critically assess your strengths and weaknesses is crucial. This reflection should be honest and insightful, showing that you are aware of areas where you excel and where you need improvement.
Connection to Future Goals : How have these experiences prepared you for the challenges of an MBA program and your career thereafter? The committee is keen to see a clear link between your past experiences and your future aspirations.

Framework to Write a Winning Essay

To craft a compelling essay, follow this structured framework:

Begin with self-reflection . Take time to think about pivotal moments in your life. These could be challenges you faced, successes you achieved, or even failures that taught you valuable lessons. Jot down these experiences and consider how they have influenced your personal and professional development.
Next, select impactful stories . Choose 2-3 situations that best illustrate your journey. These stories should not only highlight your strengths but also reveal your vulnerabilities. For instance, if you overcame a significant challenge, discuss what you learned about resilience and adaptability.
Then, articulate your strengths and weaknesses . Clearly define what you consider your strengths (e.g., leadership, collaboration, creativity) and relate them to your chosen stories. Similarly, be candid about your weaknesses. Discuss how these weaknesses have been areas of growth for you, demonstrating your willingness to learn and improve.
Finally, connect your experiences to your future . Conclude your essay by linking your past experiences to your aspirations. Explain how the lessons learned from your journey will help you succeed in the ISB PGP program and beyond. This connection will show the admissions committee that you have a clear vision for your future.

Tips for Writing

When writing your essay, keep these tips in mind to enhance your chances of success:

Be Authentic : Write in your voice. Authenticity resonates more than trying to fit a mold of what you think the committee wants to hear.
Show, Don’t Just Tell : Use vivid examples and anecdotes to illustrate your points. Instead of stating that you are a good leader, narrate a specific instance where your leadership made a difference.
Stay Within the Word Limit : The 400-word constraint is designed to encourage concise and impactful writing. Make every word count by avoiding unnecessary jargon and filler.
Revise and Reflect : After drafting your essay, take a break before revising. This pause can provide you with fresh perspectives and insights into your writing.
Seek Feedback : Share your essay with trusted friends or mentors who can provide constructive feedback. They may offer insights that you had not considered.

Understanding ISB’s Admissions Committee Expectations

When crafting your response to the ISB PGP essay prompt, “What intellectual experiences have influenced your approach to learning and have led you to pursue an MBA? Please describe using anecdotes from your own experiences,” it’s essential to recognize what the admissions committee is looking for. They want to understand your intellectual journey —the experiences that have shaped your mindset and learning style. This essay is not merely an opportunity to list achievements; rather, it is a chance to reflect on how specific experiences have informed your decision to pursue an MBA.The committee seeks candidates who demonstrate self-awareness and a clear understanding of their motivations. They want to see how your past experiences connect to your future aspirations and how an MBA fits into that narrative. By sharing personal anecdotes, you can provide insight into your unique perspective and intellectual curiosity, which are critical for success in a rigorous academic environment.

Framework for Writing a Winning Essay

To write a compelling essay, follow this structured framework:

Start by thoroughly analyzing the essay prompt. Identify key themes such as “intellectual experiences,” “approach to learning,” and “motivation for an MBA.” Understanding these elements will guide your narrative.
Next, engage in self-reflection. List significant intellectual experiences that have shaped your learning—this could include influential courses, projects, or discussions. Look for patterns that highlight your learning style and professional aspirations.
From your list, select the most impactful experiences that directly relate to your decision to pursue an MBA. These should resonate personally and illustrate your academic and professional journey effectively.
Once you have your experiences, develop a structured outline. Begin with an introduction that sets the stage for your intellectual journey. In the body, detail each selected experience, describing the context, lessons learned, and their influence on your learning approach. Conclude by summarizing how these experiences have led you to the decision to pursue an MBA, linking it to your career goals.
As you write, focus on crafting a compelling narrative. Use anecdotes to bring your experiences to life, providing specific details that illustrate your insights. This approach not only makes your essay more engaging but also showcases your critical thinking and reflective abilities.
Finally, explicitly relate your experiences to ISB. Highlight how the school’s curriculum and community align with your learning style and aspirations. Mention specific programs or aspects of ISB that resonate with you, and outline how you plan to contribute to the community based on your intellectual experiences.

Tips for Writing Your Essay

When writing your essay, keep these tips in mind to enhance its effectiveness:

Be Authentic : Use your unique voice and personal experiences to stand out. Avoid generic responses and clichés; authenticity resonates more with the admissions committee.
Stay Focused : Ensure that every part of your essay directly addresses the prompt. It’s easy to veer off-topic, but staying focused will help maintain clarity and coherence.
Be Concise : With a 400-word limit, every word counts. Aim for succinctness while still providing enough detail to enrich your narrative. Avoid unnecessary filler and get straight to the point.
Engage the Reader : Start with a compelling opening that captures attention. A strong introduction can set the tone for the rest of your essay and draw the reader in.
Reflect Deeply : Show introspection by discussing not just what you learned but how it has shaped your approach to learning and your decision to pursue an MBA. This depth of reflection can set you apart.
Proofread : Finally, ensure your essay is free from grammatical errors and typos. A polished essay reflects your professionalism and attention to detail.

Essay 3 (Optional)

Given your experience and aspirations, how do you plan to use the PGP at ISB to fulfill your professional goals? (Optional) (250 words only)

This is an optional essay. Most likely because this is something that’s discussed in detail during the interviews anyway. However, you need to treat this as a mandatory essay and give it equal importance as the other 2 essays.

This essay is your opportunity to show how important ISB is to you and where ISB fits into your overall plan. Showcase your genuine enthusiasm for and alignment with the ISB PGP program in this essay.

To craft a compelling narrative, we suggest following this framework:

Reflect on your previous experience: The skills, knowledge and accomplishments you have so far through your work experience
Define your future aspirations: What specific role or industry do you wish to work in? What impact do you want to make in the future? Be very specific about your short term goals at the very least
Identify gaps: Based on the above 2 points, identify your weak areas or areas you need to work on to reach your goals
Research the ISB PGP program: Curriculum, faculty, clubs, extracurricular activities, industry connections, network, experiential learning etc. Identify the key features and strengths of the program that align with your goals
Link program features to your goals: For example, if you wish to work in consulting, highlight how the program’s case study methodology, consulting clubs and access to industry experts will enhance your consulting skills and network
Highlight the fit: Emphasize why it is the ideal program to help you achieve your goals

To make the most of this limited space, it is imperative that you convey your sincere interest in joining ISB. Avoid formulating goals solely based on their popularity or appeal. Instead, focus on showcasing your authenticity. Discuss goals and career paths that genuinely resonate with you, allowing you to substantiate it during the interview.

Reapplicant essay

You do not need to write the reapplicant essay if you applied through the Young Leaders Programme (YLP).

Candidates who applied to ISB in past years must produce an essay describing how their profile has improved during this time.

If you applied in R1 last year and are applying in R1 this year, you have almost a year to plan anew. Recapitulate all of your efforts to improve your profile.

If you applied in R2 last year and are now applying in R1, you have only had about 8 months, which may or may not reflect significant changes in your profile.

This is your best chance to show the school that you did some introspection to get a new viewpoint and that you improved your eligibility by upskilling or working on new projects.

Discuss new projects, new learnings from these projects, things you got to do for the first time, and interactions that impacted you and your career plans. Don’t forget to include experiences that helped you improve your core and soft skills.

If you presented a career goal last year that you were unable to justify in the interview, or if you have decided to pursue an alternative plan that you can validate, do not be afraid to make a statement.

Through this essay, you get a chance to prove to the ISB admissions committee that you were able to understand what went wrong the last time and that you made significant improvements in your profile based on those gaps in your profile.

We, at Admit Expert, have ISB admissions experts who can help you with your essay and overall application. Write to us at [email protected] to know more.

Do you want to get into your dream business school?

Take the first step towards your MBA dream and schedule a free 1 on 1 application strategy call with us.

2024-2025 Tepper MBA Essay Tips and Analysis

The CMU Tepper School of Business is renowned for its rigorous focus on analytical decision-making, innovation, and leadership. One of the most critical components of the Tepper MBA application is the required essay, which allows applicants to showcase their unique perspectives on leadership and community engagement. For the 2025 admissions

What are STEM MBA Programs offered by US Business Schools

In today’s competitive job market, an MBA can provide a significant edge, especially when combined with the expertise of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). This comprehensive guide delves into the STEM MBA programs offered by U.S. business schools, exploring why to pursue a STEM MBA, the pros and cons, job

2024-2025 Texas McCombs MBA Essay Analysis and Tips

If you’re gearing up to dive into the world of business education and have your sights set on the Texas McCombs MBA program for the 2025 intake, you’re in the right place. Crafting an outstanding application requires more than just numbers and bullet points – it’s all about telling your

MBA Admission Consultants

Isb essays 2025-26: expert tips.

ISB Essays are a window for the admissions committee to know you as a professional and as an individual.

With so many well qualified applicants aiming for their seat at ISB PGP, the ISB essays are your opportunity to stand out and show what you are made of.

Based on the insights shared by Mr. Amit Tyagi, ISB Associate Director in the Q&A session , here's a more detailed section on tips and strategies for ISB essays:

Tips and Strategies for ISB Essays

Introspection is Key:

Amit strongly emphasizes the importance of introspection. Take time to deeply reflect on your experiences, skills, and career goals.

Understand your strengths, weaknesses, and what truly motivates you.

Start Early and Iterate:

Don't attempt to complete your essays in just a day or two.

Begin the process well in advance of the deadline.

Plan for multiple drafts and revisions.

Initial Brainstorming:

Start with an unconstrained draft, ignoring word limits initially.

Let your thoughts flow freely to capture all potential content.

Ruthless Editing:

After the initial draft, be prepared to cut ruthlessly.

Focus on the most impactful experiences and insights that align with your overall narrative.

Seek Feedback:

Share your drafts with trusted mentors, colleagues, or seniors who know you well.

Gather input from 3-4 people to get diverse perspectives.

However, ensure the final essay remains authentically your voice.

Align with Your Application Narrative:

Ensure your essays complement and reinforce the story told by other parts of your application.

Create a coherent narrative across all application components.

Showcase Self-Awareness:

Demonstrate clear understanding of your skills, experiences, and how they've shaped you.

Articulate your career goals and how an MBA, specifically from ISB, fits into your plan.

Address the Prompts Directly:

For the mandatory essays, clearly address your professional strengths and weaknesses, and your reasons for pursuing an MBA.

In the optional essay, focus on how ISB specifically aligns with your career goals.

Be Authentic:

Don't try to write what you think the admissions committee wants to hear.

Be genuine about your experiences and aspirations.

Show, Don't Just Tell:

Use specific examples to illustrate your points.

Highlight concrete achievements and lessons learned.

Consider the Reader:

Remember that actual people will be reviewing your essays.

Make your essays engaging and easy to follow.

Prepare for the ISB Interview:

Your essays will likely be a starting point for interview questions.

Be prepared to expand on and discuss any point you make in your essays.

For Reapplicants:

In the additional essay, focus on how you've grown or improved since your last application.

Highlight new achievements or insights.

Sleep On It:

Amit mentions that insights often come after you've slept on your ideas.

Allow time between drafts for reflection and new perspectives.

Word Limit Discipline:

While starting without constraints is good, ensure your final drafts adhere to the given word limits.

Concise, impactful writing is a skill the admissions committee values.

Remember, as Amit emphasizes, the essay writing process is not just about producing a document, but about engaging in deep self-reflection.

We believe tha this process should help you articulate your journey and vision clearly, which will be valuable not just for your application, but for your future career discussions as well. If you need help with your ISB essays, contact GOALisB ISB admission consultants.

There are five mistakes that we have seen applicants make when they are approaching their ISB essays:

Following someone else's footsteps. Using templates and sample essays.

Rewriting your resume and achievements.

Using too much of jargon and buzzwords that they have identified from their research about what ISB looks for.

Start at the last moment.

Submitting generic and too good to be true essays in language and content.

When you are competing with a fiercely competitive applicant pool, how do you make your application stand out? The answer lies in your essays.

What does ISB look for in the essays?

Academic prowess or

Impressive work experience.

Your unique blend of skills, experiences, and perspectives.

They want to see the person behind the resume, the leader, the innovator, the changemaker.

Your essays are your chance to tell your unique story.

This comprehensive guide will equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to craft compelling ISB essays that capture your authentic self and resonate with the admissions committee. We'll delve into the latest essay prompts, share actionable tips, and even provide a sample essay for inspiration.

But remember, while this guide is a valuable starting point, personalized guidance from an experienced ISB admissions consultant can be the game-changer that elevates your application from good to exceptional.

Ready to unlock the secrets of ISB's essays? Let's dive in!

Crafting Your ISB Application Process Timeline: A Tailored Approach

Understanding when to start working on your ISB essays is crucial for maximizing your chances of success. The optimal timeline depends on your individual circumstances and preparation level. Here are three scenarios and corresponding timelines to guide you:

Scenario 1: Reapplicants or Those Building Their Profile

Timeline: Start 4-5 months before the deadline.

Rationale: Reapplicants or those who need to enhance their profile (e.g., gain additional work experience, improve test scores) need ample time. This timeline allows for:

Ding Analysis: Analyze your previous application and identify areas for improvement. You can even request feedback from ISB admissions.

Profile Enhancement: Strategically work on addressing weaknesses, such as taking additional courses, seeking leadership roles, or volunteering.

Brainstorming & Strategy: Reflect on your experiences and develop a compelling narrative that showcases your growth and potential.

Example: If the deadline is September 1st, start brainstorming and outlining your essays in January or February. Use April-June to strengthen your profile, and dedicate May-August to writing, refining, and perfecting your essays.

