ISB Essays Tips and suggestions, deadlines, when to apply

Deadlines

Essay Writing Suggestions

Essay 1: 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 max)

ISB's Guidance:

Explore meaningful personal or professional experiences that shaped your journey, what they taught you about people and driving change, and how they influenced your leadership aspirations.

EssayLever's Guidance

Don’t Be Intimidated by the Word “Leadership”

You don’t need to have launched a startup or led a 50-person team. In fact, most successful applicants don’t write about dramatic, headline-worthy events. They write about small, specific moments — moments when they stepped up to fix something broken, spoke up when it was easier to stay silent, handled a disagreement with maturity, kept a team motivated under pressure, or took initiative to solve a recurring problem.

At its core, leadership is the ability to bring about change — to do things differently when following past precedent is no longer enough. It often starts with a questioning mindset, a quiet discomfort with how things are. But leadership is truly realized in the ability to execute change sustainably.

That means:

• Persuading others, not imposing your will
• Building trust and support, not acting alone
• Creating lasting impact, because others believe in the change too

This kind of leadership can emerge in any context — not just when you’re formally “in charge.”

What matters isn’t the scale of the change, but the insight you gained from pursuing it — and how it helped shape the kind of leader you aspire to be.

Essay 2: 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 max)

ISB's Guidance:

What is the impact you seek to create, your short- and long-term goals, and how ISB's unique resources will help you achieve them.

EssayLever Tips:

An intellectual experience encompasses seeking knowledge, engaging with ideas, and broadening one's understanding of a subject. It involves referencing various materials, employing critical thinking and analysis, solving complex problems, learning from diverse sources, conducting research, and collaborating with others through brainstorming.

Reflecting on your experiences, consider how such intellectual pursuits have shaped your personal and professional growth. Describe the learning you have obtained and how it has contributed to your journey.

Looking forward, articulate your aspirations for future growth both personally and professionally. Discuss the areas where you aim to further expand your capabilities and the broader goals you hope to achieve.

In considering the role of an MBA in your development, explain how it aligns with your ambitions. Detail how the program's curriculum, resources, and opportunities for collaboration will enhance your skill set, leadership abilities, and strategic thinking. Illustrate how obtaining an MBA will expand your intellectual horizons and enable professional success.

Connect your intellectual experiences, personal growth, career aspirations, and the role an MBA will play in your future development.

Essay 3 (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 max)

EssayLever Tips:

Share intellectual pursuits, cultural insights, or distinctive experiences that shaped your worldview and could contribute to ISB's learning community.

Write about a unique interest, identity, cultural background, or experience that shaped your way of thinking and that can enrich classroom discussions or peer learning. It’s not meant to "fill a gap". It’s meant to add color, texture, and dimension to your candidacy.

Write this essay if you have something that hasn’t been covered elsewhere, shows a unique perspective or interest (intellectual, cultural, philosophical, artistic, etc.), sheds light on how you see the world differently, or how you’ve grown as a thinker or contributor, can connect meaningfully to how you would enrich the school’s learning community (e.g., through dialogue, group work, perspective-sharing, etc.)

Examples of Good Topics:

• A reading habit or philosophical interest that’s shaped how you approach decisions
• An international, rural, or nontraditional background that gives you a distinctive point of view
• Deep involvement in arts, languages, or public service that shaped how you understand human behavior
• A transformative experience of difference — such as working across cultures or disciplines — that shaped your worldview

Avoid this essay if:

• You would just be repeating something already covered in Essay 1 or 2.
• You’re writing it just to seem “complete”. Admissions committees don’t penalize applicants who skip the optional essay.
• You’re searching for material — a weak or vague essay may dilute your overall application.

For personalized guidance to write your ISB essays and edit them, check out our Editing and Consulting services. Write to us at cs@essaylever.com for any questions on the service or call us on 9910092169.