[MeNoSaint]

Originally Posted by overlord

BTW the 25th deadline for hyd interview calls....is it just for out-station candidates or is it even for hyd local candidates????

and, is Oct. 25th the deadline for declaring the candidates shortlisted for interviews on Nov. 1st/2nd, or for the 8th/9th also?

[neoisalive]

I just called ISB, A lady said the result could come as late as Monday .. My whole diwali travel plan will go down the drain if the result don't come out by 25.

[neoisalive]

Oh!.. I forgot to mentioned ..I am an outstation applicant for Hyd. (Pune).

[krishor]

Originally Posted by vazin

I really ADMIRE and APPRECIATE the way these ISB Adcom team is responding, day-after-day, every question answered with absolute accuracy. I doubt we can get that kind of Adcom team in other B Schools. Wonder who the boss is and how he is able to motivate his team. Wonder what Management School he has been from. Hats Off.

Cheers

Absolutely agree with you. It is truly amazing; I am wondering if they have set up a full fledged call center... The amount of calls they are answering, the way they are answering in the other thread, both are amazing....

One other thing is that they are not shy to make use of a private partner like pagalguy to help applicants. That reflects their open culture.

hats off to you people @ ISB Adcom!

[DerivativesGuy]

Hi puys

Had my interview today(Mumbai) at 8.30 in the morning on the 21st floor of Taj Lands End.. what a view !!!
The copies for the 100 word essay hadnt come out and I started my interview without it... was told to finish the essay after the interview
Interview was with Mr.Ajit Rangnekar(Deputy Dean) and a certain Mr. D'souza who was probably an Alum.
Q1: Do you like the room? (probably their way to ease me up)
Q2: Tell us about the work you currently do ( more stuff on my current profile in Valuations)
Q3: Asked to value an IPO for ISB... have no experience in pricing an IPO and they were probably only looking for the thought process
Q4: Asked thoughts around the financial crisis and what would I have done differently
Q5: Asked on a layman perspective of the crisis...
Q6: Asked abt my shift from technology to finance and how I managed it?
Q7: From here on we went on to some good debates( have been associated with debating in college)... asked my take on the MNS issue as well as quotas
Q8: What after MBA? ( back to career related stuff ): why a particular field and where does the interest stem from.. ( you gotta know what motivates you to choose a particular function or domain )

Finally asked me to ask a few questions...
Interview lasted for around 30-35 min.. and was pretty non-stressful.
My essay topic which I wrote later was "Passion".

Came out decently satisfied... can leave the extremely difficult decision making step to these experienced guys now
The long wait begins now...

All the best to all puys...
Profile: 720/5.5, approx 3 yrs experience at ibank(2 yrs in IT + 1 yr in finance), certified FRM, good acads, very good extracurriculars.

[suresh_mba]

Originally Posted by chandu_v

Suresh,
Before you take this piece of advice from sheetalkathuria.......

Thanks Sarat, but you know what - I actually still do not mind the info.

Call me cautious, but I for one do not mind consulting with pros when it comes to such critical decisions. For the past few days, I have been trying to look up related info on the net. Given the highly unorganized and nascent nature of the "School applications assistance" industry in India - there is hardly any information available anywhere (popular players, their promoters, customer reviews, history, etc.) as against the way it is in the West (a quick search on Yahoo answers throw tons of customer reviews).

So for instance if I google for a combo of "ISB, MBA, Application, India, Interview" I get the following top results (the order might change based upon your combo) -

- Veritas
- General-Ed
- IndianMBA
- **********
- Essay Lever

And the only way out is to speak to them individually.. unless of course you are a devout patron of Google's pagerank rationale.

Anyway, I will try to consolidate and share any reviews or recos that I gather. Will appreciate if any past/current users here wish to share their experience with specific consultants - please PM me. Thanks again and good luck!

[suresh_mba]

Wow! Looks like the PG Cops are carefully guarding this topic themselves..dint realize they have actually blocked some of the names from being posted (the *******s).

It is for some of these reasons that I prefer the business week b-school forums. You can simple speak your mind and discuss any topic under sthe sun. If this topic is of interest to people, please PM me and we can take it to some other board. Thank you.

[rsb1982]

Fellow pagals,

Just finished my interview in Mumbai. This is what it felt like:
3 ppl - Adcom member and 2 others. Very friendly.

