How to Write ISB Essay for 2023 Intake (For ISB PGP Essays Released in June 2022)
ISB essay for 2023 intake for ISB’s Post Graduate Programme (PGP) is out now.
This year, just like previous years, there are 2 essay prompts, as well as a third essay for reapplicants.
As ISB’s flagship program, PGP is a full-time, one-year residential program, admitting professionals with at least 2 years of work experience.
ISB PGP’s immersive learning experience combined with ISB’s international faculty is another reason why it’s such a sought-after MBA program for ambitious professionals looking to ratchet up their business leadership skills.
ISB Essays for 2023 Intake (Class of 2024)
For ISB PGP Essays 2023, ISB has changed the first essay prompt while retaining the second essay from last year.
The short word limits for the essays require you to strike a fine balance between conciseness and clarity.
ISB Essay 1 – Peer Learning is a major building block of PGP at ISB. Help us in understanding how will you be able to add value to the PGP peer group through your personal and professional qualities/capabilities? (400 words max)
ISB Essay 2 – What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How will Post Graduate Program at ISB assist you in achieving your goals. (400 words max)
ISB Reapplicant Essay – Please use this space to explain significant improvements in your profile since your last application to the ISB PGP (200 words max)
Tips for Writing ISB PGP Essay 1
ISB PGP Essay 1: Peer Learning is a major building block of PGP at ISB. Help us in understanding how will you be able to add value to the PGP peer group through your personal and professional qualities/capabilities? (400 words max)
ISB’s PGP is known as much for its academic rigor as its emphasis on sharpening leadership and collaboration skills. From study groups, group assignments, classroom discussions, and case competitions to professional and social clubs, ISB’s PGP emphasizes teamwork and collaboration in almost everything you would do at ISB.
That’s why this ISB PGP essay for 2023 intake is refreshingly different from all the previous versions because it explicitly wants you to reflect and talk about how you will actively contribute to enriching the learning experience of your peers, individuals you’ll be not just be studying with but also spending all your waking hours with on the campus.
The best thing about this essay prompt is its potential to show various facets of your profile the AdCom wouldn’t find elsewhere in your ISB application.
Use this essay to highlight 2 things –
- How you will use your professional and personal experiences to improve the quality of interactions with your peers, within and outside the classroom, and
- The attributes unique to you that differentiate you from others
Here’s how you can write this essay –
1. Highlight your unique academic and professional background
One rule to remember is to always play to your strengths.
For instance, if you believe your technical background is going to work against you given that most applicants are from the IT industry, then you have even more reasons to focus on what differentiates you from other IT professionals. For instance, you could talk about how you’ve bridged the gap between technology and business through your projects or industry expertise. Or, how you’ve built expertise in a different domain such as finance or marketing through courses and on the job learning.
Or you could highlight how your passion for design has given you an interesting perspective on product innovations and user experience.
Or let’s say you’ve majored in arts – you could connect your writing or language skills with how important these are in business communications.
The key is to highlight skills that your peers would find interesting and useful.
2. Identify important achievements and experiences
Next, identify your most significant successes, the challenging situations you overcame in achieving those successes, and how those inspired your growth.
You can identify experiences from both your professional sphere and outside work such as those related to social impact or some interest areas that you are passionate about and are actively involved in.
Besides successes, you could also identify some major failures or setbacks which proved to be crucial learning experiences for you.
But remember, choose experiences that involved you working with others, either as a team member or as a leader.
For instance, if you choose an experience where you worked alone to achieve some spectacular results, such as building a product that helped your client make more revenue or reduce costs, then despite the razzle-dazzle of your accomplishment, ISB’s AdCom is unlikely to be impressed.
They need to know you through those important moments that not only helped you grow as a person but also enabled you to help others improve and grow as well.
3. Determine the strengths or attributes unifying your significant experiences or interests
You’ll notice there are certain traits such as taking initiative, critical thinking, communicating openly etc. that appear to be common across your experiences or interests.
4. Shortlist 2-3 specific experiences from your list
Think about how you can translate these experiences and lessons learned into specific contributions you’d like to make to improve outcomes for your peers during your shared time at ISB.
Focus on how you could leverage your background to contribute to class discussions or to participate in clubs related to your academic and professional backgrounds.
This would help you precisely zoom in on how you would contribute, be it playing a certain role in a particular student club, organizing specific events, or helping your peers with certain topics or subjects.
Essentially, the more specific you make your contributions to ISB, the more reasons the adcom will have to admit you.
Pro Tips –
With this essay, AdCom wants to see you in action – to see how you respond to a certain situation, whether it’s a success or a failure.
Importantly, they want to see you in interactions with others.
When it comes to writing this essay, use the START framework
START which stands for Situation, Task, Actions, Results, and Takeaways can help you elaborate on each achievement by explaining the context, highlighting the challenges, illuminating the specific role you played, outlining the actions you took, emphasizing the results you’d achieved, and your key takeaways or learnings from your experiences.
