Are you a student with an outstanding academic track record and a stupendous extra-curricular profile? Then, you are an ideal fit for the ISB YLP program. Young Leadership Program offered by ISB is a one of its kind program which allows students who are pursuing their graduation and post-graduation to be a part of a prolific business management program while they actively pursue their full-time careers. Eventually, these candidates from the YLP will be admitted into the ISB’s flagship PGPM (Post Graduate Program in Management).
Candidates from all streams and academic backgrounds can apply for the YLP program. The application process for YLP is extensive and has various steps.
Let’s look at how to crack each level of the admission process:
Essay:
Essays are a great opportunity for the B-school to get an in-depth knowledge about you. The Essay topics are also generally focused on your past achievements and experiences. To write these essays you need to dig deeper into your life and introspect about your strengths and weaknesses. Few things that you need to keep in mind while writing your essays are as following:
- Your essay should be a reflection of your personality. Don’t deviate too much from who you are.
- Jot down all your achievements and shortlist the ones you want to put in the essay.
- Don’t leave out important points about your experience in the essay.
- Proofread the essay several times before you submit. You can also seek professional help for this.
Academic and Personal Profile:
This is more or less a Curriculum Vitae, similar to the one you make for a job application. ISB requires you to submit a one page CV. What you choose to keep on the CV is vital because the one-page constraint confines your scope of listing all your achievements and experiences. There are few things you need to remember while preparing your CV:
- Divide your profile into different sections such as academic background, academic achievements, extracurricular achievements, Internships or work experience, Research or Projects. You can alter these sections according to your profile.
- Prioritize the recent achievements over older ones because the impact of recent achievements is greater.
- Carefully select the points to be mentioned in the CV as one page will not give you enough space to write about all your achievements.
Video Presentation:
ISB requires you to create a video where you get a chance to talk about yourself. With just a few points you can make a good video presentation.
Make sure you are dressed in your formals while shooting for the video.
List down the important points, here you can highlight those points about you which you couldn’t mention in the essays or CV.
Look confident and sport a smile.
Recommendations:
This is the only level where someone else except you would be testifying for your prowess and accomplishments. Selecting right recommenders is very crucial. You need to take care of the following which selecting and submitting your recommendations:
- Submit at least two recommendations
- Select recommenders who know you well and can vouch for your achievements.
- The credibility of your recommender is very important. If you can get a similar recommendation from a person of higher authority, you must go with it.
GMAT Score:
Mostly, the candidates who get into YLP have a GMAT score of 700 and above. Try to get a score as higher as possible to have better chances at the admission.
Case study:
As a part of your admission process, you would need to solve a written case study. Typically, the written case study and personal interview would be conducted on the same day. These are things you should know about solving case studies:
- You would need to have a basic knowledge of economics. Hence, it is better to polish your economics before appearing for this round.
- You would get one hour to solve the case study. However, keep the answers tight and to the point.
- Back up your answers with reasonable explanation and facts.
Personal Interview:
Apart from the usual interview conduct, there are few things you need to know specifically about the ISB YLP personal interview:
- Most of the questions asked would be based on the content you have provided them (i.e. your CV, essays, video presentation, and recommendations). Hence, be thorough with the material.
- On an average a YLP interview would last for 10 to 15 minutes. Therefore, you wouldn’t have much time to put your case forward. Keep your answers short and precise.
- As the interviews are short, do not indulge in repetitive answers.
- Be prepared to answer any subject related questions.