Tidbits from Actual ISB Application Essays

If I could list one ‘mantra’ that I followed for my essays then it would be – “Be yourself, be truthful” – and I must say it paid rich dividends (Should you be truthful only if it pays some dividends or should you be honest no matter what? This is a topic very dear to my heart but not a topic that I started out to cover for this post. So, I’ll probably deal with it as a separate topic sometime later). Now, being yourself could be dangerous for some as indeed it was supposed to be for me. Nevertheless, I stuck to my guns of reflecting my true self and today, here I am as a successful applicant to ISB, doling out advice on essays to others.

Let me cut the faff and get to the actual topics and the actual ‘stuff’ I wrote in the essays. That by itself should make it clear why others thought that being myself could be dangerous for me and why I think that giving out my actual essays could be dangerous for the potential applicants.

One of the topics for the Essays:

“Three things that I’d like to change about myself, and why?”

I devoted around 60-70 words to the first change and used up 210 of the remaining 230 words for the second change. The second change that I want to bring about in myself, moreover, was highly philosophical in nature and half of my friends who read the essay (before submission) could not make much sense of it. Added to this, as if I had no word limit assigned, I used an Urdu couplet (or ‘Sher’ as it is generally known) and even gave its English translation in the essay. Sample it:

“Shaayad main zindagi ki sehar, leke aa gaya,
Qatil ko aaj apne hi ghar leke aa gaya!”

(May be I bring with me the dawn of my life, But sadly it seems to be the end of my life!”)

“What the hell is a ‘sher’ doing in a B-School application essay?” asked my friends. Some of them even begged me to remove it. I, however, did not budge from my position and let both the ‘sher’ and the second desired change (which this ‘sher’ tried to explain) remain.

My reviewers made another vain attempt by asking, “Ok! Do as you wish but please tell us what now about the third change? What change are you going to write in the remaining twenty five words?”

This is what I wrote:

“The last thing that I would like to change about myself is my receding Hair Line – this for the sake of my loving wife!”

(Guru, ise kehte hai Bijness! Poora ek word abhi baaki hai!!!)
The reviewer in question laughed on reading the third change and said similar would be the reaction of the ad-com. The ad-com would send the essay to a creative writing contest but would in no way send it to the section of short listed applicants.

When so many people were advising me against the existing essay, I finally decided to change the essay and readied an alternative one. However, I was not satisfied and in the end submitted my original essay with all its idiosyncrasies and with all of it reflecting the real me. “The rest,” can I say, “is history?”

The above tidbits about my essays are in now way given to suggest that you (if you are an applicant) should tailor your essays according to what I did i.e. to include ‘sher-o-shaayari’ or poetry in your essays, or deliberately make an effort to make an essay humorous. However, this is definitely to suggest that you be yourself irrespective of what others may think about you or about what you write.

Then again, “being yourself & being honest” may or may not work. The question is that are you truthful and honest because being so promises you some dividends in life? Or is it that you are actually honest and would like to remain so – no matter what?

Pointers to Application Essays

STATUTORY WARNING:

You are reading this post to the benefit of my blog and to your possible peril. If you benefit the credit is all mine (and only mine) and if you suffer because of any information provided here then you (and only you) are responsible. What may have worked for the author may not work for you and you are advised to exercise due caution before using any of the info given below.

I first thought and had even communicated the same to the ISB-PGP yahoo group that I would post my actual essays which I had submitted to ISB as a part of the admission application. However, on second thoughts, I decided against it. I somehow felt that instead of helping the prospective applicants - the essays, especially mine (I’ll give the reasons later), could actually work to their detriment. Therefore, I shall not post the actual essays but shall give a few pointers to some of the stuff I wrote in the essay.

First the reasons for not posting my actual essays (and you could look for pointers all through the reasons):

1. My essays or essays of any other ISB admit/student could be (mis)construed to be the model essays. There is no way of finding out if the essays posted are actually model essays or not. For all you know, the essays could have been treated as pathetic by the ad-com and the person could have got the admission not because of the essays but in spite of the essays (surely, this is not my case man! My essays were truly ‘top class' ;-) )
   
2. Even if the essay posted were to be a model essay, it would still be just ‘a’ model and not the 'only' model. The best of all 'models', indeed, could be the essay that an applicant (could also be you, if you are an applicant) is yet to write.
3. A sample essay might lead an applicant to tune the essay in harmony with the given model rather than tuning it in harmony with the real self of the applicant.
4. Each applicant is different in terms of the applicant’s work-experience, education, interests and aspirations etc. What might have worked for one might not necessarily work for the other.

Therefore I am not posting the actual drafts of my application essays.

Nevertheless, I shall post in the next few days some of the pointers to what I wrote and some ‘gyaan’ on what I think worked in my favour.

Keep watching this space for more….