Scenario 2: Applicants with GMAT/GRE Scores Ready or Preparing for GMAT/ GRE

Timeline: Start 3-4 months before the deadline.

Rationale: While you have your test scores ready, crafting compelling essays still requires thoughtful introspection and planning. This timeline allows for:

Application Strategy: Develop a comprehensive strategy that aligns your entire application with your career goals and ISB's program offerings.

Brainstorming & Outlining: Deeply reflect on your experiences, strengths, and weaknesses to generate impactful essay ideas.

Writing & Revision: Write multiple drafts, seek feedback, and refine your essays to perfection.

Example: With a September 1st deadline, start brainstorming and outlining in May, draft your essays in June-July, and finalize them in August.

Important Note: These are general guidelines. The ideal timeline for you may vary depending on your individual circumstances, writing style, and comfort level.

Remember, the key is to start early and allocate sufficient time for each stage of the essay writing process.

Decoding the ISB Essays for 2024

The ISB MBA essays are your canvas to paint a vivid picture of yourself, your experiences, and your aspirations. They are not mere formalities; they are a crucial component of your application, revealing your unique character and potential beyond your GMAT scores and resume.

Here's a breakdown of the 2024 ISB essay prompts:

ISB Essay 1: Self-Reflection and Growth

Prompt: Provide an honest portrayal of yourself, emphasizing your strengths and weaknesses. Highlight the key elements that have shaped your personal journey. Give relevant illustrations as needed. (400 words)

ISB Essay Analysis: This essay invites you to introspect and share a candid self-assessment. ISB seeks authentic voices, so don't shy away from discussing your areas for growth. Focus on the experiences that have shaped your values, skills, and aspirations.

ISB Essay 2: Success and Failure

Prompt: Contemplate two distinct situations—one where you experienced success and another where you faced failure. Delve into the personal and interpersonal lessons you learned from these instances. (400 words)

ISB Essay Analysis: This essay delves into your resilience and self-awareness. ISB wants to understand how you learn from both triumphs and setbacks. Choose stories that highlight your growth mindset and ability to navigate challenges.

ISB Optional Essay: Leveraging the PGP

Prompt: Given your previous experience and future aspirations, how do you plan to use the PGP at ISB to fulfill your professional goals? (250 words)

ISB Essay Analysis: This is your opportunity to showcase your research into the ISB MBA program. Demonstrate a clear understanding of how specific aspects of the PGP (courses, faculty, clubs, etc.) align with your career trajectory and aspirations.

Tips for writing a strong ISB Essay:

The ISB essays require introspection, honesty, and a clear vision for your future.

Each essay serves a distinct purpose, so tailor your responses accordingly.

Your essays should complement your resume and academic record, not simply restate them.

Crafting compelling ISB essays requires a deeper understanding of the underlying goals of each question.

Stay tuned for the next section of our guide, or consider booking a free consultation with our experienced ISB admissions consultants.

Craft Compelling ISB Essays: Your Action Plan

Now that you understand the essay prompts, let's dive into the nitty-gritty of crafting responses that will captivate the ISB admissions committee.

Unearth Your Unique Narrative: Don't just rehash your resume. Dig deeper into the experiences that have shaped you. What challenges have you overcome? What unique perspectives do you bring? Your ISB essays should reveal the person behind the achievements.

Example (Essay 1): Instead of listing your leadership roles, narrate a specific instance where your leadership made a tangible difference. Did you resolve a conflict within your team? Spearhead a successful project despite setbacks?

Showcase Your Impact: ISB values impact-driven individuals. Don't just describe your responsibilities; quantify your achievements. Use data and metrics to demonstrate how you've made a difference in your professional or personal life.

Example (Essay 2): When discussing a successful project, don't just say it was successful. Explain that you "increased revenue by 15%" or "streamlined a process that saved the company X amount annually."

Connect the Dots: ISB wants to see how your past experiences have prepared you for their MBA program and your future career goals. Clearly articulate how the ISB MBA will help you bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.

Example (Optional Essay): Research specific courses, faculty members, or clubs at ISB that align with your career aspirations. Explain how these resources will equip you with the skills and knowledge needed to achieve your goals.

Be Authentic and Vulnerable: ISB values honesty and self-awareness. Don't be afraid to share your weaknesses or failures (especially in Essay 2). What did you learn from those experiences? How have they shaped you as a leader?

Example (Essay 1): Discuss a time when you made a mistake or faced a setback. Explain how you took ownership, learned from the experience, and emerged stronger.

Write Clearly and Concisely: The ISB admissions committee reads hundreds of essays. Get to the point quickly, use strong verbs, and avoid jargon.

Need More Personalized Guidance?

While these tips are a great starting point, the ISB essay writing process can be nuanced and challenging. If you're looking for expert feedback and personalized strategies to make your essays truly shine, consider booking a free consultation with our experienced ISB admissions consultants . We can help you craft compelling narratives that showcase your unique strengths and potential.

ISB PGP Sample Essays

Free samples from past clients, isb application essays for 2023-24.

Essay 1: Provide an honest portrayal of yourself, emphasizing your strengths and weaknesses. Highlight the key elements that have shaped your personal journey. Give relevant illustrations as needed. (400 words max)

Essay 2: Contemplate two distinct situations—one where you experienced success and another where you faced failure. Delve into the personal and interpersonal lessons you learned from these instances. (400 words max)

Optional Essay: Given your previous experience and future aspirations, how do you plan to use the PGP at ISB to fulfil your professional goals? Note: It is not necessary for you to write this essay. Please use this space only if there is something really significant that you would like us to know. (250 words max)

ISB PGP MBA Winning Sample Essays – 1

Isb essay question 1: provide an honest portrayal of yourself, emphasizing your strengths and weaknesses. highlight the key elements that have shaped your personal journey. give relevant illustrations as needed. (400 words max).

I am an individual driven by a passion for innovation, a commitment to continuous learning, and a desire to make a meaningful impact. My journey has been shaped by diverse experiences in technology, finance, and entrepreneurship, each contributing to my strengths and highlighting areas for growth.

One of my key strengths is my analytical ability, honed through my academic background in Computer Engineering. Leading projects such as developing an automated stock trading algorithm and a forest fire predictor model has sharpened my problem-solving skills and fostered a deep understanding of leveraging technology for practical solutions. This analytical mindset enables me to dissect complex problems and devise strategic solutions effectively.

Another strength is my entrepreneurial spirit. Co-founding Greenwood Essential and driving it to international success has instilled in me resilience, strategic thinking, and leadership skills. Overcoming challenges such as market entry barriers and regulatory hurdles has taught me the value of adaptability and perseverance. Leading a team to achieve a 29% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in sales reflects my ability to inspire and motivate others towards common goals.

However, my journey has also highlighted areas for improvement. One notable weakness is my tendency to overcommit. My passion for taking on new challenges sometimes leads to juggling multiple projects simultaneously, which can affect my focus and efficiency. To address this, I have been actively working on improving my time management skills and learning to prioritize tasks effectively.

Another area for development is public speaking. Despite being comfortable in one-on-one interactions and small group settings, presenting to larger audiences can be daunting. To overcome this, I have joined a local Toastmasters club, where I practice and receive constructive feedback to enhance my public speaking abilities.

My strengths in analytical thinking, entrepreneurial drive, and leadership have been pivotal in my journey, while recognizing and addressing my weaknesses has been essential for my growth. I am confident that the ISB PGP will further refine these skills and provide me with the platform to achieve my aspirations.

ISB Essay Question 2: Contemplate two distinct situations—one where you experienced success and another where you faced failure. Delve into the personal and interpersonal lessons you learned from these instances. (400 words max)

Reflecting on my journey, two distinct situations stand out—one of success and one of failure, both offering valuable lessons.

Co-founding Greenwood Essential

One of my most significant successes was co-founding Greenwood Essential and driving it to international success. The venture began with a clear vision to create high-quality essential oils. We faced numerous challenges, from product development to market penetration, particularly in the competitive international markets of the UK, France, and the USA. Through strategic planning, market research, and effective team management, we achieved a 29% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in sales. This success taught me the importance of resilience, strategic thinking, and the power of teamwork. It reinforced my belief that with dedication and a clear vision, even the most daunting challenges can be overcome.

Stock Trading Algorithm Setback

Conversely, a significant failure I encountered was during the initial development of an automated stock trading algorithm. Despite extensive research and rigorous testing, the algorithm initially resulted in substantial losses. The setback was disheartening, especially considering the time and resources invested. However, this failure provided profound personal and interpersonal lessons. It underscored the importance of thorough risk assessment and the necessity of continuous learning and adaptation. I learned to approach problems with a growth mindset, viewing failures as opportunities for learning rather than endpoints. Interpersonally, it highlighted the value of transparent communication and collaboration. Discussing the setbacks openly with my team fostered a culture of trust and collective problem-solving, ultimately leading to a refined and successful algorithm.

These experiences have been instrumental in shaping my personal and professional growth. Success taught me the importance of strategic vision and resilience, while failure emphasized the need for risk assessment, continuous learning, and open communication. Both instances have equipped me with the insights and skills necessary to navigate future challenges and seize opportunities, reinforcing my readiness for the dynamic learning environment at ISB.

ISB Optional Essay: Given your previous experience and future aspirations, how do you plan to use the PGP at ISB to fulfil your professional goals? Note: It is not necessary for you to write this essay. Please use this space only if there is something really significant that you would like us to know. (250 words max)

The ISB Post Graduate Program (PGP) offers a unique blend of academic rigor, practical application, and a robust network that aligns perfectly with my professional aspirations of leading the Finance & Treasury function of a major corporation.

My background in Computer Engineering and experience as a co-founder of Greenwood Essential have equipped me with strong analytical and entrepreneurial skills. However, to achieve my long-term goal, I need to deepen my strategic and managerial acumen. The PGP at ISB, with its comprehensive curriculum and focus on experiential learning, will provide me with the advanced knowledge and practical skills necessary for this transition.

Courses such as Corporate Finance, Strategic Management, and Leadership Development will enhance my ability to make informed financial decisions and lead diverse teams. Additionally, the program’s emphasis on real-world projects and industry exposure will allow me to apply theoretical insights to practical scenarios, bridging the gap between academia and industry.

ISB’s strong alumni network and industry connections will offer invaluable opportunities for mentorship, career advancement, and professional growth. Engaging with this vibrant community will provide fresh perspectives and foster collaborations that can drive innovative solutions.

The ISB PGP will be instrumental in fulfilling my professional goals by equipping me with the necessary skills, knowledge, and network to excel in high-level financial roles and contribute meaningfully to the business world.

Quick Essay Review

Using Chat GPT to Write your Essay? Worried if your Essay is Good enough or Not?

Need a last-minute review?

Submit your essays below & get in-depth feedback within 48 Hours.

ISB Winning Sample Essays – 2

ISB Essay Question 1: Provide an honest portrayal of yourself, emphasizing your strengths and weaknesses. Highlight the key elements that have shaped your personal journey. Give relevant illustrations as needed. (400 words max)

I am a driven and strategic business development professional with a strong foundation in leadership, adaptability, and a commitment to ethical business practices. Over the past three years, I have honed my skills in diverse roles, leading initiatives that have significantly contributed to organizational growth and operational efficiency. My professional journey has been marked by strategic thinking and the ability to drive impactful changes, evidenced by my successful implementation of a new supply operating model at Urban Company that increased partner performance metrics by 10%.

One of my key strengths is my ability to lead and inspire teams. As the Senior Manager of Corporate Relations at Masters’ Union, I led a team to increase corporate connections by 30% within three months. This role required strategic planning, effective communication, and the ability to build and maintain relationships with senior executives. These experiences have reinforced my belief in the power of collaborative effort and strategic thinking in achieving ambitious goals.

My journey has not been without challenges. One area I am keen to develop further is my financial acumen. Recognizing this gap, I have proactively pursued additional finance and investment courses to enhance my understanding of complex financial models and analytics. This initiative reflects my commitment to continuous learning and self-improvement, ensuring that I can make informed decisions that drive business success.

Another significant challenge was the setback during the COVID-19 pandemic when a real estate investment I convinced my family to pursue turned out to be a scam. This experience taught me the importance of due diligence and resilience. It pushed me to reassess my approach to risk management and financial planning, ultimately making me a more cautious and strategic decision-maker.

My personal journey has also been shaped by my commitment to community service and sustainability. Volunteering with Teach For India and AIESEC has provided me with a deeper understanding of social responsibility and the impact businesses can have on communities. These experiences have instilled in me the importance of integrating ethical considerations into business strategies, a value I am passionate about promoting in my professional career.

My strengths in leadership and strategic thinking, combined with my commitment to continuous improvement and ethical business practices, have shaped my personal and professional journey. I am eager to bring these attributes to the ISB community and continue to grow and contribute meaningfully.

One of my most significant successes was at Masters’ Union, where I was tasked with increasing corporate connections to enhance student employment opportunities. Through strategic outreach and persistent networking, I secured partnerships with several top-tier companies, including McKinsey, BCG, and Bain, within just three months. This success was a result of meticulous planning, persuasive communication, and the ability to build strong relationships with senior executives. The project not only boosted our institution’s reputation but also significantly improved student placement rates. This experience taught me the importance of setting clear objectives, the power of effective communication, and the impact of building and nurturing professional relationships.

In contrast, a notable failure occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when I convinced my family to invest in a real estate project based on a recommendation from a trusted friend. Unfortunately, the project turned out to be a scam, resulting in a significant financial loss for my family. This failure was a harsh lesson in the importance of thorough due diligence and risk assessment. It underscored the need for comprehensive research and validation before making critical financial decisions. On a personal level, it taught me resilience and the importance of taking responsibility for my actions.

