ISB increases class strength to 349

The Indian School of Business (ISB) has increased the intake of students for the Class of 2006 by 28 per cent. The ISB will continue to ramp up its student strength year after year till it reaches its full capacity of 550. This year the student strength stands at 349.

The chart below shows the increase in student strength since the ISB's inception in 2001.

Talking about the increase in the class strength, ISB Dean M Rammohan Rao said, "We will increase the class strength gradually as we are committed to admitting students of high calibre. There is a growing need in Asia and India for high quality professionals. We aspire to be one of the top B-schools n the region whose students will lead businesses in the future."

The ISB has made extra efforts to attract students from non-metro cities in India, he said.

This year's batch has students from Assam, Goa, Solan, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Mathura, Mangalore, Solan, Panipat, Kozipally and Thiruvananthapuram.

The ISB said that the distribution of students across India is: North -- 22%, South -- 33%, West -- 21 %, East -- 4%.

"The ISB has reached out to students in smaller towns. We want to ensure that bright people from all walks of life and from any nook or corner can access world class management education in India," said V K Menon, Director (Admissions), ISB.

The ISB has also initiated the practice of giving part scholarships to deserving students at the time of admission. About 27% of the Class of 2006 has been awarded scholarships this year. In addition, there will also be scholarships awarded by companies such as Citibank, HSBC, Novartis, the Anand Group and others.

"No deserving student will be turned away from the ISB for want of funds. We will ensure that either through scholarships or easy loans the student gets the opportunity to study here," said Dean Rao. The ISB also awards scholarships for top performers in the class.

Several banks such as Andhra Bank, SBI, Indian Bank, and HDFC Ltd have come forward to give attractive student loans with special packages for the students.

The ISB admits students who have prior work experience. While the minimum requirement is two years, most students come with many more years of experience. The average number of years of work experience is five amongst the Class of 2006, while the highest is 20 years.

Seventy-one out of the 349 students have international work experience. The ISB actively looks for diversity among its students. This year, students come from a variety of backgrounds such as the armed forces, medicine, architecture, entrepreneurship, fashion, education, research, etc.

The ISB has an interesting mix of students this year. They include students with outstanding achievements including a scuba diver, sky diver, a doctor who runs his own detective agency, patent holder in mobile IP, etc.

These are in addition to the academic scholars such as - top rank holder in the M Tech Programme from IIT, Winner of the Duke of Edinburgh Award, Benjamin Franklin Scholar, Siemens Technocrat Scholarship Award, Gold Medalist from the Banaras Hindu University, President's and Dean's Award Winner at the University of Florida, etc.

The ISB students match with the best in any of the top global B-schools. About 52 per cent of the Class of 2006 has GMAT scores ranging from 700-780. Entrepreneurs comprise 4 per cent of the class.

Women students

The ISB lays special emphasis on encouraging women students to take up management as a career. As a result, women students at the ISB have been consistently increasing in numbers.

The Class of 2006 has 67 women students, up from 52 last year (29 per cent increase). Interestingly, women students of this class hold some of the remarkable achievements to their credit: sky diver, senior engineer in the Indian Air Force, patent holder in Mobile IP, etc.

Age

The average age of the Class of 2006 is 27 years. Thriteen per cent fall in the 30-plus age group and 1 per cent fall in the 40-plus group. Twenty six per cent of the class is married and many live with their families on the campus.

The Class of 2006 has NRI and international students from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea, and the Middle East.