It started off with a little bit of a discussion about Raj Thackeray. Since they weren't aware of him having received bail. Time - approx 3 mints

Since I'm in IT, I was asked why I had not shifted jobs. I'm still with my first employer. Talked in detail about fulfilment, satisfaction, growth and how MBA will fit into it. I was also asked if I would go back to current employer after ISB. I said yes, if the opportunities are right. Some detailed questions about sabbaticals, sponsorship etc. Time - approx 3 mints

Since I maintain my own blog, I was asked about recent topics. We had a rather interesting discussion about affirmative action. Time - approx - 5 mints

Some project related information. More domain specific questions about differentiating factors about loyalty programs. Time - approx 5 mints

Questions about extra curricular activities. Quizzing and trivia. Weakness (since I guess my evaluator had not been clear). Approx 3 mints

Return questions from my side - Approx 5 mints. Total of around 25-30 mints.

Essay word was "ferocious", which was read thoroughly. As was the rest of the app. I would suggest that ppl be familiar with their essays, hobbies, achievements etc.

No Why MBA, Why ISB, market size style of questions...

Fingers crossed and ATB to the remaining junta.

Regards

RSB

[redh0rn]

Originally Posted by suresh_mba

Wow! Looks like the PG Cops are carefully guarding this topic themselves..dint realize they have actually blocked some of the names from being posted (the *******s).

It is for some of these reasons that I prefer the business week b-school forums. You can simple speak your mind and discuss any topic under sthe sun. If this topic is of interest to people, please PM me and we can take it to some other board. Thank you.

Hi Suresh, one of the reasons you might find few, if any, puys recommending names to is because of some bitter learnings we have had in the last few weeks. Some of the members here have been exposed to be representatives of some of the essay-and-interview-prep service providers (henceforth called eip providers) and the way these guys have surreptitiously promoted their services on the forum has left a bitter taste in our mouth.

More importantly, many of puys here believe that if you consider yourself worthy of getting admission into a top b-school, then you should at least put faith in your ability to represent yourself well in your application, without external help. We would have still understood the need for some external consulting, but the way some of these providers advertise ("we will even write your essays!!") really puts us off. It is one thing to get your essays vetted for clear content and grammar and such things (and trust me, your father, friend or spouse will do a much better job at it than any external provider), but it is totally different matter to pay someone to write your essays- it is unethical and extremely short-sighted.

Further, we believe that business school adcoms are wiser than we think and (a)- will easily discover when an application essay is not written by you, for example the 100-word essay they'll ask you to write at the time of interview-try asking the service providers if they have any plan to help you with that, and (b), have already designed their application and interview process to evaluate an applicant fully, and that external service providers can contribute only to a little extent.

Lastly, as you implicitly mentioned, the 'application consulting' industry is fairly nascent and unorganized here, so you'll never know who to trust and who to stay clear of. At least one puy has mentioned a bitter experience with one of them (sorry I don't remember, but it was mentioned in this thread maybe 50-70 pages ago), and the very secretive nature of this industry (c'mon, they will not disclose you the essays they are writing for others) works to their advantage. So, hypothetically, you'll never know if your essays are written by 10th or 12th graders instead of the claimed ISB alumni.

Hope this perspective helped, but it is still entirely upto you to engage with them, but we at pagalguy are a little wary of using these essay 'writers'- for the dubious ways in which they promote their business, and for the questionable value they will add to your application.

Cheers!

[hotbrain]

Originally Posted by rsb1982

Fellow pagals,

Just finished my interview in Mumbai. This is what it felt like:
3 ppl - Adcom member and 2 others. Very friendly.

It started off with a little bit of a discussion about Raj Thackeray. Since they weren't aware of him having received bail. Time - approx 3 mints

Since I'm in IT, I was asked why I had not shifted jobs. I'm still with my first employer. Talked in detail about fulfilment, satisfaction, growth and how MBA will fit into it. I was also asked if I would go back to current employer after ISB. I said yes, if the opportunities are right. Some detailed questions about sabbaticals, sponsorship etc. Time - approx 3 mints

Since I maintain my own blog, I was asked about recent topics. We had a rather interesting discussion about affirmative action. Time - approx - 5 mints

Some project related information. More domain specific questions about differentiating factors about loyalty programs. Time - approx 5 mints

Questions about extra curricular activities. Quizzing and trivia. Weakness (since I guess my evaluator had not been clear). Approx 3 mints

Return questions from my side - Approx 5 mints. Total of around 25-30 mints.

Essay word was "ferocious", which was read thoroughly. As was the rest of the app. I would suggest that ppl be familiar with their essays, hobbies, achievements etc.

No Why MBA, Why ISB, market size style of questions...

Fingers crossed and ATB to the remaining junta.

Regards

RSB

you are good and confident.So you will be in.Be confident