The following essay topic analysis examines the Indian School of Business (ISB) PGP admissions essays for the 2022-2023 admissions season. You can also review essay topic analyses for other leading MBA programs as well as general Essay Tips to further aid you in developing your admissions essays.
Indian School of Business PGP Essays & Analysis 2022-2023
Let’s take a closer look at each ISB PGP essay prompt.
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)
What do your co-workers say about? What do your friends say about you? How would a supervisor assess your skills at work? These questions can help you hone in on personal and professional qualities/capabilities to use as a base for this essay. You may also want to begin by thinking about an element or two of Peer Learning with which you find the greatest resonance, and then consider which are already evident in your activities and accomplishments to date.
Of course, the majority of this response should center on your planned contributions as an ISB PGP student. Given the adcom’s mention of Peer Learning, applicants will be expected to be fairly concrete in their comments about how they’ll engage classmates and draw on their qualities/capabilities to add value to fellow students’ education. Once you establish your qualities/capabilities—based on your experiences, interests and passions—connect to what you will contribute to ISB. Ultimately, the adcom wants to see how you will fit with the community based on your attitudes and experiences. Candidates should note that speaking convincingly about their ability to make a positive difference will likely require some informed sense of the areas of opportunity and need on campus. Conversations with students and alumni will be very important in producing the most effective essay possible.
ISB PGP 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)
This is a straightforward career goals essay. Applicants would do well to sketch out the position they plan to seek immediately after their PGP studies, and to include some information about how they’ve become interested in that role and how it will lead naturally to their long-term goal. Of course, the majority of the essay should focus on the ways the PGP in Management from ISB would position them for success, so we recommend that applicants aim to cover their career goals in 100-125 words.
Applicants should then summarize the skills and areas of knowledge that they need to gain in order to accomplish their professional objectives, and provide a detailed treatment of the courses and other programmatic offerings at ISB that will help them to bridge that gap. It’s important to showcase your familiarity with the program in this response, as this will help to illustrate the extent of your interest in the PGP and your understanding of why it’s a good fit for you. If there’s a study abroad opportunity that appeals to you or a student club that organizes an annual conference that’s perfectly aligned with your goals, be sure to mention this. Effective responses to this question will include a good amount of ISB-specific details in this short response. Taking the time to learn about the program — by reviewing the school’s website, speaking with students and alumni, visiting the campus or attending an information session—will pay dividends here.
Clear Admit Resources
Thanks for reading our analysis of this year’s ISB MBA essay topics! As you work on your Indian School of Business MBA essays and application, we encourage you to consider all of Clear Admit’s ISB offerings:
- Indian School of Business Profile on the Clear Admit website: up-to-date advice and admissions information
- Clear Admit LiveWire: admissions updates submitted in real time by applicants to ISB
- Clear Admit DecisionWire: school selections in real-time by admits to ISB
