Acing ISB YLP Essays & Interviews
Financial Times has yet again ranked ISB Hyderabad at #23 in the global B-Schools rankings in 2021. If you’re here, you must already be punching in ISB and YLP related keywords on Google. Or you chanced upon this on one of my feeds. All the same, welcome! So, let’s skip the platitudes and talk about a few strategies that helped me clear Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the ISB YLP application process.
I’ll be addressing the following:
-What is the YLP?
-What are the different components of the application? Which ones are more important than the others?
-What does ISB YLP look for?
— Non-Negotiables
— Deal-breakers
-How do I prepare for my interview?
-How can I maximise my chances?
NOTE: I did not hire a consultant to guide me through the process. If you have, I’m sure you’re already receiving great advice. Nonetheless, this is going to be a high-fidelity account of the application strategies I used during my application process. I’m a CS graduate from BMU working in Product Management at SmartServ, and have been accepted into the ISB YLP Cohort of 2023.
What is the YLP?
It’s a program for undergraduates who want to pursue an MBA early into their careers. Getting an admit at one of the best institutions right out of bachelors and eventually getting to share a classroom with seasoned professionals is a pretty neat deal.
A student applies to the program in the final (or the penultimate) year of their bachelor’s. If found promising, they’re given conditional admission to ISB’s flagship MBA program for two years after their graduation. They’re expected to acquire at least 20 months of work experiences in these two years before they can enter the program. If they’re unable to do so, they get an option to defer their admit by another year to fulfill the requirement.
What are the different components of the application? Which ones are more important than the others?
The different components of the YLP application are:
- Your bachelor’s transcript (Stage 2)
- Your Resume (Stage 2)
- A standardised test score- GMAT/GRE (Stage 2)
- Two essays (Stage 1 + Stage 2)
- An endorsement (Stage 2)
- An application form with your personal info (Stage 1)
- An interview (Stage 3)
In my opinion, and in short, your test scores, essays, and endorsement are the most important components, followed by your undergraduate scores, resume, and application form. If you’re able to get through to the interview round, you’re already good enough to get in. Which is why, I’ll leave the interview out of the equation. However, I will discuss a few interview strategies later in the blog along with my personal cheatsheet.
What does ISB YLP look for?
ISB likes well-rounded candidates and that’s not a secret. You don’t need to be an absolute GigaChad to make the cut, but you’re expected demonstrate a high level of competence in all of the following :
Non-negotiables: The must-haves for any strong candidate.
- Academic competence- Decent Undergrad GPA (9+ is great, 8+ works). 12th score (looked at in tandem with undergrad), GMAT/GRE (≥710 GMAT, ≥325 GRE). An impressive GMAT/GRE may make up for lower academic scores.
- Extra-curricular involvement- Most well-performing MBA candidates are multi-dimensioned. ISB loves diversity. MBA is less than little about books. If you’re serious about a secret hobby, now’s your chance to bring it up.
- Leadership experience- Business leaders are rarely looked at as individual contributors, they’re expected to get things done. Leading a group of people in an attempt to achieve a goal is a respectable endeavor. However, you should keep in mind that a leader can only exist in the context of a team.
Deal-breakers: A lot of self-selection happens around the non-negotiables. But once your bases are covered, you need to distinguish yourself from the other candidates. You can demonstrate your uniqueness in the following:
- Motivation for MBA- The thread that holds a winning application together. With almost no work experience, this becomes the biggest differentiator in YLP candidates. You’re not expected to have your entire career planned, but you do need to show them that not only an MBA fits into your career goal, but it’s the MBA from ISB. Candidates who’ve already made progress on their goals, or in other words, self-starters, have an advantage over the others.
You should be albe to demonstrate it using all components of your application, right from the achievements you choose showcase in the application form to the final interview. Make it convincing and put it in a manner that’s coherent yet singular. - Essays- In the first and the second stage of the application, you’re required to write an essay around a prompt that changes every year. They’ve historically mostly been around MBA goals and/or behavioural questions. Do not overrun the word limit as they’re truncated during the submission anyway. I am a big proponent of liberal writing followed by violent culling. I wrote 600-word essays and then condensed them down to 300, during my application process. Every phrase in the essay should serve a purpose and the perceptive value of each sentence should align with its intended value. This requires a lot of self-awareness — spend some time crafting it. In my opinion, the winning formula for a fresh graduate (or a senior student) is demonstrating:
— — Promise- YLP candidates do not have a true market value as they’re still in college, but you can show them that you’re a solid bet to make. There are many ways to do this, however, compromising on honesty is not one of them. Do not portray yourself as somebody that wouldn’t exist outside the application. A healthy combo of academics, leadership initiatives, self-effacing ambition, and know-how of utilizing resources and opportunities should make a solid essay. Obviously, it has to be weaved around the prompt. Do not lose sight of the prompt.