Interpersonally, both experiences highlighted the significance of trust and communication. In the successful project at Masters’ Union, building trust with corporate partners and effectively communicating our value proposition were key to securing partnerships. In the case of the real estate investment failure, the experience emphasized the importance of transparent communication within the family and the need for collective decision-making.

These situations have profoundly shaped my approach to both personal and professional challenges. They have reinforced the value of strategic planning, effective communication, and ethical decision-making. Moving forward, I am committed to applying these lessons to drive positive outcomes and avoid past mistakes.

Given my extensive experience in business development and strategic planning, I aim to leverage the PGP at ISB to achieve my professional goal of becoming a Chief Strategy Officer in a leading technology firm. The comprehensive curriculum at ISB, with its strong focus on leadership, innovation, and global business practices, aligns perfectly with my aspirations.

Courses such as Strategic Management and Digital Transformation will provide me with advanced knowledge and practical insights essential for navigating the complexities of the tech industry. The opportunity to engage in experiential learning through real-world projects will allow me to apply theoretical concepts to practical challenges, enhancing my problem-solving skills and strategic thinking.

Additionally, ISB’s network of alumni and industry connections will be invaluable for building relationships and exploring career opportunities. Participating in clubs and initiatives focused on technology and entrepreneurship will further enable me to deepen my expertise and stay abreast of the latest industry trends.

By integrating the knowledge and skills gained from ISB’s PGP, I am confident in my ability to drive innovation, strategic growth, and sustainable business practices in the technology sector, ultimately achieving my long-term career aspirations.

Client Testimonials

You may also like, application prep, $ 500 / ₹ 40k.

———————

Unlimited Calls

Unlimited Edits

Free Interview Prep

If not shortlisted for Interview*

100% Refund

Wondering if you can target this school?

Free Profile Evaluation Workshop

Join our live workshop and

Get all your profile related questions answered.

Profile Evaluation Workshop

Want to get your profile evaluated?

Decoding ISB’s New Essay Prompts for MBA Admissions (2023-2024)

By Arvind Kumar

18 July 2023

The Indian School of Business (ISB) is widely recognized as one of India’s top business schools. The school offers a rigorous curriculum taught by renowned faculty and has collaborations with prestigious international institutions. Due to its reputation, ISB attracts a large number of applicants each year from diverse backgrounds.

ISB has recently opened their application process for the 2024 admission cycle. Here is the detailed timeline for the 2024 admissions cycle:

	Application Deadline	Tentative Interview Dates	Results
First Round	10 September, 2023	Oct – Nov, 2023	Dec 2023
Second Round	3 December, 2023	Jan – Feb, 2024	March 2024
Third Round	January, 2024	Feb – Mar, 2024	April 2024

To be eligible, candidates must have two years of full-time professional work experience by April 8, 2024. This is a change from previous years, where the eligibility was considered until March 31 of the admission year.

While there is no template answer to the ISB essay questions, in this article, we cover the approach and best practices that can help you put your best foot forward as a potential candidate. Although the essays will certainly need to be personal, it is important to keep in mind the qualities ISB seeks in applicants. When discussing your experiences, you can then emphasize how well your skills align with those qualities. The qualities ISB looks for include clarity of thought, leadership, effective communication, team orientation, learning orientation, industry knowledge, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal skills.

We hope these guidelines will help you convey your story succinctly and honestly.

Essay 1 . Provide an honest portrayal of yourself, emphasizing your strengths and weaknesses. Highlight the key elements that have shaped your personal journey. Give relevant illustrations as needed. (400 words)

This is a great opportunity to present your story to ISB. The essay prompt aims to go beyond simply assessing your academic and professional accomplishments, and seeks to gain deeper insights into your character, self-awareness and personal growth.

ISB is keen to know how you have evolved as an individual, the challenges you have faced, the lessons you learned and how these experiences have shaped your journey. It is important to be true to yourself as your authenticity can help differentiate your response to this essay prompt. Let us go through the steps you can follow to have a compelling essay to this prompt.

Firstly, start by reflecting on your personal journey and creating a master list of your accomplishments. Think of the achievements you are most proud of in your journey. Feel free to add to and edit the list, as the self introspection process takes time, sometimes hours or days. Aim to pick accomplishments that involve their fair share of challenges, as this can help showcase your strengths (point below) better.

For each accomplishment, connect it to a specific strength or strengths that you exhibited. For example, if one of your core strengths is perseverance, there could be multiple accomplishments from the above step where this trait can be linked to. While at this step, also highlight your values, motivations, and the core beliefs that you possess. These would add an additional layer and nuance to your story.

Once you have your master list, highlight the most important accomplishments. These can be picked by considering two parameters: recency and impact. The more recent the accomplishment, the better. Likewise, the more its impact, the better. Prioritize two or three accomplishments that are particularly significant, along with the associated strengths.

When considering weaknesses, it is recommended to follow the same steps as for the strengths. Start with listing the incidents in your life where you think you could have done better, especially ones where you had control over the outcome. For each such incident, connect it to a specific weakness or weaknesses. These can be areas of improvement. Try to avoid pseudo weaknesses as these do not portray authentic self introspection. For example, being a perfectionist is not really a weakness, and highlighting this (or something similar) as a weakness could indicate that you are trying to hide your weaknesses.

Subsequently, prioritize two or three incidents from the above point, along with the associated weaknesses. Consider two parameters to prioritize: recency and impact. The more recent the incident, the better. Likewise, the more its impact, the better. Also explain how these incidents have impacted your life, and discuss your efforts to overcome them. Working on your weaknesses demonstrates self-awareness and a drive for personal growth, both of which are positive attributes that ISB seeks to uncover.

As the next step, aim to strike a balance between highlighting your strengths and addressing your weaknesses. Focus on your growth and how you have overcome challenges, rather than dwelling solely on weaknesses. Likewise, avoid exaggerating your strengths. The key is to be honest, and to align to some of the values ISB looks for in a candidate. As a reminder, here are the values that ISB primarily looks for: clarity of thought, leadership, effective communication, team orientation, learning orientation, industry knowledge, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal skills.

Now that you have identified the important qualities and formative moments from the above steps, it is time to start weaving them together. Focus on maintaining a smooth flow throughout your essay, which should read like a personal story that portrays you as the protagonist. Use clear transitions to ensure a smooth flow between paragraphs.

Finally, conclude your essay by linking your personal journey to your future goals. Articulate how your strengths and the lessons learned will contribute to your success in the ISB MBA program and post your MBA journey.

Essay 2. Contemplate two distinct situations—one where you experienced success and another where you faced failure. Delve into the personal and interpersonal lessons you learned from these instances. (400 words)

Through this essay prompt, ISB seeks to assess your self-reflection, emotional intelligence, and ability to learn and grow from both triumphs and setbacks. While experiencing both success and failure contributes to personal growth, ISB is equally interested in understanding how you handle these situations and the lessons you took from them. Let us go through the steps you can follow to have a compelling essay to this prompt.

Firstly, start by reflecting on the key peak points in your life, including both the highs and the lows. Create a master list of incidents i.e. the incidents where the normal course of your life changed, for the better or worse. These can be in your professional (preferably) or personal life. Feel free to add to and edit the list, as the self introspection process takes time, sometimes hours or days. Aim to pick incidents that involve their fair share of challenges.

For each incident, list down the key lessons you learned. For example, if one of your failures was losing a job (pretty extreme), think about what you could have done better (if it was under your control), and how you would approach a similar future situation to avoid such negative outcomes.

Once you have your master list, carefully select two contrasting incidents: one where you experienced success and another where you faced failure. Consider two parameters while prioritizing your incidents: recency and impact. The more recent the incident, the better. Likewise, the more its impact, the better.

Subsequently, deep-dive into the situation where you achieved success. Follow the CARL framework (which we use at admitStreet in our brainstorming sessions and suggest to candidates for customized usage in essays): describe the Context/ Challenges, the Action you took, the Result of your action (preferably quantified), and the Lessons you learned thereby. Highlight the impact on your personal and interpersonal development, and the lessons you learned across these dimensions, as requested in the essay prompt.

Now, transition to the contrasting situation of failure. Follow the CARL framework: describe the Context/ Challenges, the Action you took, the Result of your action (preferably quantified), and the Lessons you learned thereby. Discuss the setbacks, emotions, and lessons learned from this experience. Reflect on how it influenced your personal growth, resilience, and ability to adapt.

Now it is time to analyze the lessons you learned from both the situations discussed. Explore how each experience shaped your traits and values. Aim to align them to some of the values ISB looks for in a candidate. As a reminder, here are the values that ISB primarily looks for: clarity of thought, leadership, effective communication, team orientation, learning orientation, industry knowledge, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal skills. Make sure to give equal attention to both situations, avoiding an overly positive or negative tone. Maintain a balanced approach that highlights your resilience, learning, and personal development.

Finally, conclude your essay by highlighting how the lessons you learned can be applied to your MBA journey and in your life/ career post MBA.

Essay 3. Given your previous experience and future aspirations, how do you plan to use the PGP at ISB to fulfill your professional goals? Optional (250 words max)

While this essay is optional, it is highly recommended to have a strong response to this prompt as it shows to the ISB Adcom that you have given enough thought about your past experiences, career goals, and how the ISB MBA fits in. This prompt, similar in theme to the previous year’s essay prompt(s), aims to gauge your clarity of vision, alignment between your past experiences and future goals, and the potential impact of the ISB MBA on your professional journey.

To excel in this essay, it is crucial to present a well-thought-out plan that effectively connects your previous experience, future aspirations, and the unique offerings of the PGP at ISB. The more clear, concise and compelling your experiences, goals and especially “how ISB fits in” are, the easier it would be for ISB to ascertain if you would be a good fit. Let us go through the steps you can follow to have a compelling essay to this prompt.

Firstly, start by reflecting on your key achievements (could be rephrased from the above essays while repeating verbatim may not be a good idea), skills, and lessons learned from your previous professional experiences. Highlight the specific experiences that have influenced your career trajectory so far and influenced your goals. Quantify your achievements wherever possible, while adding enough context so someone who isn’t familiar with your domain can easily understand.

As the next step, clearly articulate your future goals i.e. target sector, function, geography and ideally also company (or your own venture if applicable). Ensure there is a linkage between your past experiences and your future goals. If the link isn’t obvious, mention why your goals matter to you and what are the transferable skills you bring to make that transition possible. The key is to demonstrate a deep understanding of your target industry, function, or entrepreneurial venture.

Now, to effectively answer “why ISB”, it is time to display your knowledge and research of the unique resources offered by ISB. Research in-depth about ISB’s curriculum, alumni network, faculty, industry connections, placement statistics and experiential learning opportunities to identify specific elements that align with your goals. Also speak to alumni, preferably ones in your target industry, to understand how they made the transition and what resources helped them the most.

Draw a clear and logical connection between your past experiences, future goals (both short and long term), and how ISB can best bridge the gap. Highlight how ISB’s specific resources such as the pedagogy, learning environment, network, alumni, etc. will fill in the gaps in your skill sets (both hard and soft skills) and effectively help you transition to your target destination/ role. It would also be a good idea to mention which of your values are aligned to the ones ISB looks for in a candidate. As a reminder, here are the values that ISB primarily looks for: clarity of thought, leadership, effective communication, team orientation, learning orientation, industry knowledge, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal skills.

Finally, articulate how your professional goals align with ISB’s mission and how you envision making a positive impact within the ISB community and as a potential alumni. By showcasing your vision, alignment, and passion, you can present a persuasive essay that resonates with the AdCom and positions you favorably for the ISB MBA. Lastly, keep in mind that this question in particular may be discussed during the interview, so having a solid response is critical.

We hope our analysis of the questions will assist you in crafting compelling answers.

Get a free profile evaluation

If you would like a candid assessment of your profile, book your free profile evaluation session now.

Schedule your call

Perspectives from ISB

Applying to ISB PGP: Application Essays Explained

By Editorial team | August 14, 2013 | Uncategorized

Research Bytes Management Briefs Issue-3-2019 Public Policy Human Capital

How To Write The ISB PGP Application Essay 1 In 2022

By kumar anshul.

CAT Champions 2024

Join InsideIIM GOLD

Webinars & Workshops

Compare B-Schools

Free CAT Course

Take Free Mock Tests

Upskill With AltUni

CAT Study Planner

The 51-week-long ISB Program is not only a fast-track program but also one with an extremely diverse cohort and hence it comes as no surprise that ISB stresses a lot on peer learning. Moreover, every top B-school wants to know from its applicants that how can they contribute to the MBA program and with this essay ISB aims to gauge the same.

Before you go ahead with writing this essay, please take some time and do some self-reflection on your academic and professional qualities/capabilities/achievements- ideally make a list of everything that comes to your mind.

Within 400 words, you can talk about at most 3 distinct qualities/capabilities/achievements of yours through which you will be able to contribute to peer learning at ISB. Here are the some of the qualities/capabilities bucket that you might want to consider:-

Academic/Scholastic Edge
Professional Expertise
Entrepreneurial Experience
Leadership (Team Management) Experience
Diverse Extra-Curricular Achievements

1. Academic/Scholastic Edge

Choose this if you have,

a) Exceptional Quantitative skills b) Exemplary Academic Record- college/school/district/university topper etc

c) Patent/Research Papers

d) Subject Matter Expertise- if you have deep and unique knowledge in a particular field

e) International /National level awards and scholarships

f) Significant Certifications

How to write about Academic/Scholastic Edge

Describe your achievements/capabilities in brief and then explain how will you be able to contribute to the competitive cohort by helping your peers excel in assignments, case study discussion, B-school competitions, Live Projects etc.

