@ammo44 I agree partly. See, what you mean with the Pulsar remark are the "Cream" per say of the business school. Candidates with exceptional acads, GMAT, strong work profiles, leadership traits, community service, EC's etc..
Once they are through with that, they will proceed on to the rest. Even here they will compare apples with apples (read IT vs IT) . But, there might be a stage where avg. acads or GMAT for a "diversity" applicant might not be an issue as for the typical IIM.
We know they assign weights/ranks to all aspects of the application. But, if those were followed blindly, it might be possible they have 80% or more admits from any one applicant pool which they do not want.
But, you are right about the doctors. I personally know a doctor from Kerala who graduated from HBS
Confirmed... all calls are out................ Best of luck guys who all are waiting for 15th Feb...... as we are done with the process this is our last day on this thread... no more calls will be out from today..... :(
I feel that there are four primary factors they look in a candidate
1. How good is he at acads? Can he sustain the pressure at ISB and still clear all courses with required GPA?
2. How much did the candidate achieve till date? For the number of years of experience he has, do he justify the achievements he has?
3. How well does he fit into the batch? Just because he has a diverse background we cannot take him in, he needs to add some mutual value and learning to the batch.
4. What is his career path like? And does he really need an MBA to reach his career goal given his path till date?
This was my lame analysis before applying to ISB and once I was convinced with myself I applied to ISB but seems like my understanding is quite off the hook :P
Bell Curve, that could be it. See what I have read right here on PG was that their selection framework was devised by McKinsey. Not sure on this though.
But, the ratios I believe for 770 seats, there were roughly 4000 - 4500 applicants. So that makes the ratio 6.5:3:1.
@raghupro That seems about accurate with the following suggestions.
For 1) Acads and GMAT determine how well you can handle the rigor of the course work at ISB. Meaning, you can compensate for acads with high GMAT
3) To determine whether the candidate will not be eaten alive by the exceptional talent pool in his/her batch?
And most importantly 4) Career Goal: How past experiences will help you achieve your future career goals. Does not mean you have to be in same industry/function.
Disclaimer: Strictly my personal opinion. Brickbats and bouquets alike are welcome
@ammo44 Thank you for your excellent advice. My only shortcoming is that I am extremely short on finance. That limits my capability to move abroad. Thereby my sole focus would be do a full time MBA from either IIM or ISB or probably FMS. I tried to do CFA but with the busy schedule at work, its really difficult to hive some decent time off for studies. As far as I have figured 1-2 hours study daily isn't enough to clear CFA. So I am hoping with around 10 months to go for next CAT, XAT exams if you could just take out some of your valuable time to explain the cat percentile that would get me call from IIM (A), (C), (K), (L). Regards.
@ammo44 I do something more complicated than punching numbers in MS Access or Excel. I build complex statistical predictive models in SAS, R and also carry out classification exercises in CART. With the results, I address the client's business problems ( credit risk, churn risk) and also advise them on which segment of customers to analyse.
Also, can you ( and others in this forum too) can advise me on good GMAT practice tests other than MGMAT, KAPLAN, or GMAT prep?
@myth_dispeller Sorry to disappoint you friend but you dont know a lot. State bank of India started recruiting from MBA colleges in 2004. The recruits are initially called MTs that is Management trainees. After 2 years, on the basis of their performance they are upgraded to Assist. Vice President. Then after 3 more years they are upgraded to Vice President. This is a contractual job. I joined after doing PGPBF from NIBM (National Institute of Bank Management) in Pune in 2009. Always do your research before slamming anybody upright. It will stand you in good stead.
@freesurfer I would suggest you to stay away from mocks other than GMATPrep and MGMAT. Others don't have the right algorithm. Actually nobody expect GMAC has the correct algorithm but MGMAT comes close. It's always recommended to take full mocks, including the essay and IR section. If you take too many mocks, you will be burned out. You need to be at your best performance. After a few mocks the law of diminishing returns takes over. So keep GMAT Prep for the end and start with MGMAT.
@Kode_A I had a similar experience. GMP i/v on 19th Jan @ B'lore and ISB i/v on 20th. There was a stark contrast between the two schools with regards to the interviewing process. XLRI
's was a stress interview for me in which they came up with controversial direct comments which would hurt my ego and saw how I defended them. They covered a wide range of questions with no particular focus. Topics of discussion were my goals post mba, industry's state of affairs, company policies, controversial current affairs and my views on that, etc. On the other hand, ISB's was very focused. They stuck to my work ex and essays.They were relaxed, calm and extremely professional.
@raghupro Point #4 which u made is extremely important. They seemed concerned about this in my ISB interview. After throwing a volley of questions about my work ex (which I answered extremely well) they simply told me that I don't need an MBA to reach where I want. They told me to stick to my job and with some more years of experience I can easily reach where I want to even without an MBA. They also pointed out that not many professionals in my field do an MBA. I tried to convince them by pointing out that an MBA can actually fast-track my career. One of them bluntly told me that if I was doing it for the long term, its Ok. But do not expect any short term gains. I do not want you to feel like I have wasted 25lakhs here without significant gains. Are you convinced that u need an MBA? If u are then you shud go for it. I re-iterated that I'm. Whether that was a deliberate ploy to check my determination and confidence or they were genuinely expressing their concerns, I couldn't understand.
@punters11 1) Can gudacads from a gud institute compensate for a low GMAT?
@ammo44 It seems top IIMs are like old age homes then. I am anyways based in Delhi so I already had FMS 1st on my list after IIM (A) and IIM (C). It was a pleasure speaking to you. It getting to sleep time for a hard days work at office tomorrow. Good night.
......... Best of luck