— — Likability- Humility, willingness to learn, strategic mention of mistakes/shortcomings, and a touch of personalization should do the trick. Show that pursuing an MBA at ISB is a natural progression for you and that you’re already a great cultural fit for the institution. - Familiarity with ISB — Digest the entire website along with their blogs and other appearances. Tell them the courses you’d like to take and the professor whose work you find interesting. Tell them how you’ve followed ISB’s progress over the years and how your values align with the values of the institution. Attend their webinars and ask meaningful questions. There’s not much to it.
- Strong Endorsement- Ask your recommender to talk about you in a professional as well as personal capacity. Make a list of your personal qualities, projects, and incidents for them to refer to. The more convenient you make it for your recommender, the more time they can spend making you look good. Ask them to back up their opinion of you with examples and accounts.
I’d advise against writing the endorsement yourself as it rarely floats. I’m also a strong believer in talking about your ‘real weaknesses’ in the application. In my opinion, it makes you more likeable and, in interviews, it gives you additional things to talk about. You can use it to talk about the progress you’ve made since your essays.
How do I prepare for my interview?
In terms of preparation, there’s not much more to it than what you’ve already done for Stage 2. Besides working on your ‘candidate-institution fit’, there are three things you need to execute a great interview:
- Content Management: Effective content management will allow you to structure your answers while also keeping them fresh. You want to be able to respond spontaneously yet in a structured manner.
1. Make a repository of 25–30 known YLP questions (read: Google).
2. List down, categorise, and label all information about yourself and your goals.
3. Map every piece of information to all relevant questions. Ideally, any piece of information should not map to more than 2–3 questions.
4. You’ll have to prioritise what to include in which response since you don’t want to speak for too long.
5. During your mock-interviews, try all the different combinations of things you can possibly say.
6. Pull relevant keywords and phrases out of the available pool and try to form coherent answers in real-time.
7. The mapping in (3) can be done at two levels: Category & Question.
— — Category: ‘Useful for Introduction’, ‘Personal Questions’, ‘ISB related’, ‘Motivation for MBA’, ‘Goal related’, ‘Internship related’ (I had ‘domain’ and ‘work-ex’, in addition, as I’d accumulated some experience before my interview)
— — Question: I’m including the link to my notion database cheat sheet for your reference here, where you’ll find my categorisation. You can duplicate it and modify it according to your needs.
8. For the first few mock interviews, I would refer to my cheatsheet while forming my responses. Over iterations, I was able to identify the top sellers in each question and category, and the rest became standbys. - Sprinkle some STARs but don’t overdo it: Well-structured responses take less mental energy to register, making you sound like you know your shizz. However, if all your responses start with an S and lead into the T followed by your A and ending on the R, you risk sounding like Marvin the android. Reserve the STARS and CIRCLES for longer, nuanced responses. Shorter, anecdotal responses are an opportunity for your to bond with the panelists, do not miss out on it. That leads us to the next important step.
- Do mock interviews: A lot of people can’t seem to figure out what they did wrong during their interviews. Even after executing their strategies perfectly, they end up getting rejected. I believe that the supposed blindspot is more of an oversight.
The perceptive value of your responses is different from its intended value. What you imply is inconsequential unless your interviewer gets it. So, I traded mock interviews with a friend who kept the bar high, and he ended up getting into his preferred program at Duke Fuqua while I got an admit from ISB! :) - Mind the others: At the end of the day, the interview is an excuse for the panelists to get to know your fit with the institution. Everybody who makes it to the interview round is equally capable, more or less. It’s not the content anymore, it’s the people. If they end up having a good time with you, they’ll feel compelled to give you a thumbs up.
During my interview, I ended up cracking a few jokes that didn’t land. And that turned out to be okay! I like to keep it fun for everybody, Even when I’m in the hot seat.
In retrospect, my execution wasn’t perfect but if it was good enough for ISB, it is good enough for me.
How can I maximise my chances?
Talk to other people! Alumni, Adcom, Professors! Really anybody associated with ISB in any capacity. Don’t limit your outreach to just YLP alumni. Talk to PGP alumni who came in with six years of experience and pivoted their roles at ISB, the ones who started up with their batchmates, or went into the social sector.
Talk to them about the institution, the program, the cohort, the environment, the opportunities, the interview, and maybe even the specifics of the application. You can incorporate their insights and experiences into your own plans and make them look even more airtight. I, for one, did!
The community is very welcoming and their insights helped me immensely. However, make sure to do your homework before you reach out to anybody. They can only help you optimise what you already have.
Closing Advice
Show them that you already are a good fit for ISB and that you really want to be there. But also that if you were to not get in, you’ll be alright.
And, in all honesty, you will be! This is just a glimpse of all the opportunities yet to come.