2. Professional Expertise

Choose this if you have

Years of Experience in a particular industry/domain/functional area Series of professional achievements – quantifiable impact, promotions etc Exposure to a wide variety of roles, cultures, geographies, domains etc Early-stage startup experience

B-Schools also prefer professionally mature candidates and hence more than 10% of the batch at ISB is comprised of Senior Executives (having more than 8 years of Work Experience). If you have nuanced knowledge of a particular industry/function/domain because of many years of work experience, you can mention that you will be able to help your peers in building their industry knowledge, introducing your own perspective, and thought process during case study discussions because of your years of experience and will help your peers in every way possible leveraging your wealth of experience.

Applicants with tech background can mention that they will be able to help their non-tech peers to understand the nuances of Product Management and Tech Consulting- both of which are sought after jobs at ISB as well as help them in tech-oriented electives.

Likewise, people with specific industry experience (such as Healthcare, Real Estate, Public Policy etc) can mention that they can help their peers who are interested in getting Industry Specialization at ISB to get their foot on the door in a specific industry.

People who have worked in an early stage startup bring unique perspectives and ideas with them and they can also help their peers with their knowledge of building a product and/or acquiring customers for a new product.

Aman is PGP Candidate at ISB, Batch of 2023

3. Entrepreneurial Experience

Entrepreneurs constitute a small but significant part of ISB cohort because they bring with themselves a few unique skillsets that others don’t- fundraising, network with VCs and Angels, investor relations, building from 0 to 1, how to achieve PMF (Product Market Fit) etc.

If you have been an entrepreneur, you can mention how you can help your peers with these unique skillsets who want to build their own startup in the future. You can also mention that you would contribute to the EVC Club (Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club) at ISB.

4. Leadership/Team Management Experience

You should choose this if you have a team/people management experience- something which is highly valued in an MBA Application. Please note that such experience need not be strictly professional- if you have created an impact by leading a group of people even outside a professional setting (such as at an NGO), you can use this topic.

In the essay, convey your potential for making an impact, examples of your achievements as a leader and then eventually mention how can you help your peers at ISB. You can mention that you would take a POR (Position of Responsibility) at the ISB GSB (Graduate Student Body) or at one of the Professional or Social Clubs. You can also talk about any new initiatives that you want to take or a cause for which you want to take a stand for.

Abhidha is an ISB PGP Alum, Class of 2022

5. Diverse Extra-Curricular Achievements

If you have significant achievements outside the workplace (Sports, Arts, Social Work, Content Creation, Language Learning, Toastmasters, Event Management, Fitness etc), you can mention it in the essay. It can help you to fill the gaps in your profile if you do not have very strong achievements to show at your workplace. You can mention that with your rich experience in a particular activity, you bring a unique perspective, can help to organize similar activities for the Social Clubs at ISB (or even lead one of the social clubs) and enhance student involvement in the same.

6. Other Virtues/Capabilities/Qualities

Apart from the above-mentioned capabilities, there are many more virtues that you can mention (if you have strong experience/examples) :-

Exceptional Communication/Interpersonal/Presentation skills- You can mention that through these you will be able to contribute to class presentations, B-School competitions, and similar team projects. Mentorship- You can mention this if you have mentored people in your professional/personal life. Accordingly, you can explain that you would be able to mentor your peers in specific knowledge areas (for ex, industry knowledge, domain deep-dive, functional know-how etc) if needed.

Structure of the Essay

Once you have decided what all virtues/capabilities/achievements you want to include, you need to start writing the essay in a proper format. The following structure is recommended

Introductory Paragraph

Please summarize your entire professional experience in NOT MORE THAN 2 sentence. Here is an example,

“During my 9 years of working as a Supply Chain & tooling professional for a PSU, I have undertaken key technical assignments & procurement exercises, managed transition during policy & regimen changes (such as CST to GST, tender to GeM portal etc.) and developed a nuanced understanding of government machinery. I have lead cross-functional teams, systematically managed stakeholders (internal & external customers, vendors, agencies etc.) and initiated multiple epoch-making changes in existing practices”

2nd Paragraph- First Capability/Quality

Start with describing your capability with examples from and then end with how you will help your peers.

3rd Paragraph- Second Capability/Quality

4th Paragraph- Third Capability/Quality

Last Paragraph (Conclusion)

The conclusion should firmly conclude that once being a part of ISB PGP Cohort, you will contribute valuably to peer learning. For example,

“I am confident that my rich experience in_____ and/or my ability to _______ will add value to my cohort at ISB and I also hope to learn from my peers, and be a part of the process of personal and professional development”

Want to start your ISB Application with my help?

Message me on LinkedIn Message me on Instagram

Related Tags

CAT 2024 Convenor Insights: Expected Paper Pattern & Past Papers Analysis | IIM-C

Top Non-IIMs MBA Colleges to Target in 2024

Top IIMs in India 2024: Check Ranking, Courses, Placement, Fees & Seats

CAT 2023 vs 2022: Score vs Percentile Analysis & Sectional Cutoffs

CAT 2023 Slot 1 Reading Comprehension Breakdown by 99.9%iler ft. Karan Agrawal (FMS Delhi)

Mini mock test.

LRDI 3- CAT Champions 2

LRDI 4 - CAT Champions 2

VARC-3 CAT Champions 2

Quants 3-CAT Champions 2

VARC-5 CAT Champions 2

VARC-4 CAT Champions 2

Quants 2-CAT Champions 2

LRDI 2- CAT Champions 2

VARC-1 CAT Champions 2

Quants 1-CAT Champions 2

VARC-2 CAT Champions 2

Quants 4-CAT Champions 2

LRDI 1- CAT Champion 2

Lesson 7 | Pre-Session Test | RC Application - 2

Lesson 6 | Pre-Session Test | RC Application - 1

Lesson 4 | Pre-Session Test | Option Elimination Skill

Lesson 3 | Pre-Session Test | Effective Reading Skill

CAT 2023 DILR SLOT 3

CAT 2022 DILR SLOT 1

CAT 2023 DILR SLOT 2

CAT 2023 DILR SLOT 1

CAT 2023 QUANT SLOT 2

CAT 2023 QUANT SLOT 1

CAT 2020 VARC SLOT - 3

CAT 2020 VARC SLOT 2

CAT 2020 VARC SLOT 1

CAT 2021 VARC Slot 3

CAT 2021 VARC Slot 2

CAT 2021 VARC Slot 1

CAT 2017 VARC SLOT- 2

Take Free Test Here

Aimcat 2519 live solving by shashank prabhu, founder - point99 (cat 100%iler | seasoned cat trainer).

By Team InsideIIM

How A Non-Engineer Went From 17%ile to 99+%ile In CAT

Cat 2023 slot 1 dilr breakdown ft.dr.shashank prabhu || dilr dangal ep.5 || cat dilr preparation, i made it to fms delhi with gap years ft.shayari || 99.21%iler cat 2023, best 4 months strategy to score 99+%ile in cat 2024 ft.pallav goyal (iim a), essential resources for cat 2024 & how much practice you need for 99%ile, how to eliminate options in rc | cat varc tricks to score 99+ percentile ft. gejo sir, career launcher, subscribe to our newsletter.

For a daily dose of the hottest, most insightful content created just for you! And don't worry - we won't spam you.

Who Are You?

Top B-Schools

InsideIIM Gold

InsideIIM.com is India's largest community of India's top talent that pursues or aspires to pursue a career in Management.

[email protected]

Follow Us Here

Konversations By InsideIIM

TestPrep By InsideIIM

NMAT by GMAC
Exam Syllabus
Score Vs Percentile
Exam Preparation
Explainer Concepts
Free Mock Tests
RTI Data Analysis
Selection Criteria
CAT Toppers Interview
Study Planner
Admission Statistics
Interview Experiences
Explore B-Schools
B-School Rankings
Life In A B-School
B-School Placements
Certificate Programs
Katalyst Programs

Placement Preparation

Summer Placements Guide
Final Placements Guide

Career Guide

Career Explorer
The Top 0.5% League
Konversations Cafe
The AltUni Career Show
Employer Rankings
Alumni Reports
Salary Reports

ISB Sample Essays

ISB has announced essay topics around the month of June every year. However, with the delay due to COVID-19, essay topics would be announced in July 2020. The deadline would also be slightly delayed for Round 1 – 20 September (vs. 15 September in previous years). While the exact words of the ISB essay topics vary every year, the underlying tenets remain the same,

Why should you be a part of the next ISB PGP class, i.e. the ‘why you’ essay
What are your short & long-term career goals and how would ISB help achieve them, i.e. the ‘why ISB’ essay
Highlight significant changes in your profile from the time you applied last time, i.e. the ‘re-applicant essay’

As one of the best ISB admission consultants with a team of ISB alumni , we would like to share some ISB sample essays through this blog post. Further in the post, we share past successful ISB essays for each topic from our clients who secured an ISB PGP admission.

ISB Sample Essay 1

If we were to admit just One more candidate to the Postgraduate Programme (PGP) at the ISB, why should it be you? (400 words max) With a global B2B sales and account management background at ABC company, my experience and skill-set put me in good stead for my candidature at ISB. One of the instances which helped me build this experience was in June 2015, when I took on a new challenge to grow enterprise sales in Europe. During the second month of my stint, I was working on a potential deal with one of the largest travel agencies in Spain and Latin America. It was very difficult to bring them aboard since they were traditionally reluctant to adopt cloud based software.

After multiple calls and demos with the senior leadership, I helped identify and solve bottlenecks such as the massive scale of implementation, building custom features and pricing by working with different teams across the globe. Today, the company is one of our largest customers.

This deal was a huge test of my patience, grit and involved a lot of hard work since I was the primary point of contact for any queries from the client and led the overall effort. It provided me with an opportunity to interact with and present to senior stakeholders. The whole experience will surely help me to manage the rigor at ISB.

Handling sales in a startup is a high-pressure ask and I took up blogging (www.medium.com) to relax and started writing on multiple genres such as fiction, startups and inspirational articles on life. Soon, I found acceptance in the audience with positive feedback that they were motivated by my articles and liked the way I portrayed various aspects through my writing. My blogs have featured on the worldwide top 20 lists five times and once in the top 5. Today, there are over 3000 people who follow my work on Medium.

My experience with ABC company in a business development role, knowledge of the startup ecosystem and global sales strategies will help me contribute to different clubs at ISB such as the Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Club and Business Technology Club. I would be able to add to the good work that the clubs at ISB are doing by leveraging my contacts from the industry and organizing events tailored to business development and account management, which are important areas for all firms alike. Also, based on my experience with blogging I’d like to take ISB Insight to the next level by enhancing its readership, getting senior leaders in my network to contribute articles and overhauling the website.

ISB Sample Essay 2

Describe your short and long term career plans. How does the PGP fit in with those? (300 words max) My current role in Business Development at XYZ company involves selling IT products to global B2B customers, taking complete ownership of the account from evaluation to deal closure. In speaking with hundreds of prospects every month, I’ve realized that technology is always a basic and at the same time differentiating factor among organizations of all sizes. I have developed a strong interest in understanding the technology needs behind the products and want to help organizations grow in terms of adoption and revenue, with innovative solutions. I believe that a technology consulting role in the short-term will help me develop a structured thought process and ability to approach and solve various problems across industries. The PGP at ISB will equip me with the business skills and classroom training (from a global faculty) required for the role and also provide opportunities within the management consulting space with companies such as Deloitte and Accenture. In the long term, I want to be a part of the leadership team in a global technology-focused enterprise. There, I want to grow the business rapidly, generate a vision and execute it in a sustainable way to create employment opportunities globally. At ISB, I will also be able to improve further my interpersonal skills by interacting with peers from diverse backgrounds. It will help me build a professional network, which is essential to the career I aspire for. Apart from gaining classroom knowledge in courses such as Management of Organizations and Technology Strategy Consulting, I intend to hone my analytical skills better through the practicum courses at ISB which will equip me for challenges in the real world.

With my role at XYZ company, I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with ISB graduates and it cemented my belief in the opportunities and grooming the school has to offer.

ISB Sample Essay 3 (Re-applicant essay)

Please use this space to explain significant improvements in your profile since your last application to the ISB PGP. Note: It is mandatory for you to write this essay. (200 words max)

Based on the feedback from ISB adcom on the reasons for not making the cut previous year, I chalked out a plan to address the gaps in my profile and application.

As an Investment Banking Analyst, I assist clients on M&A transactions. This year, I worked on deals cumulatively valuing INR1,550cr, of which I led deals valuing INR 550cr.

I got promoted in 2019 and I now supervise two Analysts. The transition involved a steep learning curve. I realized that people when empowered can contribute not just through deliverables but also through enhanced team spirit and unparalleled work ethic.

Further, I participated in a 6-months fellowship program organized by a leading women empowerment group (Group A). Through a highly selective process (<20% selection ratio), Group A admitted 20 young women for a customized leadership training to help them build the skills they need to realize their highest potential. The journey helped develop inter-personal skills and instil mindful leadership techniques.

Overall, it’s been a rewarding year: I got to hone my technical skills, leadership skills and developed a solid foundation in teamwork. I also received the ‘Outstanding Contributor’ award along with a personal appreciation note from National Head of Firm A.

We hope that these sample essays were helpful and will give you a good starting point for your ISB essays. There are a number of structures and formats to write ISB Application Essays. There is no one size fits all approach when it comes to ISB essays. Each profile has a different story to tell and it should be depicted in an impactful manner.

To find out how you can best tell your story to the ISB adcom, reach out to us at [email protected] .

How To Write Essays For ISB Application How To Answer The “Why You” In Your ISB Application Essays How To Answer The “Why ISB” In Your ISB Application Essays

Blog Categories:

Singapore and More
Study Abroad

You have Successfully Subscribed!

