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.
To answer this ambitious MBA essay aiming to know the real you, you will need to introspect deeply and look at themes and patterns in your life and the choices you have made.
An example is like a picture- if you can paint vivid imagery with details, your reader will see and feel your strengths very clearly. So use examples generously.
Go beyond academics and career, and try to see yourself holistically. Use the space to reflect on your passions, desires, dreams, wishes, and life experiences that have left a deep impact on you.
If relevant, write about your childhood, your family, your circumstances while growing up, and all other factors that have shaped you to become who you are today.
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.
If possible, stay away from talking about academic successes. Not only do such anecdotes become cliched, but more importantly your most significant life achievements would be quite likely about more profound aspects. Clearing specific exams or scoring good grades, or getting a coveted job offer, don’t usually cut it. You can talk about professional achievements but try to go deep deeper into what it really means to you.
Similarly when talking about failure, focus on yourself without showing issues or faults with others or situations. ISB wants to see your humility, understanding, maturity, and growth. Of course, we all make mistakes, but the wise ones learn from them, and that’s what ISB wants to see in you- what you have learned from both situations.
One big mistake students tend to make in this essay is either ignoring or trivializing the part about the interpersonal lessons you learnt. It's a critical component of the essay!
Yes, it might not be very easy to see the effect if you are very close to the situation but take a step back and think about the impacts of these two situations. Introspect and you will get your answer. If you are still struggling we are here to help!
If you are a reapplicant, it is mandatory to submit Additional essay. You may highlight significant changes in your profile from the time you applied last time.
The number of candidates who consider this essay an addendum to the other essays is surprising. So let us say this clearly - if you are a reapplicant this is your most vital essay in the ISB application.
Apart from an extremely low applicants versus accepted ratio, the ISB applicants are almost fully Indian. So the ISB admissions committee is under great pressure to select the best candidates from a limited applicant pool. But there's still a door open for rejected candidates (even more so for waitlisted candidates). If you were rejected (or waitlisted) last time, use these 300 words to tell the ISB Admission Committee that there have been enough changes in your profile to justify a revaluation of your candidature.
Your aim will be to present the professional, academic and personal improvements that make you a stronger candidate for an ISB admission this year. State persuasively why you deserve a second chance.
What steps have you taken to strengthen your ISB application? Stronger work experience, professional achievements, better GMAT, personal achievements, accomplishments on the social front, international exposure or academic accomplishments can all find place in the ISB reapplicant essay. Proactive ISB-specific steps taken by you, perhaps based on direct or indirect feedback from the ISB, might prove a trump card.
Additionally, if required, please use the option of new recommendations and application inputs to support your essays and "bring out different qualities or traits of your personality which may have gone unnoticed earlier".
Go for it!
In your ISB application, you will be asked to provide two MBA letters of recommendation - from you current or previous supervisors. Like many top business schools in the US, ISB MBA application constitutes of letter of recommendation questions from the GMAC MBA letter of recommendation template. MBA LOR tips
As is the policy with most top business schools, ISB MBA interviews are conducted only by invitation. Students typically would recieve an invite 4-6 weeks after submitting their MBA applications. MBA interview tips