Tips for Writing ISB PGP Essay 2
ISB Essay 2 – What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How will Post Graduate Program at ISB assist you in achieving your goals? (400 words max)
You can start by indicating the strengths and skills you’ve gained in your career so far. You can even include your motivation behind taking up specific roles.
Next, talk about the opportunities that you want to pursue.
Then specify your post MBA goals – this will help you establish a logical connection between your current profile and your future role.
Here’s a quick framework to help you think more clearly about approaching your post-MBA goals essay, easily the toughest essay to write.
Here you can take two approaches –
- Specify your short-term goals and then outline your long-term goals. Or,
- Talk about your long-term goals first and then mention your short-term goals.
Make sure you highlight the weaknesses or limitations that you need to overcome in order to transition to your post-MBA goals, connecting those with the resources (such as courses, clubs, faculty, alumni network, and so on) at ISB.
This way you are clearly articulating to ISB why you want to do an MBA and why ISB and its resources are crucial to help you achieve your goals.
Specificity Rules
It’s important to be as specific about your post-MBA goals, especially your short-term goal.
Consider the following examples of post-MBA goals that can be construed as vague –
“I want to be part of corporate strategy.”
“I want to join management consulting.”
Now most MBA applicants want to get into consulting or strategy roles because that’s what business schools are well-known for.
However, when you state your goals without elaborating on why you chose those as your post-MBA goals, the Admissions Committee is unable to clearly understand why you want to be in corporate strategy or management consulting.
An example of an effective goals statement would look something like this (assuming you have a background in healthcare or a related industry)
I aim to join as a strategy consultant with a leading management consulting firm like McKinsey or BCG, focusing on the healthcare sector, and help them set up operations in North India.
See how the statement clearly calls out your target role, industry, and company before outlining how you intend to leverage your experience in your post-MBA role.
Tips for Writing ISB’s PGP Reapplicant Essay
ISB Reapplicant Essay – Please use this space to explain significant improvements in your profile since your last application to the ISB PGP (200 words max)
This is the place where you talk about the steps you have taken to improve your profile such as getting a higher score in your GMAT or GRE, taking up bigger responsibilities at work, contributing to a social cause, working on a side project, and more. Again, it’s important to talk about the impact that you’ve created and how you have evolved, personally, professionally, or both, since you last applied to ISB.
ISB PGP 2023 2024 Intake Application Deadlines
| Application Phase | Deadline for Round 1* |
| PGP Application Submission | 04 September 2022 |
| Interviews | Dates not yet available |
| Results | Dates not yet available |
*Round 2 and 3 timelines are yet to be released.
Round 1 or Round 2
ISB explicitly mentions that “applying in any round does not impact your chances of securing an admission offer”.
However, applying to round 1 has advantages for those seeking scholarships – this is clarified by ISB as well on its website –
1) Full tuition fee waivers will be offered only to Round 1 applicants.
2) Up to 75% tuition fee waivers will be offered to Round 2 and Round 3 applicants.
Need help with your ISB PGP Essays 2023?
Struggling to write powerful yet succinct essays?
Finding it difficult to know which stories to include?
Unsure about your post-MBA goals?
To make it to ISB is no mean task. You have built a strong career and worked hard to get a good GMAT score.
It’s time to take your efforts to the next level and the first thing you need is prepare a strong application to ISB.
MBAEssayNation – Your Strategic Partner
This year, 100% of our ISB clients successfully got admission to ISB PGP.
With MBAEssayNation, craft compelling essays and submit a strong application, boosting your chances of getting admission from ISB.
