A Date with the Indian School of Business
Vivek, better known as vivek1110 on our forums, recently visited the Indian School of Business (ISB) and shares his experience with our Beat The GMAT community. Without further ado, here's Vivek.
I recently got an opportunity to visit Indian School of Business, and stay the night over, an opportunity that I took with arms wide open. ISB is located in Hyderabad, which happens to be one of the major hubs in India for Information Technology, such that it even goes by the name Cyberabad! Amidst all the chaos of IT parks, in a small area on the outskirts of Hyderabad, lies the Indian School of Business.
From a distance it almost had an assuming presence about it, however, as I walked up to the entrance to the ISB, the structure that welcomed me was a tall imposing concrete structure, with the word Indian School of Business emblazoned on it. I walked past the structure, belittled by its presence. I walked through to a road which is the access to the ISB Central, which houses the atrium. The road had a beautiful sign, which for a moment had me looking over my back and into the wilderness that lay beyond the confines of the street.
The ISB Central is on a little mound at a height much above all else, giving it a holy aura, almost like that of a shrine. I was housed in Student Village 4. A student village is like a little community in itself, each village having close to 50 apartments, each apartment having 3 rooms. I threw the stuff into my room and headed out to do some exploration; on my way I met one of the lucky ones like me who got to come for the program. Like everything and everyone I met, he was different. Ive heard a lot about diversity, I read a lot about it, I even pretend like I know all about it, but only when I came to ISB did I actually experience diversity. It started right from the moment I met him, the glint in his eyes betrayed the awe that had captured him! Awe is a wonderful feeling; it fills you up with hope and gives you a dream, something to strive for! We met up with a few more people, and all of us explored for a bit and finally decided to do lunch. We went and found that the place was filled with students, and they were not at all like I pictured them in my head. When I thought of Business school, all I thought of was suits, blazers and ties. The site that lay ahead of me was as far away from it as it could get- guys and girls wearing everything right from bathroom slippers to sleeveless t shirts, it was nothing like I ever imagined.
The atrium was at the centre of a circular block, which was about 500m is diameter. The centre of the atrium serves as access to each individual floor, which houses the library and the study rooms. The library is huge and easily covers three floors. So after the exploration bit, we went and did lunch. At lunch we met a few more prospective students, and a current student. The current student was already running her own business, and she was talking about it to one of her friends, trying to rope in another client! People usually think of a start up post MBA, here was a student running a business right in the midst of an MBA!
After lunch we decided to meet a few current students. They were housed in Student village 1, and as we headed out in its direction we went past tennis courts, a swimming pool, and even a childrens playground with a slide and swing! We even saw a couple of students play on the slide! No matter how old, experienced or successful the students were or no matter how busy they were at school; they still manage to embrace all that is the experience of school!
After a walk, which seemed to last for an hour, we finally reached their apartment. We could hear noise blaring from their rooms. We knocked, and a student came up and opened the door. He invited us inside. The guys right there in that room were living examples of diversity, experience, and accomplishment. We talked for close to four hours; they were really helpful, we ended up getting some real insight into the ISB program, and I got some insight on a few other programs too. The four hours I spent with them really changed my perspective of business schools, and the guys who spoke to us were already at the pinnacle in their careers, they were rock stars in their fields. These were guys, who didnt need to be at B-school, yet here they were talking about the school with an unwavering passion that burned in their eyes; it just goes to show how hungry they are for knowledge and experience. A word of advice to all you prospective students out there, if you ever get an opportunity to visit a school, never pass it up, for you never know how much richer you could be from the experience.
We met a few more current students, and they were really helpful and gave us some quality insight into the program. We actually sat down and had our chat right next to a giant chess board, thats right! I heard one of the students actually talk about playing it sometime later, god knows how though!
So we decided to take a break from all the visiting, and decided to get some coffee. We talked for a bit, gave all the information we had gained, time to assimilate, did some more exploring and then went straight for dinner.
I had a really peaceful nights sleep, and I woke up invigorated for my last few hours at ISB. We hung about for a bit, and then I decided to call another student. He was really helpful, and gave me some quality insight on what manufacturing people typically get into at ISB. He also putme in touch with one of my seniors from work; its unbelievably reassuring to meet a senior, who I can relate to and talk to. Another bit of advice if any of you ever go B-school visiting, always get in touch with a student before hand, so youll have an idea about how to go about making the most of your visit. So after that meeting, and after a billion calls from my fellow aspirant, who wanted to leave, I finally gave ISB one last longing look and left, hoping that maybe one day Ill be able to come back and call this place my school!