ISB discontinues video essay in 2013-14 application

A year after its experiment of adding a new component to its application (video essay), ISB announced today that it is discontinuing these. The formal communication from the admissions team states:

“We are pleased to inform you that we have decided to discontinue the video essay for PGP this year.”

Introduced last year, the video essay requirement was a pain point for many applicants and dissuaded some from applying. Therefore, one can conjecture that the cause for this discontinuation could be the decline in number of applications.

Last year, the video essay was introduced with much fanfare. The essay seemed to be meant to validate basic communication ability of applicants. However, ISB bucked the trend and became the only program among the leading programs to have this criterion. We expect the removal to boost the number of applications to ISB year on year.