WhatsApp us

Application Services
Interview Services
ISB Interview Experiences

ISB YLP 2024 Stage 1 & Stage 2 Essay Analysis & Essay Samples

What is ISB YLP?

The ISB Young Leaders Program (YLP) is an entry channel to the full-time 1-year ISB Post-Graduate Program (PGP), for students still in college. This is a deferred admit program that ensures an admitted candidate a seat at the ISB PGP, after gaining approximately 2 years of full-time experience. Students in their final or pre-final year may apply through the YLP deadlines and secure an admit to the ISB PGP, as they complete college. The admitted candidates may then take up a full-time professional engagement of their choice, before joining ISB.

“ ISB YLP is a unique opportunity for college students to apply to one of the best business schools in the country. YLP Stage-1 does not require a GMAT/GRE score. Strong academic scores, therefore, are a big plus. Additionally, present a compelling story, that makes the admissions team understand your strengths, and believe that you will be a valuable addition to the class ” Vikram Singh, CEO and Chief Mentor at ISBmantra, and a Former Admissions Officer at ISB

YLP Stage-1 is the first step in the application process, which requires the applicants to submit an essay, along with a few details about their profile. Please note that the Stage-1 application does not require a GMAT/GRE score. Applicants selected through Stage-1, move to Stage-2, where they must submit an essay, along with their test score. ISB Application Deadline , check this article to know the deadlines of ISB YLP stage 1 and stage 2.

One step closer to your ISB dream

We at ISBmantra with a team of former admission officials can assist you to get an admit through YLP at ISB. Why don’t you sign up for a free profile assessment first and then decide?

Free profile evaluation

ISB YLP Stage-1 Essay Question

Isb ylp stage-1 essay analysis & tips, isb ylp stage-1 sample essay structure, how can isbmantra help, isb ylp stage-2 essay question, isb ylp stage-2 essay analysis & tips.

The Stage-1 Application Essay remains critical to one’s application, given that the essay is the only key component that the applicant is able to present to the admissions team, to communicate their best stories.

The following is the Stage-1 Essay Question for YLP 2024:

The question seems to have multiple parts and essentially, we need to focus on addressing these four components of the question through the essay:

What is the one thing that you are passionate about?
Current Efforts or activities that prove that interest/passion
Future vision/plan in the context of your passion
Efforts in the future that may be aligned with your plans

The YLP Stage-1 essay question can often be confusing, since, outside the academics, the things we are passionate about as college students, are often not what we want to pursue as a career. Especially when the question allows you to wander in the area of “extra-curriculars”, it may be very misleading to start talking about how you love organizing college the college fest, but don’t intend to be an event planner. One may be passionate about music, or sports, or other activities, but one may not always have a goal around that passion. The question, therefore, needs to be viewed from the lens of an MBA application, and a correlation needs to be developed between what you are passionate about and what your professional goals might be.

How do you go about it?

Think about something you really enjoy doing. It can be things like football or sudoku or travelling, etc. The problem is that in an MBA Application context, it is difficult to connect the dots forward, by talking about football, sudoku, or traveling. It will therefore be essential to connect the dots looking backward, and first identify what drives your interests and energy. Recall times when you did something that really got you hooked and that also has a larger applicability to it.

E.g., Organizing College fest – and how planning, people management, etc. interested you and going forward you would like to work on complex projects that test your people and project management skills.

Or, working with data, the knack for which you may have developed in college or internship, etc., and how you are passionate about the power of data to solve complex business problems.

Or, some paper you read on Machine Learning and how you have been intrigued by the idea since then. Talk about the internship that you recently took up in the area and what you want to achieve in the near future.

Or, some community work that you took up and that spurred your interest in large-scale social impact.

Or, some committee in college that you have been a part of and how that influenced you and your future plans (along with the passion with which you have been serving in the community).

These are just a few ideas to largely communicate that one would rather pick things that may further be relatable with one’s future plans if required – especially while building the YLP Stage 2 essay.

Then talk about your efforts during college, outside of college, virtually, etc. that have been aligned with your passion/interest. This will go on to validate your interest or passion and prove that you are committed to where your heart lies, thus implying that you will do what it takes to achieve your goals.

Conclude with how you will look to grow in this field, with specific efforts that you plan to put in and in what direction these efforts will help you grow.

The 300 word limit makes it all the more challenging to answer all the questions, but if you prepare well to include all these details, you will be able to differentiate your essay from the larger pool of applicants really well.

Intro – Start with establishing your passion or area of interest (50-60 words)
Provide some more details about your passion and any activities or initiatives that may further prove your passion in that area. (80-100 words)
Build on the current passion to present a logically feasible future plan, preferably in the professional context. It’s ok to present a direction instead of a concrete destination, since all applicants are college students and are yet to explore everything so concretely. (70-80 words)
Talk about how you foresee achieving your plan, any interim steps that you want to take, any milestones that you may have marked for yourself – essentially, any kind of effort that you expect to put in before, during, and after the YLP to help achieve your goals. (80-100 words)

Every applicant is unique; and so is every story. Our team of former admissions officers from ISB, along with a pool of 30+ ISB alumni, works with every applicant in a completely personalized manner to help bring out your unique stories. Further, your Consultant works as your coach, helping you in identifying your strengths, picking the most impactful stories, and presenting them through the essay. Explore our YLP Comprehensive Application Builder with Moneyback.

The following is the Stage-2 Essay Question for YLP 2024:

Business schools often ask applicants about their career goals, both short-term and long-term.

Typically, these goals should be linked to one’s professional background or experience. However, for ISB YLP applicants with almost no full-time experience at the time of applying, linking future plans to past experiences can be challenging. As college freshers, our aspirations are often driven more by our interests than by our current skill sets. When asked by your parents what you wanted to do when you grew up, you probably picked professions such as pilot, doctor, policeman, scientist, or even cricketer or footballer. If you are writing your YLP Stage-2 essay, chances are high that you have pursued none of these streams.

At this point, therefore, do you have a better understanding of your future plans? Have you mapped out potential career paths that may lead you to a career you consider ideal? What kind of research have you done to understand your options well? Is an MBA critical to those plans? Answering these questions will allow you to present a coherent and thorough career story.

The essay prompt has three parts – all interlinked, but each part is nuanced in its own way. Let’s dive deeper into each part and understand what you can write in your essay.

1. How would you describe your ideal career?

It’s easy to state that you want to become a Management Consultant, a Product Manager, an Investment Banker, a Brand Manager, or an Entrepreneur – and none of these is a right or wrong career plan. What’s more important is to be able to “personalize” your answer. If your ideal career involves building innovative tech products that solve problems in the healthcare sector, that’s perfectly alright. Instead of getting stuck with designations and jargon, go ahead and present what you envision yourself doing. Stating that you want to become a Product Manager or the Chief Technology Officer of a large company means nothing if you don’t explain what you hope to be doing in that role and why it excites you.

2. Have you identified the skills that you would need to acquire to accomplish it?

Since there is no right or wrong answer to your ideal career, it all boils down to how you use this part of the essay to impress your application reader. You may have zeroed in on a career path, but to convince the ISB admissions team, you need to explain how you identified that goal, how you gained exposure to the field, how you developed an understanding of the role, and the key skills you seek to develop to excel in that role.

Steve Jobs famously said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” This is your time to connect the dots looking backward. Did you take up any projects that got you interested in this field? Did you pursue internships where you gained more exposure to the industry or function? Did you talk to seniors from the industry to develop a better understanding of the field? Discuss anything and everything that shows you have really engaged with your chosen career path.

As a YLP applicant, remember two things while answering this part of the question:

Your full-time professional career may have just started. Do not try to present a lot of gaps in your skill set to justify the need for an MBA. The skills identified may be areas you are beginning to become good at and will continue to work on.
It’s alright not to have everything figured out perfectly. As long as you have a direction, you can take some time to understand the destination. Present a high-level direction in terms of the industry or the function that excites you and the career paths you would like to explore.

3. How does ISB play a role for you to realize your ideal career?

Applicants often end up investing a lot of space on “Why ISB”, but ISB knows what ISB has.

So, focus more on your plans and the skills you seek to acquire. While having a plan is crucial, it’s also acceptable to experiment, make mistakes, learn lessons, and adjust your career path. You cannot aspire to work with Google, not know how to get there, and just hope that ISB will magically secure your dream job. On the contrary, you have two important years to shape your career before you join ISB. You need to have a plan for the two years before ISB and at least two years after ISB.

Try and answer this part of the question by breaking it into three sub-questions:

What kind of roles do you expect to take up now?
What kind of roles would you like to take up after ISB?
How will ISB equip you to move from role 1 to role 2?

Answering these questions will convince the reader of your clarity of goals – even if they are expected to evolve with time. Avoid writing short fiction about your future plans. ISB is not looking to read a list of the best courses, professors, or international exchange programs it offers. Instead, talk about what you want to do and how specific components of the ISB program will be relevant to your goals.

“ You are still in college and are yet to gain good exposure as you enter the corporate world. It’s completely alright, therefore, to also present a Plan B or “similar” options that you would be open to exploring. “ A.M.Kannan, Senior Mentor – ISBmantra, Former ISB Admissions Director

Quick Tips: ISB YLP Stage 2 Application Essay

Qn: How should I approach the essay on describing my ideal career? Ans: Avoid generic designations and focus on specific roles or industries you are passionate about. Further, personalize your answer by explaining what you envision yourself doing and why it excites you.

Qn: What should I include when discussing the skills I need to acquire? Ans: Discuss how you identified your career goal, your exposure to the field, and the skills you need to develop. Highlight any projects, internships, or conversations with industry professionals that informed your career choice.

Qn: How important is it to link my career goals to my current skills? Ans: While it’s helpful to link your career goals to your current skills, it’s also acceptable to acknowledge that you are at the beginning of your journey. Emphasize your direction and the steps you plan to take to develop the necessary skills.

Qn: What should I mention about ISB’s role in realizing my career goals? Ans: Outline the roles you expect to take up before and after ISB, and how ISB’s program will help you transition between these roles. Focus on specific components of ISB’s offerings that align with your career aspirations.

Qn: What should I do if I’m unsure about my career path? Ans: It’s okay to be uncertain. Focus on your interests and the industries or functions that excite you. Use the next few years to explore different paths through internships and networking.

Qn: What common mistakes should I avoid in my YLP essay? Ans: Avoid generic statements and clichés in your essays. Do not present career goals that are either too rigid or too open-ended – draw a balance between knowing what you want to do and being flexible as you progress in your career

ISB YLP Application and Interview Assistance

ISBmantra is the only consulting company with a team of former ISB Admissions Officials, along with 25+ISB Alumni. We provide detailed assistance for your ISB YLP Stage 1 and Stage 2 Application Essays and Interview. Feel free to reach out to us for any queries.

ISB Essay Analysis, Tips, and Sample Essays for 2025 Admissions

How to write the ISB PGP re-applicant essay for 2025 intake?

ISB PGPpro Essay Analysis, Tips, and Sample Essay

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to ISB News / Updates:

Privacy Policy
Website Terms of Use
Cancellation & Refunds

The ISBmantra Bible ×

A comprehensive guide for isb pgp, eeo & ylp, be the first to receive it in your inbox..

MEET TOP BUSINESS SCHOOLS

Columbia, cmu, usc, ntu singapore and many others., free profile evaluation | application fee waiver | networking.

Indian School of Business (ISB) Essay Analysis 2021

If you have decided to get an MBA, you would have definitely gone through the long list of B-schools across the world that you can possibly apply to, right? And if ISB is a B-school that you are considering, you might want to learn how to tackle the ISB application essays to get an MBA admit.

In this article, we will discuss the ISB application essay questions in detail and also provide you with tips on how to showcase your profile to the admissions committee at the B-school.

So, keep your pen and paper handy because you will have a lot of relevant points that you might want to note down.

But before we get into the ISB application essay analysis part, here are a few points that you need to know about the Indian School of Business.

Getting things straight

The Indian School of Business has been training and building young leaders for over 20 years now. With the experience of over two decades, the B-school has become a home to 10,000+ alumni who are continuing their journey in different segments of business, management and consulting.

Imparting knowledge the right way

Being one of the top B-schools in India, the ISB focuses on grooming future leaders for the world.

With an intent to become a world-class B-school in Asia, the B-school claims to be driven by thought leaders who are futuristic and innovative. And with its association with other renowned B-schools — Kellogg, Wharton, London Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, The Fletcher School — the B-school is said to bring a global perspective to the programs offered.

The ISB has set five learning goals:

Interpersonal awareness and working in teams
Critical and integrative thinking
Awareness of global issues affecting business
Effective oral communication, and,
Ethical responsibility

These goals are said to provide the students with a holistic learning experience at ISB.

What ISB is looking for

ISB does take into account the academic record of a candidate. Just like other B-schools, the admissions committee at ISB looks at your 12th-grade marks and your graduation grades while considering your candidature.

But that is not the only factor. They evaluate the GMAT score, leadership attributes and personal attributes of the candidate to see if they fit the criteria of the B-school.

There is no ‘minimum GMAT score requirement’ to apply to ISB. But you can check out the ISB websites to know the GMAT score range of the ISB admits.

And when they speak about leadership attributes, they speak of how the essays and letters of recommendation help them to evaluate the candidate’s qualities. You will get to know more about this when you go through the essay analysis below.

One of our students, Sreyoshi, who got into the Indian School of Business in 2019 mentioned in one of our live sessions that the admissions committee at ISB did ask her interview questions that would help them assess her leadership qualities. Though at the time, she just had two and a half years of work experience, they were trying to figure out the kind of initiatives she had taken at the workplace to understand whether she will be able to manage a higher job role later.