Here’s what some of our clients share about their experience working with MBAEssayNation –
“What makes Deepthi an amazing coach is her strong understanding of the process, attention to detail, empathy, ability to quickly identify the stories that will resonate with AdCom, and flexibility in approach. Thanks to her help, from my essays to my interview prep, I was offered an admission from ISB within a week of interviewing. Though I was initially hesitant because I felt that MBAEssayNation’s pricing was on the higher end of the spectrum, I soon realized the huge value I gained from working with Deepthi and MBAEssayNation was far more than the engagement fees I paid. In fact, I even tried working with another consultant because his pricing was lower, and it turned to be a huge waste of time and money. But my time working with Deepthi, I realized she’s the finest MBA consultant – extremely sharp and brilliant at what she does. Overall, Deepthi was my biggest advocate and believed in my application more than even I did. She always encouraged me throughout the process which is something hard to find in the industry. It never felt transactional. By the end, we had become good friends. I 100% give Deepthi my highest recommendation and can confidently say, I would not have been able to get admitted to ISB without her help.“
“Thanks to Deepthi Rajan, MBAEssayNation’s Founder, I got admits from all my 3 dream schools this year – The Indian School of Business (ISB), NUS Business School (NUS) and Nanyang Business School. I would like to conclude by saying this – Deepthi is THE best MBA admissions consultant in India. She’s truly an awesome coach and mentor, who is even more invested in her clients’ success than her clients! That’s really incredible and literally unheard of in this space. That’s why I believe Deepthi and her company MBAEssayNation is a beacon of hope in a space like MBA admissions consulting where most companies are only interested in making money rather than helping their clients succeed. Work with Deepthi and MBAEssayNation if you want the finest essays, resume and the best interview preparation – the seamless experience that you get with MBAEssayNation and the high Return on Investment you achieve thanks to Deepthi’s mentoring is the best value for money.“
Working with Deepthi for my applications was without a doubt the best investment I made. I was amazed at the way my essays turned out. The indepth brainstorming sessions and discussions that I had with Deepthi helped me identify my post MBA goals and develop a greater appreciation for the experience that I have had so far, something I was very apprehensive and unsure about when I first spoke to Deepthi. Despite facing several personal setbacks during the application process, I was able to submit a very strong set of essays and prepare well for my interviews thanks to Deepthi who steadfastly supported me. The way she transformed my essays and coached me for my interview, I was confident I will make it to ISB. I give 100% of my success to Deepthi, she is an excellent mentor and coach, and it was only because of her that I got admit from ISB.
“In one simple line – MBAEssayNation will take up 75% – 80% of the efforts towards your MBA application and you need to just put in 20% – 25% of efforts. Whereas with all other MBA Admissions consultants, you will be made to put in the bulk of the work, nearly 80% to 90% of the work, from brainstorming, to shortlisting stories to actually writing and editing your essays, will be done by you. The consultants will only provide “cosmetic” suggestions and advice on your application. Working with Deepthi Ma’am and MBAEssayNation was the best experience I had – I didn’t really to have to worry about my application at any point. And because Deepthi would quickly grasp the essence of my achievements or my career trajectory, and capture all that beautifully in words, I had a very comfortable and almost effortless ISB application experience thanks to her and MBAEssayNation.”
“I sought Deepthi’s help when preparing for my ISB interview and she undoubtedly played pivotal role in my admission to the Class of 2017. Over three calls Deepthi helped me transform my rambling and muddled introduction into a crisp and convincing pitch that I was confident about when I walked into the interview. This was possible because Deepthi’s approach is unique — she listened keenly and patiently, and with great care she drew out the threads of my story that were most interesting, and those that required some additional thought and work. Her approach was affirming rather than dismissive, and she encouraged me to retain me own voice rather than attempt to recite standard canned management incantations. Work with her, you’ll not regret it.“
“When I was rejected at ISB, I wasn’t sure what went wrong because I thought my interview had gone well. I was utterly confused and wasn’t sure how to proceed. That’s when I came to know about MBAEssayNation from a colleague. On my very first interaction with Deepthi Ma’am, I felt extremely comfortable and knew that she was the right person to coach me with my applications. It was all thanks to Ma’am who whipped my essays and resume into such a fine form and then did numerous (not 1 or 2 but at least 10!) mock interviews to make sure I was really prepared for my final interview. In fact, when I went for my interview, the interview panel even complimented me on how well-written my essays were. I even got a scholarship at ISB. I highly recommend MBAEssayNation if you want the absolute best help with your applications.“
“Before meeting Deepthi, I was struggling with my essays. I had taken help from another admissions consulting company and I had struggled with lot of delays due to their consultants who were very unprofessional. A friend strongly recommended MBAEssayNation to me. And deciding to work with Deepthi and MBAEssayNation was one of the best decisions I took. Her personalized attention and astute feedback helped me refocus on my application with greater confidence.I worked with Deepthi on my ISB business school application and though I reached out to her with just a week before the submission deadlines, she was extremely patient in coaching me with my essays and was always available for a quick call. In fact without her help, I couldn’t have come up with strong post MBA goals. She has a strong industry background which she used to help me to gain more clarity about how my post MBA goals should be structured. All my essays looked brilliant thanks to her and MBAEssayNation. MBAEssayNation is the ONLY reason why I got admits from ISB, Michigan Ross and INSEAD. Highly recommended!“
Our MBA admissions consultants have impeccable experience spanning industries and functions. Having worked in senior leadership roles across multiple industries, our consultants bring in-depth and practical experience when working on your application.
As published authors and sought-after public speakers, our MBA admissions consultants are experts in the field of business storytelling, and the art of writing riveting content, be it for your essays, your resume, or your interview responses.
With MBAEssayNation you get a hassle-free experience with your essays polished to perfection by our expert consultants.
Connect with MBAEssayNation to get started with your ISB PGP Essays 2023
To connect with us, email us on letsgetstarted@mbaessaynation.com or call us on +91 9901875008 and let us help you make a solid first impression on ISB with your essays.
