Post Graduate Program (PGP) is ISB’s flagship one year fulltime program. ISB PGP Essay Analysis on this page is our take on how to approach the PGP essays, to maximize your chances of admission to ISB PGP.
ISB PGP Deadline
R1 – 20th September, 2026
Essay 1 for ISB PGP (Leadership):
What unique experiences have shaped who you are? What have these experiences taught you about leadership and the kind of leader you aspire to be? (400 words)
What a broad canvas ISB has handed over to the applicants, through this essay!
Start the essay by introducing who you are as a person. This is equivalent to breaking the ice with the evaluator of your essay. Narrate significant influences that have shaped up your personality. This requires self-reflection into your growing-up years. For instance, if your Dad was in a transferable job, you would have changed cities, schools, and friends every few years, shaping you into a very adaptable and amenable person; if you are from a business background, you would have witnessed the vagaries that any business has to endure, honing your risk-taking abilities; if you were in a boarding school or had working parents, independence comes quick and easy; if you were a part of NCC in school or are from an army background, discipline becomes your forte; if you were the eldest sibling, responsibility comes naturally to you.
The essay-prompt specifically asks about leadership experiences. Any person’s leadership experiences would broadly fall into two categories:
i) Exhibiting leadership: Applicants with lesser work-experience might not have had any chance to formally lead teams at work. However, formal authority is a very narrow and restricted view to associate leadership experiences with. A person’s leadership potential is best exhibited in his/her ability to influence others, even without any formal authority (in fact, ISB used to have an essay prompt on leadership without formal authority). So, introspect such instances in your life; this could be the informal leadership that you assumed in a group-project set-up in college, a position of responsibility that you assumed as part of your college-fest, or a sports-team that you led in school.
ii) Witnessing leadership: All of us come across people who rub us off in a “good” way: the compassionate teacher in school who was always willing to go out of her way to help students with their academics, the super-enthusiastic friend in college who had the ability to always inspire fellow-students to contribute to an endeavor, or the empathetic supervisor at work who is willing to stay after-office hours to just slog it out with the subordinates. These experiences might have firmed up your own views on the kind of leader you aspire to be.
We discourage applicants from mentioning that they aspire to be the kind of leaders that (say) Bill Gates or Steve Jobs was. While they were truly inspirational leaders, reference to such leaders will come across as very impersonal.
Essay 2 for ISB PGP (Why MBA):
Essay Tip #1 Treat essays no differently from critical reasoning: There should be a logical flow of ideas and coherent cause and effects. Statements loosely "hanging in the air" disrupt the flow of the entire essay.
Essay Tip #2 Even if you are not seeking professional editing services for your essays, make sure you send across your essays to at least two people, whose judgment and expedience you trust. Essentially it is important to get an Independent third-party view of your essays.
Essay Tip #3 Applicants should be wary of mentioning philanthropic activities or stipulate ambitions of Entrepreneurship, just in the hope of winning favor with Admissions committee. Unless you have a strong case to make, such claims actually have a reverse effect, making your entire application weak.
What intellectual experiences have influenced your approach to learning and have led you to pursue an MBA? Please describe using anecdotes from your own experiences. (400 words).
Why MBA is what this essay prompt is essentially asking you. This is basically the goals essay. This essay is best addressed along three major points.
a) First what you have done in life so far (primarily on the professional/academic front)
b) Second what you want to do in future
c) Third how does MBA fit into the scheme of things
Clearly there are some experiences, attributes, and interests that you already have. This is your past. You have aspirations in life; you hope these aspirations to become your future. What is currently holding you back, from realizing your aspirations? This is where MBA comes into picture.
Essay 3 for ISB PGP (How would you contribute to ISB):
(Optional): Share with us any intellectual pursuits, unique perspectives, or experiences that you pursued that have shaped your worldview, your growth through these pursuits, and how they could potentially contribute to our learning community (250 words).
This essay prompt is essentially asking:
How would your peer-group at ISB benefit from your presence?
Peer learning is a crucial component of the ISB PGP experience. Hence, applicants should consider mapping their personal experiences, academic experiences, work experience, and extra-curricular to their contribution to peer learning at ISB. For instance, your academic / professional background in a discipline (such as Marketing, Finance, or Operations) would directly enable you to bring real-life experiences in the corresponding discipline to classroom discussions and case-studies. If you have significant experience in a discipline, it might also enable you to assume a leadership position at a student run club at ISB, thereby contributing to the entire ISB community.
While applicants should emphasize their academic and professional experiences, life at ISB is not just about academics; there is a thriving life outside of classrooms as well. So, your personal background, your extra-curricular, and your hobbies can also contribute to the vibrant ISB community.
Note: While essay-3 is an ‘optional’ essay, we suggest that applicants treat it as a mandatory essay and attempt it.
We hope that ISB PGP Essay Analysis presented above will help applicants effectively work on their PGP application.
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PGP R2 Deadline: 7th Dec’2025