What’s in it for you

If you are looking to build your career in India, ISB is one of the best options out there.

With the current pandemic situation and the uncertainty of migrating to other countries, doing an MBA now at ISB will benefit you in many ways.

The MBA program at ISB will help you wade through the recession period that has set in and also the bad job market. By the time you graduate from ISB, the job market will probably be much better ensuring that you get good job offers, be it in terms of the role or the monetary benefit.

And if you have a business idea that you want to build, you might even find a good classmate who could be your business partner.

Since the B-school is in India, you don’t have to worry about getting a VISA as well!

Now, let’s look at the actual essays that you need to submit to ISB while submitting your MBA application.

Indian School of Business MBA Essays 2020-21

There are two essay questions that you need to submit if you need to complete your ISB application. While both are in the usual essay format, there is a certain twist that the B-school has brought it while drafting the questions. You will understand this as you keep reading this article.

ISB Essay Question 1

Describe with examples the most important personal quality that you possess, which significantly enhances your prospects of being successful as a leader?

Word limit: 400 words

So, first things first. Re-look at the question and try to understand exactly what they are asking for – They are asking for that one personal quality of yours which you think is that important to include it in your ISB MBA application essay. And they have asked you to describe the quality with examples. While the quality has to be just one, you need to give them more than one example in the essay.

If you try to understand this ISB application essay question, you will realize that they are basically asking you to ‘pitch yourself’. This is very much the case with other B-schools like Harvard as well. They are all expecting you to tell them that one quality they wouldn’t see even after going through all your documents. And here, they want you to corroborate it with a story or a real-life example.

Figuring out that one quality that you wish to talk about is a challenge in itself. To identify the quality, you will have to be self-aware and you will have to introspect. You need to look into yourself. There is another way for you to identify this quality – ask people who know you well. We would suggest that you don’t ask your family members because it might not be reflective. But you can definitely ask other people who you think knows you the best. They could be your friends or even your colleagues. We are sure that some of you may even have bosses who will help you find this quality.

If you feel that this is not going to help you find the strength, you can head to the website, StrengthsFinder 2.0 . They say that you cannot capitalize on your weaknesses and as a society, we believe in that. So, the platform might actually be able to help you find that particular quality that you are looking for in yourself!

Once you find the quality, you need to remember that you have to give the reviewers reasons to believe that you possess that particular quality. And you cannot be vague about it. You cannot just say in your ISB application essay that you are hardworking or trustworthy. You need to give specific examples to back those claims.

You can use 400 words to narrate your stories and this space is very valuable. You should not just use words to fill up space. You should be choosing your words. And those 400 words should be able to build your stories and claims. And in this case, you might be able to provide two of your best stories.

Here is an exercise that you can do: Create post-it notes and compare them. One category of your stories could be work-related whereas the other category could be of your personal stories. This will make it easier for you to compare them and pick the best stories for your ISB essay.

Now, once you have picked your personal quality and the two stories, here is how you should go about the essay:

Announce your personal quality upfront
Mention the stories that to corroborate your claim
End the essay by convincing the reader how this quality makes you a good leader

Let us consider an example here. If you are someone who likes to give back to the people and that is a quality that you think would define you, give instances from your work life and personal life to prove it. You could talk about the time when you got everyone together for lunch to discuss a topic and probably even an instance when you taught your co-workers something or contributed in some way to the knowledge-base in the company.

Note: If you are talking about two stories, it will be best if you can find a story from your work life and another one from your personal life. This will bring a balance to your claim and the essay.

As mentioned above, end your essay strong and with that, you need to have convinced the reader how you are going to be the best choice for ISB.

To bring this structure in your ISB essay 1, you can use 50 words at the beginning of your essay and 50 words at the end. You will probably need at least 150 words each to tell your two stories. You can add 10 or 20 words to the introduction and conclusion of your essay. You can make this decision.

ISB Essay Question 2

What are your short term and long term career goals? How will Post Graduate Program at ISB assist you in achieving your goals?

Whenever you are approaching a career goals essay, you need to focus on telling the B-school that you are employable. You need to convince them that you are employable. Let us look at how you can convince them through your essay.

You might have worked with a company for several years or maybe you have worked with different companies over the years. You could have been a part of any of the teams that they have in the organization. What you need to bring into your essay are the transferable skills that you have and those that you have acquired. You need to tell the story of your journey so far.

One point that you need to remember here is that they are not looking for a replica of your resume here. They already have the document. They don’t need you to tell them that all over again in this essay. You should give them a quick synopsis of your career. And then you move on and speak about the growth and then you speak about your career goals.

When you speak about career goals, you need to speak of how you think that you would fit into a particular role. You might want to get into consulting or become a venture capitalist. You need to tell them and convince them that you will be a perfect fit for the job role.

Let us give you an example of one of our students who approached us for our application services. He had five years of experience working with one of the top e-commerce companies. And he said that he understands technology at a grassroots level. He was confident that he will be able to help any company digitize their offerings and that he will be able to build it all for them.

This is a great post-MBA career goals story. So, when you write the essay, look at how you will contribute if hired by a company.

The next point that you need to focus on is how the ISB program will contribute to helping you achieve the post-MBA career goal. One request that we have for you here is that, please do not go to their website and copy-paste the details provided by them. They know what they offer. You don’t have to tell them that. But what you can speak to them is about the knowledge that ISB can give you and the potential opportunity to make connections at the B-school. These are relevant points.

To bring this structure in your ISB essay 2, you can use around 70 words to tell them what you bring to the table and approximately 100-150 words to tell them about your post-MBA career goals. You can utilize the remaining 170 or 200 words to speak about how ISB will contribute to helping you achieve your goals.

There is no hard and fast rule that you should dedicate the given number of words for each section in your essay. But this will probably be the best way to go about it. You can make minor changes based on your story.

So, if you’re applying to ISB this year and feel that you need expert guidance to brainstorm and help you bring out your story through the essays, feel free to reach out to us.

Before you leave, if you are looking to apply to ISB, you need to know the deadlines, right?

So, here are the Indian School of Business MBA application deadlines.

Indian School of Business MBA Application Deadlines

If you really want to get into ISB, you might want to keep these deadlines in mind. Moreover, with these deadlines, you can now plan your MBA application process better.

Round 1 September 20, 2020

Round 2 Yet to be announced

So, here we leave you with the most important points and dates that will help you get into ISB.

If you would like to watch what our GMAT and MBA Expert, Arun Jagannathan has to say about writing your ISB essay, you can watch the video here.

And as mentioned earlier, if you feel that you need more help in drafting your essays or reviewing your application or let’s say, even brainstorming your ideas, you can always reach out to us.

You can click on the image below and get in touch with our expert.

ISBeacon: ISB Application Consulting

India's #1 ISB Application Consulting

ISB YLP Essay Analysis

Indian School of Business (ISB) essay analysis for ISB YLP (Young Leaders Program)

Young Leaders Program (YLP) is designed for undergraduate students in their pre-final or final year of study. ISB YLP Essay Analysis on this page is our take on how to approach the ISB YLP essays, to maximize your chances of admission to ISB YLP.

ISB YLP Deadlines

Stage-2 (Round-2): March 31, 2024

Stage-1 Essay for ISB YLP (Challenge)

Mention one challenging situation that you have faced in your life till now. How has it transformed you as a person? (300 words max) .

The essay title is very clear in terms of its expectations. What is required is significant contemplation and self-reflection. While relatively recent instances would be preferable, there should be no shying away from going as far back as your childhood, if the corresponding instance is impactful.

The challenging situation that you mention, could span across your personal or academic experiences. The challenges could be the challenges in your undergrad entrance preparation, challenges at home due to family’s financial constraints, challenges in school with keeping up your grades, challenges in college with your room-mate, challenges in a college society to keep up the motivation levels of the team, or challenges with a study-group mates who believes in being a freeloader.

As important as it is to narrate the challenge, it is equally important to highlight the lessons learnt.

As is aptly said:

The only real failure is our inability or unwillingness to learn from the challenge s.

Stage-2 Essay for ISB YLP (Career goal)

What is the ideal career which you always wanted to pursue? Do you still want to pursue the same or has it changed? How do you plan to make your ideal career a reality? (300 words max)

So, what passion do you want to turn into your profession ?

As a YLP candidate, you are most probably pursuing your graduation. Through this essay, ISB wants to know your career aspirations. Aspirations evolve over time, but by this time, you should have some idea about your interests. Accordingly, the school expects that through your extra-curricular or academics, you should have taken some steps towards furthering those interests.

For instance, for a candidate currently pursuing Bachelors in Business Administration (BBA), Finance may be an area of interest. If that’s the case, the candidate could have chosen electives in Finance, during BBA; additionally, the candidate could have participated in case-study competitions in Finance, or could have done some online courses in Finance outside of the regular coursework, or could be an active participant in the Finance Club in one’s college. All these efforts that the candidate has taken towards nurturing the interest, need to be highlighted in the essay.

Since you are applying to YLP,, you would have to work for 2 years after your college, before you join ISB. Hence, the essay should also mention what’s your plan in those 2-years. That plan should again be related to your career aspirations. For instance, if you are depicting your career aspiration as ‘Equity Analyst’, it would be completely out of place to mention that you would be joining an IT services firm after your college.

A very common mistake that students commit in this essay is that they deviate from the topic. For instance, if a candidate has done significant voluntary work in a social-service organization, the candidate believes that mentioning the voluntary work in the essay will help get brownie-points. However, mentioning the voluntary work in the would make make sense only if you are stating areas such as impact consulting or social-sector consulting as a career goal. It doesn’t take much to appreciate that for a candidate who aspires to become (say) a Marketing manager, voluntary work adds very little, if anything, to nurture skills in Marketing.

Lastly, it is imperative that you mention how ISB will further catalyze/expedite the process of achievement of your career goals. The specific courses offered in ISB, the pedagogy, the cohort diversity, the clubs, and the culture are some of the aspects that can be highlighted in this regard.

We hope that ISB YLP Essay Analysis presented above will help applicants effectively work on their ISB YLP application.

days

hours minutes seconds

YLP Stage 1 Deadline: 31 Mar’24

Homepage > MBA Admissions > How to write ISB YLP Stage 1 and Stage 2 essays?

How to write ISB YLP Stage 1 and Stage 2 essays?

Posted by Suheb Hussain | Feb 22, 2022 | Business Schools , MBA Admissions , MBA Application Process

The ISB Young Leaders Programme (YLP) is an exciting entry channel to the ISB PGP for MBA aspirants who are still in college. The popularity is reflected in the consistent year-on-year increase in YLP applications that the school receives. With a three-stage process of evaluation, stage 1 deadline is March 27, 2022 and stage 2 deadline is August 31, 2022.

While this may seem like a lot of time, this time is going to be consumed mainly by your GMAT / GRE preparation, finally leaving very little time to work on the application essay & the recommendation.

We have seen many high potential candidates with 700+ GMAT score getting rejected mainly because they started working on their application very close to the deadline and did not do justice to the application. Hence, starting work on the application along with the GMAT / GRE preparation will give you enough time to introspect well and develop a stronger application.

ISB YLP Stage-1 Essay Question

The following is the Stage-1 Essay Question for YLP 2022:

“Describe a personal incident or achievement which changed you as a person. How did it change your perspective about yourself or about others? (300 words)”

ISB YLP Stage-1 Essay Analysis & Tips

YLP applicants do not have any full-time professional experience. The question, therefore, aptly asks for a “personal” incident or achievement. While you may touch upon any aspect of your life, relating this story/incident/example to a leadership role may further add value, instead of presenting a standard, ad hoc situation, where you may just be an individual contributor. This leadership story can come from a college activity, community engagement, or an initiative beyond college.

It is possible that you have had incidents/experiences relating to your childhood that transformed your approach to life – but if you had no role to play in that incident (other than being affected by it), then it may not be the best story to pick.

The second part of the question asks how the incident or achievement “changed you as a person”. While this is open-ended, you do not need to take this part too literally. The change need not be too transformational or dramatic. The idea is to present how the experience left you with some crucial learnings.

“How did it change your perspective about yourself or about others?” – well, at some level, the answer to this part of the question becomes easier if you have presented an incident that involves other stakeholders. This will allow you to demonstrate skills such as teamwork, empathy, humility, etc. Additionally, you may present what you learned from others, as well as from the entire experience, bringing about a positive shift in your perspective or approach.

The 300-word limit ensures that you communicate the story or incident in brief and touch upon how it impacted you.

ISB YLP Stage-1 Sample Essay Structure

Intro – well begun is half done (approx. 50 words)
The primary story/incident – the devil is in the details (approx. 150 words)
Learning/change of perspective – finish strong (approx. 100 words)

This article has been contributed by Prashant Tibrewal.

Prashant Tibrewal is the founder of ISBmantra and Admit Square Consulting and has mentored 1000+ MBA aspirants to get into top global universities such as Harvard, Stanford, INSEAD, Oxford, HEC, ISB, etc. Over the last 10 years, Prashant has worked closely with candidates from a diverse range of profiles and has mentored applicants with GMAT scores as low as 610 to make it to ISB. With a strong focus on ISB and a team of Former ISB Admissions Officers on Board, ISBmantra offers personalized interview prep with its Interview Builder Assured Admit with over 80% success rate and a moneyback guarantee. Feel free to drop a line at [email protected] to know more.

ISB YLP Stage 2 Essay topic

The YLP Stage 2 application requires you to answer the question, “ What’s the first and foremost thing you would like to improve in yourself? How do you plan to do it?” within 300 words.

