Disclaimer: This info is not officially from ISB and is what I understand of the admission procedure here. If after reading this, you don’t get in, don’t blame me!!

Q. What are the opportunities available to doctors after an MBA?
A. After an MBA a doctor could get into one of the following industries:

• Healthcare services delivery (hospitals, hospital chains)
• Pharmaceutical companies
• Biotech companies
• Healthcare consulting
• NGOs

The functional areas where you could get in are (by industry):

• Healthcare services delivery (hospitals, hospital chains)
  • Marketing and customer relations
  • Sales
  • Operations – This is where I’ve got a job now with Apollo Hyderabad
  • Business development
• Pharmaceutical and biotech companies
  • Marketing and customer relations
  • Sales
  • Operations
  • Business development
  • Licensing
  • Discovery project management and evaluation
  • Medico-marketing

Q. How should I prepare to get into a B-school?
A. I’ll concentrate on how to apply for ISB. These points would generally apply to most US & European B-schools. IIMs is a different ball-game and I suggest talking to a current student or alum from an IIM. Send an email to one of the IIM’s alumni association. I had a pleasant experience there and got a lot of responses.

ISB will look at the following parts of your application to decide whether you fit in or not:

• Essays
• Work Experience
• Recommendations
• GMAT
• Interview

Your application will most probably be compared with people from similar backgrounds, for e.g. techies will be compared with other techies and doctors with other doctors.

At the outset let me clarify that GMAT is not the only criteria for admission. Each of the above points will be weighted more or less equally, so concentrate on all of them!

Essays
ISB will ask you to write 4-5 essays as part of your application. The topics vary from year to year so take a look at the application and write. Ensure that there are no spelling or grammatical mistakes and above all be honest. An interviewer can usually find out if you are dishonest! I guess it might be OK to discuss the essay with family and friends, but its definitely not OK to get a professional to write it for you. ISB will definitely find out if its written by a pro.

Work Experience
Here you tell ISB about what you’ve done in your career till now. On the basis of this ISB assesses what skills you possess or have acquired. Tell them all that you have done, don’t be shy, but don’t write anything you have not actually done!

Recommendations
ISB requires you to send 2 recos with your application. According to me the best recos would be from your supervisors/bosses at work. It’s a pretty comprehensive document. Make sure the person who writes the reco knows you well. Don’t try and fudge the reco or fill it up for the recommender! Ask the recommender to fill it up, sign it and give it to you in a sealed envelope, with their signature across the seal.

GMAT
Last, but not the least, the GMAT. ISB’s average GMAT score has been rising and our batch (2007 batch) has an average of 706! If you get anything below 650, then you might wanna retake the exam, unless you have something exceptional in your profile, essay or work experience.

While I was preparing for my MBA admission, I was also taking coaching for CAT. This helped me a lot with the Maths. Then, I took a short course at Kaplan for the GMAT, did some questions and full-length tests, and went and gave the exam. Got decent marks and that was the end of it.

You should also read this excellent article – 10 secrets for getting into a top B-school
I agree with all the points in this article, except point 4. I agree with the part about not rushing your application but not with the part about round 1. I think you should apply for round 1 only, but ensure you start your preparation and application process well in time so that you do not rush the application. This will especially be true for MBBS grads since they might take more time preparing for the maths parts of the exams.

Q. Does ISB consider my MBBS internship as work experience?
A. Yes! (IIMs don’t) Not anymore.

Q. Does ISB consider my 3 years of MD/MS as work experience?
A. Gray area-ISB did not consider it till now, but that seems to be changing. Call or write to the admissions office for clarifications.