Svasti Kholia
ISB PGP-YL
Background
Early-career applicant
Target Schools
ISB
GMAT
Not specified
Post-MBA Goal
Not specified
For Svasti Kholia, ISB had been a long-standing aspiration.
She had been thinking about pursuing a management education at ISB for a long time and eventually decided to take the step toward applying.
But like many applicants, she had several questions before starting the process.
How should she approach the application?
Was her profile strong enough?
How should she position her experiences?
How important would her test scores be?
And most importantly, how could she tell her story in a way that felt authentic while still making a strong case for her application?
As a Round 2 applicant, there was an additional layer of uncertainty. Svasti wanted to make sure that she was using the limited application window effectively and presenting her profile in the strongest possible way.
Before beginning her application, Svasti explored different consulting options.
What mattered to her was finding a team that would understand her individual profile rather than simply follow a standard application process.
With ISBAdmit, she was able to work closely with an ISB alumnus mentor, Nitin, who brought an understanding of the school and its expectations into the application process.
The focus was on understanding:
This helped her move from uncertainty about what to include toward a clearer understanding of the story she wanted her application to tell.
For Svasti, one of the most important parts of the application process was understanding that an application is more than a collection of achievements.
Her internships, projects, certifications, activities and other experiences needed to come together as part of a larger story.
Understanding Her Profile
The first step was identifying the experiences that genuinely represented Svasti.
Instead of looking at each experience individually, the focus was on understanding:
Building Her Application Story
A major focus was creating a narrative that connected the different parts of Svasti's journey.
The objective was to answer an important question:
Why did you do the things you did, and how have they shaped where you want to go?
Her experiences were therefore positioned as different steps in her journey rather than as unrelated accomplishments.
Authentic Essay Storytelling
The essays focused not only on what Svasti had accomplished, but also on the person behind those experiences.
The application was refined to bring out her motivations, reflections and personal experiences while maintaining a clear connection to her larger goals.
The emphasis was on making the story feel genuine rather than trying to make every experience sound impressive.
Application Refinement
With the application narrative in place, the different components were reviewed to ensure that they communicated a consistent story.
The focus was on making sure that:
ISB Interview Preparation
After receiving the ISB interview call, the focus shifted toward interview preparation.
Svasti went through mock interview sessions designed to challenge her and identify areas that needed improvement.
Her first mock interview lasted around 20–30 minutes, followed by detailed feedback.
One of the most important pieces of feedback was that she was initially approaching the interview too much like a conventional interview.
She was focusing heavily on the technicalities of answering questions.
The feedback helped her realise that she needed to bring more personal experiences and stories into her responses.
Instead of simply explaining what she had achieved, she learned to talk about the experiences behind those achievements.
Learning to Tell Her Stories
This became an important part of Svasti's interview preparation.
With guidance from her mentor and the team, she worked on bringing more personal experiences into her answers.
Her interests, debates, activities and different experiences became part of the conversation rather than being treated as separate items on her profile.
This allowed her to have a much more natural and candid interview.
As Svasti described it, her actual ISB interview became a conversation where she was able to share stories about her experiences, interests and the different things she had done over the years.
The preparation helped her move away from simply answering interview questions toward actually telling her story.
Hear directly from Svasti about her ISB application journey, working with an ISB alumnus mentor, preparing for her interview and finally receiving the admit she had been hoping for.
After navigating the application process and preparing extensively for her interview, Svasti successfully secured her ISB PGP-YL admit.
Admitted — Round 2
For Svasti, the result was especially meaningful because ISB had been a long-standing aspiration.
She had spent months thinking about the application, dealing with uncertainty around the process and preparing herself for the interview.
Receiving the final admit gave her a sense that the hard work had paid off.
The biggest thing I learned through the process was that you need to tell a complete story about what you have done and why you have done it.
It is important to show how your experiences, internships, projects and other activities have contributed to the person you are today and the goals you want to achieve.
The interview preparation also helped me understand the importance of bringing more personal experiences into my answers. Initially, I was focused too much on the technicalities of an interview, but the feedback helped me become much more comfortable telling my actual stories.
The support throughout the process was very prompt and personalised. Whenever I had a question, even if it felt small, I knew I could reach out and get help.
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