Are you curious to know what will it take to get into ISB?
Or maybe you are wondering, “how do I enhance my ISB profile for admission?”
Perhaps you want to know the kind of placements offered at ISB? And whether it fits your career goals?
Well, fret not.
You have come to the right place.
In this article, we will dig into data from the ISB Class of 2018 and see what mystery it unravels.
We will deep dive into specifics such as what the GMAT scores for the latest batch are, the average work experience the class has, the placement profile, offers rolled out and so on.
Interested?
Well, let’s get started by answering the top questions most applicants have about the Indian School of Business (ISB)
1. What are the typical ISB profile requirements of a student to be selected.
Well – there is no one type of person who gets into ISB.
Students came from a variety of different profiles and work experiences. There were students from merchant navy, there were dentists, there were army majors who had spent time in Siachen, there were startup founders,…….and the list is endless.
There also were people who came from traditional backgrounds: coders and testers in the technology domain, some who had spent years in the manufacturing shop floor, and bankers who spent most of their waking hours looking at balance sheets.
let’s deep dive into ISB profile parameters:
a) Academic credentials
b) Leadership potential
c) Personal Interests
To help ease out your research, we have written about this “myth about ISB MBA applications” in detail on our blog!
So no matter what your experience level is – chances are that if you have a good story to tell, ISB will listen to you. Check out ISB application essay analysis for tips on how to showcase your profile to the admissions committee at the B-school.
Dreaming about ISB? Do you know it has two campuses? We spoke to ISB alumni from Hyderabad as well as Mohali to find out exactly how the two campuses of ISB differ.
2. What was the average GMAT score in 2022 at ISB?
The average GMAT score at ISB increased in 2021 as compared to 2022.
Average GMAT score at ISB for the Class of 2022 is 720.
Average GMAT score at ISB for the Class of 2020 was 710.
The Class of 2019 average GMAT score was 709.
So if you really want to get into ISB next year, you need to make sure you work towards a score of above 720.
If your GMAT score is below 700? Know your chances for an ISB Admit here!
3. What was the average GRE score in 2022 at ISB?
After ISB started accepting GRE scores last year, this has been a question many students have had.
Well, the secret is finally out:
The Average GRE score at ISB for the Class of 2023 : 328
To score a 328 you probably need more than a 165 in Quant and a 160 in Verbal. This corresponds to roughly the 87th percentile in Quant and the 70th percentile in Verbal.
Sounds doable? Then perhaps GRE is the test for you!
Still thinking? Read our blog on GRE scores for ISB.
Do you know what the ISB Young Leaders Program is? The ISB YLP or Young Leaders Program is a unique MBA program in India for pre-final or final-year students to secure a seat in ISB’s Postgraduate Programme in Management. Here’s how Crackverbal helped a fresher get into YLP!
4. How many female candidates were accepted to the ISB class of 2023?
The total intake for the 2023 batch is 843, out of which 37% (312 students) were female candidates.
Women applying for an MBA at ISB would like to know that in 2017, the class consisted of 30% women, (apparently an increase since 2016).
Also we estimate that the number of female applicants to ISB is lower than 30% that means (all things being equal) as a female applicant you have higher chances to getting in.
5. How many years of work experience does a typical ISB student have?
In a class of 2023, a majority of 358 students has a work experience between 3- 5 yrs, followed by 224 students who has an experience of 5-8 years and 50 who has experience of 8+ years.
Here is how the class of 2018 looked:
This is good news for students having fewer than 2 years of experience and those having substantial work-experience. Also remember, many of those students with 2 years experience could be coming from the ISB YLP intake.
For those who are just starting your career – remember that 5% of the ISB class were in the same boat when they applied last year.
And those with 10+ years of experience – remember that if the 23 students who made it to ISB last year could do it – so can you!
Here’s the work experience breakdown of the 2018 batch:
6. What are the various professional backgrounds that students in ISB class have?
When reading this data – beware of confirmation bias.
Don’t assume that since 70% of the students at ISB were Engineers – hence ISB prefers Engineers.
You couldn’t be further from the truth!
Typically a lot more Engineers apply to ISB. We are willing to wager a bet – perhaps 90% of applicants are Engineers!
So it is not necessarily an advantage 🙂
Also to a lot of people asking: if your academic background is average – can you still make it to ISB?
The answer is yes.
We have worked with students who have had backlogs in their graduation and were still able to make it to ISB.
In 2018, if we look at the educational background of the applications, the list was dominated by Engineering graduates. Here are the top 3 undergraduate degrees students at ISB had:
• Engineering : 606 students
• Finance & Accounts : 72 students
• BBA/BBM : 51 students
The rest were from other backgrounds – Medicine, Media & Communication, Economics, Mathematics & Chartered Accountants.
Learn More about the Mistakes ISB Applicants Make: Tips From ISB Alumnus & Admissions Panelist Pradyot Anand.
7. What are the feeder schools at ISB?
Along with the usual suspects the IITs (36) and the NITs (36), VTU has an equal number of students, making it a three way tie for the top position.
Next on the list is Manipal University which sent 21 students followed by Sri Ramaswamy Memorial Institute of Science and Technology (SRM), in Chennai which had 8 alums in the ISB class of 2018.
There were also students admitted from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning in Anantapur, Sardar Patel Institute of Technology and St.Xavier’s College (University of Mumbai), Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering in Mysore, Hansraj College in Delhi, Krishna Inst. of Engg. & Technology in Ghaziabad, among other institutions.
8) What were the job placements in at ISB like?
More than 98% of the students who graduated in 2017 claimed to be employed within three months of graduating with a salary bracket between 14 lakhs – 17 lakhs.
Remember that salary usually has a performance linked variable component – so not the entire amount would be “take home”.
Recruiters from consulting and IT/TES constituted 20% to 21% of the total number of offers rolled out, followed by BFSI, healthcare and pharma.
Leadership programs in general at ISB came from companies such as Aditya Birla Group, Axis Bank, Amazon, Bharti Airtel, HCL, HUL and Ashok Leyland among other big players.
Recruiting companies for General Management and Strategic Planning roles included:
- Accenture
- ABG
- Infosys
- Lodha
- HUL
- P&G
- Godrej
- Hero Motocorp
- Max Healthcare
In 2017 too, a majority of the candidates received placement offers from the IT and the consulting industry.
In 2018, ISB witnessed a 39% increase in the number of recruiters participating in the current placements season with over 400 companies.
9. Has Crackverbal helped students get into ISB?
Sure! We have plenty of students who make it to ISB every year.
We helped Sivaprasad score a 750 on his GMAT exam.
In his words, “Crackverbal’s Verbal course helped me in a great way especially their Sentence Correction classes. They’re all about the basics. I only practiced using their given material. I would say their material is the key to my GMAT score”, and he got placed in ISB.
Suyog Shriram Pathak, who got into ISB PGP Pro, talked about his experience working with Crackverbal.
You can read Mohana’s ISB PGP Pro journey and how he chose the perfect stories for his MBA application.
That’s the GMAT.
If you’re looking for MBA admissions, read about Gautham – An Engineer’s journey from NIT to ISB.
Or you could read a few more MBA admission success stories, here.
Everyone has a different story to say, and we think ISB will listen to each one of you.
What you really need is a way to tell this story, in a compelling way.
We hope this article helped you understand ISB admissions, placements and profiles.
Do let us know if you liked this article, and if you would want to know how we can work together to get you into ISB this year!
If you’re applying next year, and need help with building your profile, we’re just a click away 🙂