If you are an Indian engineer with four years at an IT services firm and a 690 GMAT Focus score, you probably opened the ISB class profile page expecting to feel confident. Instead, you saw that 54 percent of the cohort is engineering, 47 percent is women, and the average GMAT Focus is 669. That last number is lower than you expected. The first number is higher than you wanted. This post breaks down what each statistic in the ISB PGP Class of 2026 actually signals for Indian applicants planning their 2026-27 cycle.
ISB class profile 2026: the headline numbers
The PGP Class of 2026 has 826 students across the Hyderabad and Mohali campuses, with an average age of 26 and work experience ranging from two to seventeen years. The average sits at roughly four years, which is consistent with ISB's historical sweet spot of three to five years. The cohort drew 1,117 job offers at placement, translating to 1.35 offers per student, with an average salary of Rs 37.29 lakh per annum and a highest package of Rs 1.56 crore.
Here is what those numbers look like in context for someone comparing ISB to IIM A/B/C or to a US M7.
The 47 percent women number and what it means for male applicants
The gender split moved from 60:40 (male:female) in the Class of 2025 to 53:47 in the Class of 2026. That is a seven-point swing in one cycle, the largest year-on-year jump ISB has recorded. For context, IIM Ahmedabad's PGP class hovers near 30 percent women, and most US M7 programmes sit between 42 and 48 percent.
For male Indian applicants, this shift matters operationally. ISB has not expanded overall class size proportionally, so the number of seats available for male candidates contracted. If 826 seats have 390 women (47 percent), approximately 436 seats went to men. In 2025, with 40 percent women and a similar class size, roughly 480 to 500 seats went to men. That is a real reduction. Indian male engineers from IT services, the single largest demographic feeder, should read this as a signal that differentiation within the application matters more than it did two cycles ago.
For women applicants, the number confirms that ISB is actively building a balanced cohort. A strong profile with three-plus years of experience and a solid GMAT score has better odds at ISB today than at any previous point.
If you are an IT services engineer with a 690 GMAT Focus
The GMAT Focus average for the Class of 2026 is 669, with a range of 555 to 765. For those who sat the classic GMAT (pre-2024), the average was 720, with scores from 640 to 780.
A 690 on the GMAT Focus puts you above the class average. That sounds reassuring until you remember that 54 percent of the cohort is engineering, and the IT services sub-pool within that 54 percent is the most overrepresented applicant segment at ISB. A 690 from an IT services engineer competes against other IT services engineers who also scored 680 to 710. Your score clears the bar; your profile still needs to clear the crowd. The way to do that is through your essays and your post-MBA career narrative, not by retaking the GMAT for an extra twenty points. If you are unsure how your profile stacks up, a profile evaluation can surface exactly where you are strong and where you are thin relative to the admitted cohort.
If you are a non-engineer from commerce, law, or the sciences
The Class of 2026 has 54 percent engineering graduates, which means 46 percent are not engineers. That is nearly half the cohort. Twenty-one percent majored in commerce, finance, and accounting. Nine percent studied business. The remaining 16 percent came from law, medicine, the sciences, humanities, and other fields. The cohort includes a dentist who runs a clinic, an ISRO space scientist who worked on Chandrayaan-3, and professionals from defence and sports.
For Indian CAs, lawyers, and science graduates: ISB is not an engineering school that tolerates non-engineers. Nearly half the class shares your background. The admissions committee evaluates career trajectory and leadership potential, not undergraduate discipline. If your GMAT Focus is above 650 and you have three-plus years of meaningful work experience, you are in the competitive range. The ISB PGP admissions guide breaks down each stage of the application process for non-traditional profiles.
The industry breakdown: consulting leads, IT drops
The pre-MBA industry distribution of the Class of 2026 tells a story about where ISB draws from and, by extension, what kind of peers you will learn alongside. Consulting leads at 21 percent, followed by BFSI at 15 percent, IT and ITeS at 14 percent, FMCG and retail at 7 percent, and engineering and technology at 6 percent. The remaining 37 percent is spread across manufacturing, energy, pharma, government, and defence.
