Having been from the IIMs where the procedure for admissions is so vastly different, can you tell us in detail about the ISB admissions process?
We are looking at experienced candidates from 2 years upwards to 20 years and the predominant category is between 2 – 8 years which is where 60 – 70 pc of the students come from. We create a docket on each applicant and we judge them on the basis of their analytical ability which is judged using the GMAT and their academics. This is because the PGP programme has a duration of one year and a candidate needs to be able to thrive in an analytical background. Leadership quotient, team ability, and personal ability are the other factors that go into the admission of our students.
With so many attributes being taken into consideration, how much of the admissions process is subjective?
Out of one the three qualities we seek to analyze – Analytical, Leadership and Personal, The Analytical skills are quantifiable based on the academics and the GMAT scores of an individual. But when we look at quantifying Leadership and Personal abilities, we are heading out into a gray area. So for e.g.; if we have an applicant from an IIT background, we ensure that current student/alumni at ISB from the same background will judge the applicant’s work. Based on their experiences and recommendation the work ability is quantified. Every application is reviewed by at least two members from the admissions committee before an interview call is given to the candidate and at the interview stage we look for communication skills, confidence etc
What is the process the application goes through before a candidate receives an interview call?
Depending on the application, there are usually two or three members of the admissions committee who take the decision on whether a candidate has to be called for an interview. The process is such that a candidate has to submit his GMAT scores, write six essays and submit a minimum of two recommendations which are analyzed by the members of the admissions committee. The committee also has many ISB students on board who bring their varied experiences so that students from different backgrounds can be assessed by individuals from similar backgrounds. For example, if an applicant is a doctor, his application will be scrutinized by a student who is a doctor and this helps the admissions committee to make a fair judgment on the quality of the applicant and his personal abilities. The personal abilities of an individual are judged by the essays and some of the points we look for are personal goals, vision, maturity, ambition, skills etc. While all these are intangibles, we make every effort to capture it from the essays of the candidate, the resume and also the recommendations received from the recommenders. If the candidate is from a diverse background, we ensure that a student or an alum from the same background evaluates the applicant and in this case, I also go through the application to take a call on whether the individual needs to be called in for an interview. For candidates with regular profiles, if two members of the admissions team agree on a candidate after analyzing the file, he/she is called for an interview. However, if one of the member says ‘yes’ and the second member says ‘may be’ , then I will take a final call as to whether the candidate should be invited for an interview.
At the interview, we assess the qualities as mentioned in the essays and we assign scores to the interview after mutual discussion. This score is then collated and a final decision is made on whether the applicant is called or not called for an interview. The aim of the exercise is to be objective whilst dealing with so many subjective criterions.
How much truth is there in the statement that applying in Round 1 is beneficial to a candidate?
Since we cannot predict the quality of the students in both the rounds, we have to ensure that we maintain a waitlist for both the rounds of admissions. While we try to make the process as fair as possible, it is still preferable to apply in Round 1 provided your application is complete.
Are applicants from diverse pools including women evaluated differently in the overall admissions process?
We try to reach out to more candidates through our road-shows and events so that people from varied backgrounds do apply to ISB. Last year we had around 18-19% women in the batch and we hope to increase it to 25%. However during the admissions process there is no bias because the evaluator doesn’t know the pool from which the candidate is from. The student evaluators are not given the demographic information including the total number of applicants from specific pools of candidates. This ensures that the process is the same all the way to the interview stage and there is no demographics based profiling. Therefore in order to achieve a higher percentage of women admits in the classroom, ISB is working towards increasing the applicant pool and to this end we are holding women specific information sessions.
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Please provide us with some of your admissions statistics.
We are looking to interview 5 candidates to admit one. Since for the current year we are looking to provide 400-420 admits, we will be interviewing approximately 2000 – 2100 applicants. We expect over 3000 applicants to apply to ISB this year and look forward to interviewing around 2000-2100 of them.
When the ratio of students who interview to students who get offers is 5:1, does the interview play the most important role in the admission of a student?
No, the interview is just one aspect of the admissions process. So the Adcom just provides each interview with a specific rating and the selection is based on the overall application of the student.
What are the biggest mistakes applicants do in their application?
The biggest mistake is that some of the applicants don’t take the application process as seriously as the admissions committee does. Since the admissions process is new to our country, we get to see that applicants don’t spend much time on writing their essays and many weaknesses of the candidates get picked up during the evaluation process. Students need to spend more time to figure out why ISB places emphasis on the essays and this can be done through our website, info sessions etc. Furthermore, the prospective applicants should try to meet the Adcom or Alums of ISB to get a first hand feedback about ISB and discuss their plans to see how ISB fits into their career plans. I would recommend that the candidates visit ISB because I believe it is a fairly serious proposition and we facilitate such visits from candidates and they are even allowed to sit in the class and attend a lecture. Secondly, we take recommendations very seriously, but we receive many recommendations where the candidates are ranked the ‘best’ in every category. In this case we then call the recommender and talk to them for 15 – 20 minutes to get a realistic assessment of the candidate. In our view, a serious assessment is more valuable than a recommendation which marks the candidate the ‘best’ in all areas we are seeking to assess.
