Indian School of Business PGP Essay Topic Analysis 2024-2025

The following essay topic analysis examines the Indian School of Business (ISB) PGP admissions essays for the 2024-2025 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 2024-2025

Let’s take a closer look at each ISB PGP essay prompt.

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 reader, delving past the facts of your job and hobbies into a deeper discussion of your personality and values. That said, there is still an opening to provide illustrative examples that show how these qualities manifest in your day-to-day life. You should of course note that this prompt also asks you to discuss formative past experiences that have shaped who you are today, giving you plenty to do with the 400 word allotment for this response.

It’s important to address the question in full when responding to this sort of essay, but it’s also in your best interest to focus as much as possible on the positive. This is a akin to describing yourself to a new friend or on a first date: you do want to provide a heads up about any salient shortcomings you’re aware of, but want to spend most of your time selling your strengths (i.e. the reasons that someone might want to befriend/date/admit you). With this in mind, you might lead off with two or three positive qualities, sharing brief examples of what these characteristics have enabled you to accomplish or how they’ve positioned you to help others. When discussing these kinds of personal qualities, it’s ideal to back up every statement about your character with a brief example to really “prove” that you possess the quality in question. By doing so, you’re effectively “showing” rather than “telling” the reader how your personality and values inform your behavior (and potential contribution to the ISB PGP program). After illustrating your strengths, you’ll then want to comment on one or two weaknesses – ideally ones that you’ve already taken steps to address. Strategically, it would be best to focus on weaknesses that are skills you can improve as opposed to behavioral weaknesses such as a short temper or impatience.

Note that this response also calls for you to reflect on the forces that have shaped your personal development; commentary on this topic could be built into the discussion of each personal characteristic introduced — or in an introduction or conclusion if there are themes that run throughout your examples.

ISB PGP 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 max)
The MBA curriculum is rigorous and ISB is looking to make sure candidates are ready.

ISB touts their experiential learning, with an emphasis on case-based teaching, simulations, projects, and industry interactions. Consider the parallels in your own experience that would translate to learning well in this environment. You can show your connections to these learning styles by summarizing an accomplishment and how you grew as a result of your direct involvement/leadership. Then, you can establish what you need to learn through the MBA, emphasizing how the ISB learning environment resonates with you.

While “intellectual experiences” may invite recounting reading and studying, keep in mind that adcoms appreciate action and decision making. If you want to cite your degree-earning coursework, for instance, it would behoove you to make a connection to how you applied said learning.

Optional Essay

Given your experience and aspirations, how do you plan to use the PGP at ISB to fulfil your professional goals? (250 words max)
We encourage applicants to answer this question, even though it is technically optional. For context for your case, it would make sense to briefly identify your goals. Overall, it is a chance to show your passion for the program and highlight aspects of your professional experience and plans that can help set you apart in the applicant pool. This is not the time to simply state you are simply excited about the “community and curriculum,” but to maximize the detail you share in each sentence by spelling out the specific offerings that speak to you. Conducting thorough research on the program — whether by attending online info sessions, or speaking with students and alumni — will help you achieve maximum impact with this brief response.

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