How to write the ISB YLP Stage 2 Essay

You can write a good ISB YLP Stage 2 essay if you follow these 2 steps:

Identify a skill you want to improve
Align your past achievements with your future plans

Step 1 – Identify a skill you want to improve

The question surely is tricky! Firstly, identifying that one thing that you would like to improve & present a plan for improvement does require significant soul searching. YLP applicants who haven’t yet seen the real business world would struggle to identify that one significant improvement area and develop it into a coherent story.

More importantly, that improvement area would need to be something that can be realistically & uniquely improved upon through the ISB YLP + PGP combination.

For example, saying that the one improvement thing is to learn digital marketing, accounting or another such functional skill may immediately lead the application reviewer to discount it as trivial and something that can be achieved through other options.

Though this essay doesn’t specifically ask for your goals or your fit with ISB, it might be a good idea to at least touch upon how ISB will help achieve your career aspirations and how it is a perfect fit for you.

Creatively building that into the 300-word essay response will help you make a more compelling case to the Admissions Committee that you have a strong reason to pursue the YLP and eventually be at ISB.

Step 2 – Align your past achievements with your long term plans

To be able to do this, since the YLP applicant is either a pre-final year (now in the final year) or a final year (now presumably a fresh graduate with a job), it would be important to link how your past achievements and near term plans align with the mid to long term improvement plan.

Pre-final year students will have the advantage of presenting intentions (plans of pursuing an internship, academic courses & a job after graduation) that align with the improvement plan.

Final year applicants may not have high flexibility to present an improvement plan that’s not connected with their current job/industry/function since they would have already started working by now.

They will have to structure their improvement plan & goals to fit the current job narrative. It would be illogical if the job that they are doing doesn’t even remotely align with their improvement plan & future goals.

One way could very well be to present the skills they hope to develop through their current employment and discuss how they are keen to develop complementary capabilities such as people skills or further analytical ability.

An important tip for the ISB YLP Stage 2 essay

Another aspect to be careful about is to not throw-up contradictions with the YLP Stage 1 application essay, “Describe an event or accomplishment that became a turning point in your life? How did it change your perspective about yourself and others?” . Structuring the Stage 2 essay narrative in a way that it flows seamlessly with the Stage 1 application will earn additional brownie points. Application reviewers and interviewers at ISB have access to the Stage 1 application, and any conflicting stories will surely get noticed.

ISB YLP Stage 2 Sample Essay Structure

Here is a Sample Essay Structure for the ISB YLP Stage 2 application that you may follow, but it’s important to realize that a good application essay is original and creative:

Start with a larger theme of the core skills you have demonstrated till now (leverage academics, internships, projects, extra-curricular initiatives, etc.)
Present the skills that you intend or plan to work on in the short term
Elaborate how you hope to develop those skills
Conclude with how the ISB YLP + PGP combination will add significant value to your plans
Structure all the above creatively within the 300-word limit

Remember, ISB likes leaders and people who are able to take charge. So, go ahead, take charge of this essay, and give it your best shot.

About the Author

Prashant_Tibrewal_US_News_Business_School_Rankings_2020_Analysis

Prashant Tibrewal is the founder of ISBmantra and Admit Square Consulting and has mentored 1000+ MBA aspirants to get into top global universities such as Harvard, Stanford, INSEAD, Oxford, HEC, ISB, etc. Over the last 10 years, Prashant has worked closely with candidates from a diverse range of profiles and has mentored applicants with GMAT scores as low as 610 to make it to ISB.

With a strong focus on ISB and a team of Former ISB Admissions Officers on Board, ISBmantra offers personalized interview prep with its Interview Builder Assured Admit with over 80% success rate and a moneyback guarantee. Feel free to drop a line at [email protected] to know more.

If you are planning to take the GMAT, we can help you with a personalized study plan and give you access to quality online content to prepare. Write to us at [email protected] . We are the most reviewed GMAT prep company on gmatclub with more than 2400 reviews and are the only prep company that has delivered more than 700+ scores than any other GMAT club partner . Why don’t you take a free trial and judge for yourself?

About The Author

Suheb Hussain

Don't limit yourself, don't miss these.

Helpful posts Curated just for you!

400+ Practice questions with detailed solutions

10+ hours of ai-driven video lessons, adaptive mock test with esr+ analysis.

NEW ISB ESSAYS 2025 – 2026, What Changed? Debrief & Samples!

New ISB Essays 2025 - 2026, What Changed Debrief and Samples

ISB PGP Essay 3

Here are some ISB Application Essays for 2025-2026:

ISB Sample Essays 2025 – 2026 Application

Isb pgp essay 1.

Essay 1: Contemplate situations that have shaped your personal journey. Present what these situations have taught you about your strengths and weaknesses, and how they have shaped your personal and professional journey (400 words) .

The quintessential self-assessment essay gives you the opportunity to insert stories that flesh out the committee’s picture of you as it puts your “self-awareness” to the test.

Do you have a mature, balanced understanding of yourself?
Do you see the same strengths and weaknesses that the AdComs have started to notice, or are you living in constant denial?

This essay is a chance to gain credibility simply by being honest.

The strengths you mention in this essay must complement the strengths your recommender cites and that your application as a whole conveys. All business schools emphasise skills such as leadership, teamwork, integrity, analytical skills, communication skills, and cultural adaptability, but each school has its own blend of valued qualities that you should be aware of before writing this essay . In your ISB essay, you should combine the commonly sought-after strengths with those that are personal to you, such as artistic ability, spontaneity or adventurousness. I have seen applicants list an overkill of “perseverance” and “commitment” as strengths. Think about whether you want to present yourself as a worker bee or a dynamic leader.

It’s awfully hard to be original when you are talking about traits you probably share with most people. So remember that your creativity and uniqueness in this essay comes from the special combination of strengths you cite and, more importantly, the stories you tell to illustrate them.

Weaknesses:

When you talk about your weakness, be careful. Choose a weakness that you are aware of and that you are actively working to improve. Most applicants refuse to admit they have one. The AdComs have to laboriously fight their way through a purgatory of “good weaknesses” such as workaholism, perfectionism, impatience with people who have low expectations of their work, and so on. Trotting these cliché weaknesses shows a lack of imagination, immaturity and dishonesty – not particularly favourable traits. Real weaknesses are personal characteristics that each of us suffers from and cannot be remedied without sufficient effort – poor time management, procrastination, indecisiveness and so on.

Avoid emphasizing weaknesses in communication or cross-cultural understanding, as these skills are critical in a global business school environment. Instead, focus on specific areas where you may have had limited opportunities or challenges due to your background. A weakness you address should be something you can overcome. Show how you are actively addressing the weakness or have already made significant progress in overcoming it.

Here is an example of a compelling story about a weakness (a designer aiming for product management):

“Working on the design solutions freed my mind. Like many others in the creative field, I felt an imposter many times. I let the pressure of creating a better version of my previous solution lead me to unnecessary stress. There were moments when I let myself off work to recoup, but these periods of being underproductive only added to my stress. I had to adopt a process-centric approach where the problems were broken down into human and organizational dimensions before letting my mind wander through solutions. Another weakness that I had was translating my design-centric thoughts to my clients who work in technology, banking and quant-oriented professions. Inspired by ABC, my former mentor at Google, I took a month-long challenge to write a novel in the crime genre that forced me to verbalize the minute details. I didn’t turn out to be a Conan Doyle but considerably improved my ability to explain creative solutions to a general audience.”

Every individual’s story is unique, and schools want to know what you have to say about your own experiences. This personal narrative essay is an opportunity to breathe life into a one-dimensional file and offer the B Schools a more personal and vivid picture.

ISB PGP Essay 2

Essay 2: What intellectual experiences have influenced your approach to learning and have led you to pursue an MBA? Please describe using anecdotes from your own experiences. (400 words).

ISB has hit the ball out of the park with this essay prompt (at least for me). Last year, they played it cool with an optional goals essay, but this year, they’re getting straight to the point by asking what events in your life triggered the need to apply for an MBA program. This essay sets a solid foundation for the next question, where they gauge how well you’ve researched the PGP and your goals strategy (all things we know are MBA Application 101).

What I like is that candidates who occasionally get by with surface-level deliberation behind their reasons for applying will now be forced to take a moment and reflect on all the instances where they truly felt “self-aware” about a gap in their knowledge toolkit and skillsets.

The best way to approach the essay is to write terrifically compelling career progress and goals. If you get these two right, you will have created the inexorable and compelling a case for needing an MBA that the adcoms may feel the can answer “Why an MBA” for you.

“Ofcourse she needs an MBA. She has proven she can lead culturally and functionally diverse teams. And since that Unilever project, she has obviously known that operations management is the best way to use her leadership and problem solving skills.”- the trigger for the need of an MBA

If you can manage to get the adcoms rooting subconsciously for you like this, you need not belabor the essay with vague references to “enhancing my skillset” and “honing my soft skills”.

If your “Why MBA” pitch reads like it could describe every person who has ever graced the ISB campus, then my friend, you need to dig deeper.

There are, of course, several solid reasons for wanting an MBA:

It is an accepted and required credential for advancement in many industries
It is a universally recognised degree that will enable you to jump from one industry to another or from one ->function to another. Or country to another
It gives you skills to launch a new business and so on

But these too are very generic!!!!

They aren’t too far from saying “Hey I just need another shiny credential on my resume”

Do not forget that ISB views itself as a temple of personal metamorphosis and not a diploma mill.

So you need to back your answer with concrete examples and reasons specific to you.

Here are some key triggers candidates may consider, although this is not exhaustive:

Career plateau – you have identified that your learning curve has flattened and there are no new challenges on the horizon in the next two years. If you stay on your current career path any longer, you run the risk of being pigeonholed, making it difficult to break out.
Epiphany of goals – You have just realized the purpose of your career, and now that you know it, there’s no reason to procrastinate.
Post-MBA goals have a time component – your plans are linked to trends that are beginning to solidify by the time you do your MBA. You can not afford to wait to acquire the skills you need to capitalize on these trends.
Maturity – You finally have the professional and personal knowledge, balance and perspective to make the wise decision to invest in your long-term future. This is a tactful way of expressing that your age is in line with the average age of job applicants.
Natural career break: You are nearing the end of a clearly defined career phase, such as a two- or three-year analyst program at a consulting firm, a two-year management training program at a company, or a stint abroad in another country.
Networking: Networking provides insights into industry trends, market dynamics, and business strategies that are not always covered in the classroom. It allows you to learn best practices from professionals who have real-world experience.

Aiming for a Shot at The Top B-Schools But Confused About Your Strategy? Reach Out to Us

Essay 3 (Optional): Given your experience and aspirations, how do you plan to use the PGP at ISB to fulfil your professional goals? (Optional – 250 words).

Do you know that outstanding applicants with superhuman numbers and sparkling resumes are regularly rejected by their dream schools because they don’t show that they have thought about whether they are a good fit for the schools they are applying to. Adcoms do not think they should ask you “why us”; they expect you to make that case; and yet the ISB has specifically asked for it this time. It would reflect poorly if you do not attempt this optional essay.

If some of you are looking for a future spouse, you can not expect your potential mate to choose you just because you are good-looking, rich and charming. You also need to flatter her that it’s something personal!

You should avoid giving a reason for attending ISB that could apply to any other school. “I am attracted to ISB because it has a flexible curriculum, a collaborative learning environment, a strong alumni network in my industry, and an outstanding faculty” – you can say that about any good MBA school. You need to name aspects of the ISB PGP that will individualize your areas of interest.

Even though there are no preferred career goals at ISB, AdCom is well aware of how your goals fit with the resources, whether they flow logically and reasonably from your work experience, and whether they seem typical or distinctive. ISB has clear strengths, even if they are not always obvious if you have not yet researched ISB.

For example , you may earn no points for informing ISB that its consulting resources are top-drawer, but you may impress AdComs if you describe how ISB’s strength in marketing and industry connects with your target companies and will help you launch your career as a marketing research professional.

Here’s a sample snippet from a pharma marketing expert targeting healthcare strategy

“ At Company ABC, I gained profound insights into the pharmaceutical business in the US, EU and APAC markets. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical advancements have done little to mitigate the cultural nuances that patients suffer pertaining to drug adoption. Patient-centricity is essential in the pharmaceutical industry to enable positive outcomes for healthcare companies and patients alike. I hope to bring my experiences and perspectives to ISB’s < healthcare management> course to deepen my fellow students’ understanding of Indian healthcare systems and practices and sensitize them to the many challenges faced by patients. Through my past connections with the pharmaceutical industry, I will help in organizing the conferences of < Healthcare Club> and guide budding healthcare enthusiasts by not only providing insights into the global industry but also from a different angle – that of healthcare consulting. I will also bring my consulting skills to mentor or coach those who join < Experiential Learning Project > and prepare them to become aspiring consultants… “

Feeling uncertain about your chances of getting into top B-schools? Sign up for a free one-on-one personalized advice session tailored to your specific situation.