How important is the GMAT in the overall assessment of the candidate?
I wish we could break the myth that the GMAT is the overall decider in the application. A lot of people feel that applying to ISB with a GMAT score of less than 700 is undesirable, which is absolutely untrue. GMAT influences a candidate’s application only as a part of the academics or analytical abilities we gauge during the initial interview call giving process. Out of the 7 factors we gauge in analytical abilities, the GMAT score is just 1 of them and therefore is not an over-riding assessment of the applicant’s candidature. There are certain strong applications with a GMAT score of 600 which we are considering calling for interview and at the same time we have declined a few applicants with a score of 750.
How do you evaluate a diverse profile wherein a candidate has low academics, but has done well post college in his or her professional life?
That is a tough evaluation to make and the first thing we look for is whether the candidate can handle the academic work load at ISB. We look for evidence of analytical abilities so that the candidate can perform as well as his or her peers at ISB. Our range of admits have been between the GMAT scores of 600 – 780 with over 20 pc of admits in the 600 – 650 bracket while our average is 690 with a median score of 700. While the student reviewers and other panelists do not have the concern of placing the student, at the back of my mind I do think about the work readiness of a candidate. This is because I believe that coming and studying at ISB is a big investment in ones’ career and should fulfill the clear objectives of the applicant as well.
What would you suggest to candidates who are looking at applying to ISB?
We strongly discourage candidates who apply with a profile of extremely low work experience. i.e candidates with an experience of 1 year or thereabouts. Because the value proposition for such students is very low. In the current batch we have absolutely no freshers and prefer candidates with more than 2 years of work experience. Since we have a 1 year programme, we get into the case study mode right at the start of the programme and freshers cannot actively contribute to the classroom participation.
How has the application process changed since your entry into ISB?
Since we are looking at over 3000 applications and spend close to 3 hours per application even before giving an interview call, our resources are being stretched. To ensure a smooth flow, we have now ensured that the entire application process is online. The online application procedure has been integrated into the ISB system and we can now check the status of every applicant in real time.
To which business school does ISB lose its students to?
There are two kinds of vacillations that happen . One is the US vacillation and the other is the close-by one. One set of applicants want to work in the US and therefore it is better for such applicants to study in the US because it becomes easier for them to get integrated into the work there. In Asia, our applicants also consider NUS and AIM. In India, there a couple of schools that are coming up with one year programs and I am looking forward to them because we brought in the concept of getting an MBA after 4-5 years of working and the other schools are now validating our concept and this will ensure that our concept finds more acceptance amongst applicants.
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How do you think the number of applicants for ISB will change over the next five years?
I personally see a huge growth in applicants over the next five years and it is my personal belief that applicants will double year after year because the concept of a single year MBA has finally taken hold in the market. In such a situation wherein a high number of applicants are vying for a low number of seats, our challenge will be to minimize the number of weak applicants applying to ISB.
We have never seen GRE scores being used in a business school application process. Why does ISB accept GRE scores while all International schools accept only the GMAT?
We use the GMAT or GRE as just one element of the entire application process. GRE has changed its pattern and now has both verbal and quant scores which enables us to get an idea as to how the students’ analytical and verbal abilities are in a competitive environment.
Since you also accept CAT scores, provided on admit the student secures a 690 plus score on the GMAT – can you tell us how many students with offers couldn’t exceed the score?
In the current batch we made approximately 40 offers to students who had applied with CAT scores and around 10 of them weren’t able to clear the GMAT cutoff and had to forfeit their admissions.
Since students are involved in the application process, how much training is given to them before they become a part of the admissions team?
We hold regular classes for the students and train them in the admissions process. Over 60 students become a part of the admissions task force and spend their time evaluating applications and ensuring a smooth process.
How are reapplicants looked at?
We do not look at Reapplicants in a negative manner. Rather we feel that Reapplicants are coming back to us because they are extremely interested in ISB. We have a feedback mechanism wherein applicants who’ve not made it to ISB in a specific year can call us up or email us for feedback on their applications. With respect to Reapplicants we specifically check what the applicant has achieved in over the last time he/she has applied to ISB. We provide Reapplicants with the choice that they can apply to ISB writing all the essays again, or else they can just re-apply with one essay talking about the changes in the candidature since they last applied.
Are there any family specific initiatives at ISB?
Since we admit individuals who have a high amount of work experience at ISB, we ensure that there is a solid support structure for them at the institute. Of the 358 students at ISB over 114 of candidates are married and many of them come to ISB along with their spouses. We have toddler nurseries, crèches and also try to ensure that the spouses are provided with jobs, be it at ISB itself or outside the campus. We even arrange for transportation for spouses for want to work outside the campus. ISB has a very community oriented outlook and space and therefore over 90 spouses of admitted students live on campus and many of them even raise their kids on the campus.
Mr.V.K.Menon, Director of Admissions at the Indian School of Business is an electronics engineer from REC-Trichy and an MBA holder from IIM Bangalore. He has worked in various companies and gained professional experience at places like TATA, NELCO, Philips, Escorts, among others. He has also taught strategy and management at SDM Institute of Management, Mysore after which he joined the Indian School of Business where he heads the Admissions Committee.