Thank you for setting up this thread and providing an interactive forum for prospective students.
I notice ISB is increasingly being positioned as a global school. Yet, from all the reading and the potential applicant pool, it sounds like a pretty Indian outfit.
My specific questions:
1. What is the global composition of the class? Like INSEAD, are there hard limits imposed on per-country intake so the class composition is mixed enough? (I refer to this link:
Student Profiles 2012 -- it's hard to spot any non-Indian here in all the three links to the left!)
2. Why is there no MBA certification? Instead there just seem to be some local Indian certifications such as "PGP". Is there an option for international students to request a more globally-relevant "MBA" degree?
3. Much is made about the association with MIT, LBS, etc. What is the tangible manifestation of this association aside from visiting faculty? Are there preferential exchange program setups with these schools with large cohorts every year, or any co-certification/degree granted together? Or is the visiting of some professors supposed to make students feel like it is a global experience? I notice the
exchange network here, but only a handful of those schools merit recognition (I mean, is there really a stampede to go to Recanati school in Tel Aviv or the Otto Beisheim thingie in Germany?), and there's no mention of how *many* students get to go to Wharton or Berkeley for example (just 1 per year, for example, or maybe even no exchange happens in some years?).
4. The placement data is woefully unconvincing. Are
these recruiters only recruiting for their Indian offices, or do they consider ISB grads for international placements? The
average placement salary may be decent for people who have worked only in India pre-ISB, but these numbers are hardly competitive for people with some experience in other countries. Also, an average is just that, an average -- it would be much richer to have a *range* of salaries, so that one those with over 10 years of experience can make more informed judgments about the kind of packages to expect outside of cookie-cutter MBA feeder roles such as consulting where most people start as "Associate Consultants" (i.e., grunts).
Many other questions abound, but that should be a good start.
In my (perhaps not so--) humble opinion, the ISB website needs to be a lot more professional if it's competing beyond the usual Indian suspects such as XLRI or IIMs. The present website hardly instills confidence in someone who's considering INSEAD, IMD, Kellogg.
Much appreciate your time here and hope you can help with pointers or further information.