Two things stand out. First, consulting is now the largest feeder industry, not IT. Five years ago, IT and ITeS routinely made up 20 to 25 percent of the ISB cohort. That share has dropped to 14 percent, reflecting both the broadening of ISB's intake funnel and the fact that more IT professionals are choosing global programmes. Second, BFSI at 15 percent is strong enough that Indian finance professionals, especially those from banking and asset management, should view ISB as a serious option for an India-track career pivot into consulting or tech.
On the placement side, the sectors that hired the Class of 2026 looked different from the sectors they came from. Consulting and professional services absorbed 37 percent of the graduating class. Technology took 28 percent. BFSI followed at 11 percent. Accenture led recruiting with over 100 offers, followed by Mastercard and EY GDS with more than 40 each. The average salary rose 11 percent over 2025 and stood 156 percent higher than the cohort's pre-MBA salaries.
For applicants weighing ISB against an IIM or a global programme, these placement numbers are the ones that matter. Read the full sector-level breakdown for ISB 2026 placements for a deeper look.
What this means for Indian applicants in the 2026-27 cycle
The Class of 2026 profile carries three implications for anyone applying in the next cycle.
First, the GMAT Focus average of 669 does not mean ISB is easier to get into. It means the GMAT Focus is scored on a different scale (205 to 805) than the classic GMAT (200 to 800), and a 669 on the Focus edition is competitive. Do not benchmark yourself against classic GMAT averages of 710 to 720 if you sat the Focus exam. They are different instruments.
Second, the 47 percent women figure will likely hold or climb. ISB is clearly investing in gender parity, and Indian women with strong profiles should apply with confidence. For men, differentiation through essays, career clarity, and leadership evidence is no longer optional.
Third, the drop in IT/ITeS representation (from 20-plus percent historically to 14 percent) means the cohort is more diverse than at any previous point. Non-traditional applicants, from the public sector, from healthcare, from law, have a genuine path in. ISB's eligibility requirements confirm that no specific undergraduate background is required, but the admission process evaluates trajectory, not pedigree. Understanding the full ISB admission process before you start your application saves time and errors.
If you want an honest assessment of where your profile sits against the Class of 2026 benchmarks, the MBA/MiM admissions consulting team at Pegasus Global Consultants has placed applicants into ISB across every intake since 2013.
Common questions Indian applicants are asking
Is a 669 GMAT Focus score good enough for ISB? Yes. The Class of 2026 average on the GMAT Focus is 669, with admits as low as 555. Your score needs to be competitive within your applicant sub-pool (e.g., IT engineers compete against other IT engineers). A 660-plus is in range; a 700-plus is strong. But ISB weighs work experience, essays, and interviews heavily, so a high GMAT alone does not guarantee admission.
Can I get into ISB with less than two years of work experience? The Class of 2026 had a minimum of two years. ISB's PGP officially requires a minimum of two years of full-time work experience by the time you join. If you have less than two years at the time of application but will cross the threshold by the joining date, you may still be eligible. For candidates with zero to two years, ISB's PGP YL programme is the designed pathway.
What percentage of ISB students are from non-engineering backgrounds? Forty-six percent of the Class of 2026 are non-engineers. Commerce, finance, and accounting graduates make up 21 percent. Business majors account for 9 percent. The remaining 16 percent includes law, medicine, sciences, humanities, and other fields. ISB has been actively diversifying its cohort for the past several cycles.
How does the ISB class profile compare to IIM Ahmedabad? ISB's Class of 2026 has 826 students versus IIM Ahmedabad's PGP class of roughly 400. ISB has 47 percent women versus IIM-A's approximately 30 percent. ISB's average work experience is four years versus IIM-A's fresher-heavy intake. The key structural difference: ISB is a one-year programme for experienced professionals, while IIM-A's PGP is a two-year programme that admits candidates straight from undergrad. The cost comparison between ISB and IIMs is worth reviewing before choosing.
Does ISB prefer candidates from specific industries? No single industry dominates admission. Consulting (21 percent), BFSI (15 percent), and IT (14 percent) are the top three feeder industries, but 50 percent of the class comes from outside these three sectors. ISB values diversity of professional experience.
Related reading
- ISB PGP Admissions Guide
- ISB MBA Eligibility 2026: The Real Requirements
- Profile Evaluation for MBA Applicants
Sources verified on 3 July 2026. Next review scheduled for 15 January 2027. All statistics sourced from ISB's official class profile page, BusinessBecause, Poets&Quants, and IMS India placement analysis.