For the longest time, if an Indian MBA aspirant was looking for a program with an experienced, diverse cohort, a global faculty, a lean one year course structure, and an admission process without the hassle of separate standardized tests, they would inevitably have to look at business schools in other countries. But then along came ISB, to disrupt the Indian business education scene and establish itself as an undisputed leader.
ISB PGP: The Basics
The Indian School of Business was started in 1996, led by Rajat Gupta and Anil Kumar, both of whom were senior executives of McKinsey & Company. It established its campus in Gachibowli, Hyderabad in 2001 for its first batch, and later opened its second campus in Mohali, Punjab in April 2012.
The current batch at ISB is almost evenly split between students ages 22-26 years and 26-30 years, at 42% and 48% respectively, with the remaining 10% being students aged 30 and older. The demographic also had 64% of the batch from an engineering background. The GMAT score range for the batch is 600-780.
The school operates its flagship PGP, a highly intensive one year post-graduate program, spread across 8 terms.
The school has consistently featured among the Top 30 Business Schools worldwide, and is widely considered as one of the best business schools in India. In the latest Financial Times Global MBA rankings, it ranked 28th in the world!
Key Program Details
Global Collaboration: ISB was formed with the intention of giving students in India a global experience and it truly lives up to its promise. ISB has collaborations with more than 50 international schools, including Wharton, Kellogg, MIT Sloan, and London Business School, for its exchange programs, and visiting faculty.
Alumni: Probably ISB’s greatest asset is its tremendous alumni network, which has over 11,000 members spread across more than 50 countries. Over 500 alumni members are at CXO level positions of corporations, and another 500 plus are founders/leaders of their own startups and companies.
Campus: ISB has two stunning, world class campuses for its fully residential programs. Both campuses are equipped with state of the art classrooms and learning facilities, research facilities, sports and recreation centers, and outstanding accommodation facilities.
Experiential Learning Program: The Experiential Learning Program (ELP) is a live consulting engagement undertaken by students as part of their elective curriculum. Students prepare a consulting proposal for a company, and finally present their findings and report with recommendations to the client. Many companies also use this program as their pre-recruitment exercise.
Admissions
The MBA application consists of academic performance, test scores, professional experiences, essays and recommendations.
ISB has a minimum requirement of 2 years full time work experience for the PGP. However for students with less than 2 years experience, and even for students still in their undergrad, ISB provides various opportunities to apply for deferred admission to its flagship PGP program:
Early Entry Option (EEO): Option available for students with less than 2 years of work experience. Successful admits join the program the year after they complete the minimum requirement.
Young Leader’s Program (YLP): Allows students in the pre-final and final years of their undergraduate programs to apply for the PGP. Successful candidate join the program 2-3 years post graduating, after completing the work experience requirement. You can check out further details about the YLP here.
Career Outcomes
ISB’s career services and outcomes are amongst the best in the country, and consistently provide its student with fantastic job opportunities. For the Class of 2020,
Average CTC for jobs offered was INR 26,14,000.
A total of 1,383 offers were made to the 890 students in the batch.
Consulting was the biggest recruiting sector, with 22.75% of the offers belonging to it. IT, E-commerce, and finance also each saw c. 10%-15% of the offers.
The number of offers, and average CTC have both increased in each of the last 4 years.
The years when going abroad was the only option for a great global business school experience and rewarding careers are long gone. India is on the rise to becoming a global business leader, and attending the PGP at ISB could well be seen as one of the best ways to be a part of the few who will lead that change!