I think I am the right person to answer this question as I have worked with graduates from the aforementioned top B Schools in India and my brother was a student at ISB. With the combined experience and knowledge I have, I dare to comment that ISB is an overhyped B school in India. What makes it stand is its amazing infrastructure, founding members, and the whole Western-style education. However, if you look at its academic style, I don’t find it very appealing. It fails to prepare students well and does not meet the standards of the 4 IIMs (ABCL) and XLRI.
Placements-wise one can comment that ISB is a notch better than XLRI and FMS but it is on the same level as IIM Lucknow.
Ultimately, the brand value of a business school is a matter of personal opinion and is subjective.
Yes, you can. ISB Hyderabad admission process includes two options for students with less work experience.
Early Entry Option - EEO is a deferred admission option to the ISB PGP program. Recent graduates with less than 24 months of work experience can secure admission through this option. If you are selected, you will be eligible to join the program upon achieving 24 months of work experience.
Young Leaders Programme - YLP helps students get the tools they need to succeed at the work place. The program will also help you in getting admission at ISB PGP. You can apply to YLP during the prefinal or final year of your UG or PG degree. If you are selected to YLP, you need to complete at least 20 months of work experience. You will attend learning weekends through YLP. Once you fulfill the required work experience criteria and the deferment period is done, you can attend ISB.
ISB Hyderabad Admission Criteria for an MBA require the following –
A good essay can help your application a lot. If you want your application to stand out, you need to have a crisp, informative, and well-structured essay.
If you have less than 2 years of work experience you can apply for the deferred PGP. There are two ways to get admission in deferred PGP, i.e. Early Entry Option and Young Leader Program (YLP).
My answer is going to be extremely biased as my sister has been a victim of ISB Hyderabad’s high fees and poor placement opportunities. This answer is meant to shed some light on this issue.
ISB Hyderabad MBA fees are currently INR 41,98,000 (plus GST) while the batch size is around 900. The Institute has failed to cater to the huge batch size and has witnessed a decline in the quality of education and placements in ISB Hyderabad.
The best roles are very scarce and are given only to the students with the top grades. Others end up with below-average packages. As far as the specialization is concerned, Finance jobs are almost non-existent at ISB Hyderabad. Consulting is one of the leading domains here and the top 3 firms do visit the campus. But the number of roles offered by them is not enough for the huge batch.
The other roles offered are mediocre and not at par with the hefty fees 900 students have paid. They expect better packages and after realizing the actual scenario feel wronged.
ISB Hyderabad MBA is not suitable if
So we can safely conclude that ISB Hyderabad is an overrated Institute and its rankings are misleading. The reality of the institute begs to differ.
A GMAT score of 760 is considered very high and is in the top 1% of all aspirants. However, ISB Hyderabad is a highly selective institution, and your GMAT score alone is not enough to determine your eligibility to the institute. The institute has a reputation for accepting only the best and takes multiple factors into consideration while filtering the candidates. Some of these are work experience, academic profile, essays, interviews, and LORs also play a role in the admissions decision.
A 760 GMAT score will certainly be a strong asset in your application and increase your chances of admission but not the sole criterion.
Let me share my brother's experience that will make you understand better. He had the opportunity to attend ISB’s admission conference where he learned that the highest GMAT score was 760–780. He asked one of the faculty members the exact score that would guarantee a seat at ISB Hyderabad. He said that a score equal to their highest would guarantee it.
Surprisingly enough, my brother was able to score 760 and was called for an interview but failed to get admission. He went through the profiles of accepted candidates and realized the panelists preferred students with international experience.
So, it can be concluded that ISB never evaluates its candidates on the basis of just one parameter but a mix of them. You are expected to have a strong overall profile, a good academic record, relevant work experience, and a compelling story to tell in your essays and interviews.
ISB Hyderabad and IIM Ahmedabad are among the most reputed B-Schools in India. Contrary to the popular belief that IIMs are the best option, ISB is better than most new IIMs. Here is a brief comparison of the institutes.
IIM Ahmedabad-
ISB Hyderabad-
In terms of ROI, IIM A shows better results compared to ISB Hyderabad. The required fee is also less for IIMA. Unlike ISB, you won’t need mandatory work experience to join IIMA.
Studying at ISB Hyderabad is like studying at any ordinary college. The classes start at 8 am so you need to wake up before breakfast and dress up for your class. You may walk to the class and try to reach on time.
The classes end around Noon after which lunch is served. You can gossip with your friends over lunch, make study groups or visit banks and complete any pending appointments.
At once you are a free bird and can catch up on your sleep as you have to study from the evening till late at night. Once you wake up around 4, you can go to the gym, involve yourself in sports or prepare for your placements.
At night you can sit with your study group and study till 11-12. The ones who are more serious about academics study alone also till morning. After this, you can prepare for the next day and take a nap before your next class.
It all depends on your interest, passion, inclination and aptitude. If you are really into it, it’ll be a fun ride. Studying 32 subjects in 50 weeks successfully looks a tough task. You will certainly need a bit of multitasking to help you. Many students often struggle with this because they only lack multi-tasking.
Especially if you are coming from a non-engineering background you might need to put in some extra work to get used to the overall culture of doing more work in short deadlines. For someone looking from the outside, it sure looks a lot.
Moreover, there is an endless competition among the students there to be on the top of various lists such as merit list, dean list, scholarship list to name a few. If you have been a topper throughout the academic year, it gets tougher for you since you compete with the best of the batch.
The entire overall experience at ISB will depend how much potential and patience you have within. If you have any previous professional/corporate experience before joining ISB, it will be quite an enjoyable journey for you. You should take this journey as a challenging learning curve of your life.
ISB Hyderabad placement statistics are given below
Particulars |
Statistics |
Highest CTC |
INR 60 LPA |
Average CTC |
INR 34.07 LPA |
The components in the packages generally include
Apart from this, some companies give a joining bonus of around 1–3 Lakhs which might or might not be considered as a part of CTC.
It’s highly illogical to compare a well-recognized brand like ISB with a no-name institute like IBS. It seems you are a bit confused between the 2 schools because comparing them is a literal joke.
ISB is ranked 1st in India and 4th in Asia and 32nd in the World at Best B Schools. It’s a B School that competes with top B schools like IIM ABC and here you are comparing it with a C grade B school in the country.
Almost anyone can get into IBS owing to the low qualifying scores needed and high number of seats available. Whereas getting into ISB is difficult even with a GMAT score as high as 99 percentile. ISB has the best corporate relations team in India and they work hard to get the roles that you want in the corporate sector.
The two colleges may share the same alphabet in their acronyms but there are nowhere similar when it comes to the brand name and worth.