Releated Posts

How to Write Duke Fuqua MBA “25 Random Things” About You Essay

What Matters Most to You and Why- Answering the Stanford GSB Essay

Harvard MBA Essay Analysis and Tips for 2024 Intake

Harvard MBA Essays Analysis 2024–2025, Changes and More

Your Comment*

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Testimonial
Web Stories

Learning Home

Not Now! Will rate later

Guide to ISB Admission Essays

ISB Essays: Previous years Essay Topics

There will be 900 students in the class of 2021. Why should you be one of them? (400 words)
What will you be doing in 2025 and 2030? How will the ISB PGP programme help you to achieve these goals? (400 words)
At ISB, we value diversity as it enhances both the in-class and out of class learning experience. Tell us how you would contribute to the same? (400 words)
Enrolling in a Business School is an important career decision. Critically look at your career to date, the choices you have made, the key influences behind those choices, your goals for the future and how do you think ISB's PGP can help you in achieving your goals? (300 words)
If we were to admit just one more candidate to the Postgraduate Programme (PGP) at the ISB, why should it be you? (500 words)
Describe your short and long term career plans. How does the PGP fit in with those? (300 words)

ISB Essays: Evaluation Parameters

Leadership Skills
Personal attributes

The Right Structure for ISB Application Essay

Introduction
Body (Main part)

Final Tips: Do’s and Don’ts of ISB Application Essays

Make sure that your essay is relevant to the essay topic.
Try to write about the instances from the last 2-3 years. If you wish to describe an older event, ensure that your essay mirrors the event’s influence on you.
Your content should be original and unique. This way, you will be able to justify what makes you different from other candidates.
Try to relate your past career experience to your future aspirations.
Your essay should display your reasons to opt for the course and institute. Also, explain about the gap in your academics, if any.
Do not repeat the details given in your resume.
Do not go into too much detail of the event
Finally, avoid being vague or stating unrealistic goals.
All About ISB - Indian School of Business
ISB Placements
ISB Hyderabad
ISB Eligibility Criteria
ISB Admission Essays

Most Popular Articles - PS

Executive MBA: Everything you need to know about EMBA

Executive MBA from IIMs

Executive MBA: Eligibility Criteria & Selection Process

Part-Time & Online Executive MBA in India

Top 20 Executive MBA Colleges in the World

Top 20 Executive MBA Colleges in India

Best Executive MBA Colleges in Top Cities of India

Top 20 Executive MBA Colleges in the USA

Top 20 Executive MBA Colleges in Australia & New Zealand

Top 20 Executive MBA Colleges in Europe

Top 20 Executive MBA Colleges in Canada

Top 20 Executive MBA Colleges in Asia

All about ISB - Indian School of Business

ISB Hyderabad: Everything you need to know

The Complete Guide to ISB Mohali

Management Courses at ISB: Eligibility Criteria & Selection Process

ISB: Placements, Fees & other Information

Complete Guide to ‘MBA Entrepreneurship’

MBA in Family Business - All you need to know

IMAGES

ISB YLP 2024 Stage 1 & Stage 2 Essay Analysis & Essay Samples
ISB Essay Analysis, Tips, and Sample Essays for 2025 Admissions
How To Write Isb Essay
ISB Essay Analysis, Tips, and Sample Essays for 2024 Admissions
ISB Essay Analysis, Tips, and Sample Essays for 2025 Admissions
ISB Application Essays

COMMENTS

ISB Essay Analysis, Tips, and Sample Essays for 2025 Admissions
Let's build on these guidelines to develop strong answers to the essay prompts for the ISB PGP 2024-2025. For the 2025 intake, you must answer 2 mandatory essay questions for the Post Graduate Programme (PGP). The word limit for both essays is 400 words. Additionally, the application provides the opportunity to answer an Optional Essay with a ...
ISB essay for 2025 intake: How to write, Analysis, tips, and a winning
There are 3 essays and 2 of them are compulsory. You must answer those two essay prompts for the ISB PGP admissions for the 2025 intake (PGP). Both essays have a word restriction of 400 words. You must submit an additional reapplicant essay if you did not receive an admit in the ISB PGP 2024 intake or any previous admission cycle.
ISB Essays 2025-26, ISB essay Analysis and tips
Give relevant illustrations as needed. (400 words) ISB Essay Analysis: This essay invites you to introspect and share a candid self-assessment. ISB seeks authentic voices, so don't shy away from discussing your areas for growth. Focus on the experiences that have shaped your values, skills, and aspirations.
ISB Essay Analysis
Essay 1 for ISB PGP (Strengths & Weakness): Provide an honest portrayal of yourself, emphasizing your strengths and weaknesses. Highlight the key elements that have shaped your personal journey. Give relevant illustrations as needed. (400 words max) What a broad canvas ISB has handed over to the applicants, through this essay!
ISB PGP
ISB Essay Question 1: Provide an honest portrayal of yourself, emphasizing your strengths and weaknesses. Highlight the key elements that have shaped your personal journey. Give relevant illustrations as needed. (400 words max) I am an individual driven by a passion for innovation, a commitment to continuous learning, and a desire to make a ...
ISB Blog
Talk about how the PGP course will help you to achieve your career goals. Essay 4: [Optional essay for first time applicants] - Please use this space to explain any career breaks/ provide any other information not covered elsewhere in the application that could significantly impact your candidature at ISB. Note: It is not necessary to write ...
How to Write ISB PGP Essays 2024-25: Analysis and Tips
We have brought you the latest updates and essay analysis for ISB Essays 2025. As seasoned ISB admission consultants, with a team of accomplished ISB alumni, we have meticulously analyzed the essay topics for the year 2024-2025, enabling us to provide you with unparalleled advice and support throughout your application journey. ISB ESSAYS 2024-25
ISB Essays 2025: How to write, Analysis and Tips for PGP Admissions
Discover a comprehensive analysis and expert tips for crafting compelling ISB PGP essays for the 2025 intake. This guide covers the two compulsory essays and the optional essay, offering insights and sample responses to help you effectively showcase your motivations, goals, and fit for the ISB PGP program.
ISB Essay Analysis and Tips
Get a detailed understanding of exactly what ISB admission officers want to see in your ISB application essays, including the best and worst practices for wr...
Decoding ISB's New Essay Prompts for MBA Admissions (2023-2024)
The qualities ISB looks for include clarity of thought, leadership, effective communication, team orientation, learning orientation, industry knowledge, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal skills. We hope these guidelines will help you convey your story succinctly and honestly. Essay 1.
Applying to ISB PGP: Application Essays Explained
Think about short term, medium term and long term goals. We also want to know how you intend to utilize the learning, experiences, resources, etc that ISB can provide you to achieve those goals. If there are specific facets of the programme that most appeal to you, elaborate on them. Essay #3: Pick the most significant achievement (professional ...
ISB PGPpro Essay Analysis, Tips, and Sample Essay
ISB PGPpro Sample Essay. At ISBmantra, we help applicants identify their strengths, align their future plans with the industry trends and enable them to articulate their stories in the most effective manner - well within the word limit prescribed in the essay prompt. Here is a PGPpro essay sample for the principled leadership question. While ...
Indian School of Business PGP Essay Topic Analysis 2024-2025
ISB PGP Essay 1. Contemplate situations that have shaped your personal journey. Present what these situations have taught you about your strengths and weaknesses, and how they have shaped your personal and professional journey. (400 words max) This is a fairly open-ended question that essentially asks you to introduce yourself to the admissions ...
55 Successful ISB Essays and Their Analysis
The essay analysis written in the book will provide business professionals and undergraduate students deep insights to unlock the key to a successful ISB application essay. This book is brought to you by ISB Alumni to help you write the perfect essay by playing to your strengths, using compelling arguments and showcasing your leadership ...
How To Write The ISB PGP Application Essay 1 In 2022
How To Write The ISB PGP Application Essay 1 In 2022. ISB has opened up applications for ISB PGP Class of 2024 and as expected, ISB has changed the Essay 1 topic. Historically ISB mostly changes the topic of Essay 1 every 2 years, while the Essay 2 ("Goals Essay") topic remains the same. The new ISB PGP Essay 1 topic is as follows:-.
ISB Sample Essays
ISB Sample Essay 1. With a global B2B sales and account management background at ABC company, my experience and skill-set put me in good stead for my candidature at ISB. One of the instances which helped me build this experience was in June 2015, when I took on a new challenge to grow enterprise sales in Europe.
How to write ISB Essay for 2021 Intake
Surely, a lot to attend to through just 400 words, but a good time investment, planning, and effort can help you put together a strong essay. ISB PGP Sample Essay Structure - Essay 1. Identify and isolate the quality that you would like to present; Present concrete and diverse examples of where you demonstrated the quality
ISB YLP 2024 Stage 1 & Stage 2 Essay Analysis & Essay Samples
The Stage-1 Application Essay remains critical to one's application, given that the essay is the only key component that the applicant is able to present to the admissions team, to communicate their best stories. The following is the Stage-1 Essay Question for YLP 2024: " Everyone is inclined towards a particular interest/goal which they ...
ISB Essay Analysis for MBA Admissions (Class of 2021)
To bring this structure in your ISB essay 2, you can use around 70 words to tell them what you bring to the table and approximately 100-150 words to tell them about your post-MBA career goals. You can utilize the remaining 170 or 200 words to speak about how ISB will contribute to helping you achieve your goals.
ISB YLP Essay Analysis
Through this essay, ISB wants to know your career aspirations. Aspirations evolve over time, but by this time, you should have some idea about your interests. ... We hope that ISB YLP Essay Analysis presented above will help applicants effectively work on their ISB YLP application. 1711909740 days hours minutes seconds. until. YLP Stage 1 ...
How to write ISB YLP Stage 1 and Stage 2 essays?
A 6 min read . The ISB Young Leaders Programme (YLP) is an exciting entry channel to the ISB PGP for MBA aspirants who are still in college. The popularity is reflected in the consistent year-on-year increase in YLP applications that the school receives. With a three-stage process of evaluation, stage 1 deadline is March 27, 2022 and stage 2 deadline is August 31, 2022.
New ISB Essays 2025-2026: Changes, Debrief & Samples
Here are some ISB Application Essays for 2025-2026: ISB Sample Essays 2025 - 2026 Application ISB PGP Essay 1. Essay 1: Contemplate situations that have shaped your personal journey. Present what these situations have taught you about your strengths and weaknesses, and how they have shaped your personal and professional journey (400 words).
ISB Essays
ISB Essay topics are framed to find out your strengths, weaknesses, ideas, career plans, etc. Two essays are mandatory for new applicants while the re-applicants need to write a third essay too. Given below are the previous year essay topics for ISB application: Suggested Action: FREE 25+ Tests & 100+ Videos, eBooks & more to boost your prep.
ISB Reports
Finding these will help you learn more about the people Kay meets across her adventure. In this section of our Star Wars Outlaws guide, we'll help you find all the ISB Reports in the game.
Star Wars Outlaws ISB Reports Completion Checklists
Stick to questions that will be answered with "yes" or "no" Any questions that you ask will count as part of your 20 questions; Try to guess the game with as few questions as possible

ISB essay for 2025 intake: How to write, Analysis, tips, and a winning framework

ISB Essay Prompts for 2025 Intake

ISB PGP Essay 1 analysis

Framework to Write a Winning Essay

Tips for Writing

Understanding ISB’s Admissions Committee Expectations

Framework for Writing a Winning Essay

Tips for Writing Your Essay

Essay 3 (Optional)

Reapplicant essay

Do you want to get into your dream business school?

Related Posts

2024-2025 Tepper MBA Essay Tips and Analysis

What are STEM MBA Programs offered by US Business Schools

2024-2025 Texas McCombs MBA Essay Analysis and Tips

MBA Admission Consultants

Tips and Strategies for ISB Essays

There are five mistakes that we have seen applicants make when they are approaching their ISB essays:

What does ISB look for in the essays?

Crafting Your ISB Application Process Timeline: A Tailored Approach

Decoding the ISB Essays for 2024

ISB Essay 1: Self-Reflection and Growth

ISB Essay 2: Success and Failure

ISB Optional Essay: Leveraging the PGP

Tips for writing a strong ISB Essay:

Craft Compelling ISB Essays: Your Action Plan

Recent Posts

ISB PGP Sample Essays

ISB PGP MBA Winning Sample Essays – 1

Quick Essay Review

ISB Winning Sample Essays – 2

Client Testimonials

100% Refund

Free Profile Evaluation Workshop

Profile Evaluation Workshop

Decoding ISB’s New Essay Prompts for MBA Admissions (2023-2024)

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Perspectives from ISB

Applying to ISB PGP: Application Essays Explained

Recent Posts

How To Write The ISB PGP Application Essay 1 In 2022

CAT Champions 2024

Join InsideIIM GOLD

Webinars & Workshops

Take Free Mock Tests

Upskill With AltUni

CAT Study Planner

Related Tags

CAT 2023 Slot 1 Reading Comprehension Breakdown by 99.9%iler ft. Karan Agrawal (FMS Delhi)

Take Free Test Here

How A Non-Engineer Went From 17%ile to 99+%ile In CAT

InsideIIM Gold

Follow Us Here

ISB Sample Essays

ISB Sample Essay 1

ISB Sample Essay 2

ISB Sample Essay 3 (Re-applicant essay)

Blog Categories:

You have Successfully Subscribed!

ISB YLP 2024 Stage 1 & Stage 2 Essay Analysis & Essay Samples

ISB YLP Stage-1 Essay Question

1. How would you describe your ideal career?

2. Have you identified the skills that you would need to acquire to accomplish it?

3. How does ISB play a role for you to realize your ideal career?

Quick Tips: ISB YLP Stage 2 Application Essay

Related Posts

ISB Essay Analysis, Tips, and Sample Essays for 2025 Admissions

How to write the ISB PGP re-applicant essay for 2025 intake?

ISB PGPpro Essay Analysis, Tips, and Sample Essay

The ISBmantra Bible ×

MEET TOP BUSINESS SCHOOLS

Indian School of Business (ISB) Essay Analysis 2021

What ISB is looking for

What’s in it for you

Indian School of Business MBA Essays 2020-21

ISB YLP Essay Analysis

ISB YLP Deadlines

Stage-1 Essay for ISB YLP (Challenge)

Stage-2 Essay for ISB YLP (Career goal)

How to write ISB YLP Stage 1 and Stage 2 essays?

How to Write Duke Fuqua MBA “25 Random Things” About You Essay