Writing Your Undergrad Application Essays for Indian Universities [A Complete Guide for Ashoka, FLAME, Krea, and Beyond]
- kaushal984
- Apr 16
- 27 min read
Updated: Apr 30
Something has shifted in how India's best students think about their options. A student who would have automatically aimed at a foreign university five years ago now has a genuine decision to make. Ashoka, FLAME, Krea, Azim Premji, Plaksha: these are not fallback options. For some students, they are the first choice. For many others, they sit alongside an Oxbridge application or a Common App list as equally serious contenders.
Yet almost no quality guidance exists on how to write the essays for these applications. Students figure out US and UK applications because a whole industry has grown around preparing them. Indian university applications get treated as an afterthought, filled in quickly between Common App deadlines. The result is that strong candidates who could write a genuinely distinctive Ashoka application end up submitting something generic and lose ground to applicants who take it seriously.
This guide fills that gap so that it can help you understand the way to write undergrad application essays. It covers the written components of applications to Ashoka, FLAME, Krea, OP Jindal Global University, Azim Premji, and Plaksha, in the depth each actually requires. Where a university's essay requirement is limited, the section is proportionately short. Where it is substantial, it gets the full treatment.
How Indian University Essays Differ from Common App and UCAS
If you are applying simultaneously to Indian and international universities, you need to re-calibrate your writing register between applications. Using the same approach for all of them will cost you on at least some of them.
The Common App personal statement asks for a first-person narrative: specific, revelatory, emotionally present. It is trying to find the texture of who you are. The best Common App essays are almost literary in form. They show a person, not a candidate.
The UCAS Personal Statement asks for an argument: structured evidence that you are academically prepared and genuinely engaged with a specific subject. It is trying to establish that you understand what you are signing up for. Academic super-curricular engagement is the substance.
Indian university essays vary by institution but generally occupy a middle space. The better Indian liberal arts applications, Ashoka in particular, want intellectual engagement with ideas: not the personal narrative of Common App, not the pure academic argument of UCAS, but evidence that you actually think, that you pursue ideas independently, and that you can write about what you find interesting with specificity and honesty.
A few practical differences that matter for writing:
Word counts are shorter. Ashoka's essay prompts are typically 400 words. The Azim Premji written component in the entrance test is in-the-room, timed writing. FLAME's on-the-spot essay is 200 to 250 words in 20 minutes. You are working in a more compressed space than either the Common App or UCAS affords.
Academic-fit framing matters more at some institutions. Krea and Plaksha expect you to address your intellectual interest in the field or your fit with the institution's specific philosophy. A personal narrative that does not connect to academic purpose will feel unfocused in those applications.
Intellectual curiosity framing matters more at others. Ashoka and FLAME reward genuine engagement with ideas. A tightly argued, achievement-oriented SOP will read as flat and performative at Ashoka. What they want to see is how your mind works when it encounters something it finds genuinely interesting.
The register is different from UCAS. Ashoka in particular rewards a more conversational, honest, intellectually adventurous voice. The formal, structured case-building register of a UCAS statement reads as stiff and impersonal in an Ashoka context.
There is no central portal. Each university has its own application system. Applying to all of them means managing five separate processes with different deadlines and different formats. Plan your time accordingly.
Ashoka University
What Ashoka Is Looking For
Ashoka University is India's most rigorously essay-based undergraduate admissions process. The written components of the application are not a formality. They are, according to Ashoka's own application guide, the primary filter used to determine who is shortlisted for the assessment and interview rounds. A weak application essay means a weak interview because the interviewing panel uses your essays as the basis for their questions.
Ashoka's admissions philosophy is built around intellectual curiosity, genuine engagement with ideas, and a commitment to thinking seriously about questions that do not have easy answers. This is not rhetorical: it shapes every component of the application. Students who write about what they think they are supposed to say, rather than what is actually true about how they think, produce essays that are immediately recognizable as generic. The students who get offers are the ones who sound like specific, curious, particular human beings.
The full application process involves: submitting the online application form (which includes the written essays and non-academic engagement sections); sitting the mandatory Admissions Assessments (the On-the-Spot Essay and the Ashoka Aptitude Assessment); and, for shortlisted candidates, a panel interview. This guide covers the application form essays and the On-the-Spot Essay, out of which, the former fall within InkStudio's remit. The Aptitude Assessment and interview fall outside it, however, with a nominal added charge, we would train you for your interview.
The Application Form: Written Components
The Ashoka application form has fifteen sections. Three of them involve substantive written engagement: the Non-Academic Engagements section, the Book List question, and the Essay Section.
Non-Academic Engagements
You are required to list a minimum of three non-academic activities, interests, or achievements. For each entry, you describe what it is, what your role and responsibilities were, and what it meant to you. You can attach certificates and evidence.
What it is really asking
Whether you have a life beyond school marks. Ashoka is not particularly impressed by a list of certificates and titles. It is impressed by evidence that you pursued something with genuine commitment and can reflect honestly on what it gave you. The distinction between 'I was President of the debate club' and 'I ran three inter-school debate events and found that I spent more time managing disagreement within the team than preparing actual arguments, which told me something about what leadership actually involves' is the distinction between a thin and a substantive entry.
For the activities section, description is not enough. For each activity, think about: what you actually did within it (not what the organization does), what was difficult about it, and what it changed in how you think or work.
Do: Include activities that are genuinely yours, including ones that may seem modest or unusual. Regular tutoring of a sibling, a sustained creative practice, managing a family responsibility: these count.
Do: Use the description field to reflect, not just list. Two or three specific sentences about what you actually learned from an activity outperform a polished summary of your involvement.
Don't: Manufacture activities to fill three slots. Two honest, specific entries are stronger than three padded ones.
Don't: Treat this as a resume. The application guide explicitly says to include 'engagement with social causes, creative work, or any other form of engagement outside academics'. It is not asking for a formal CV.
The Book List
You are required to list three books that have had an impact on you (you can add up to two more optionally). The application asks you to prioritize books you have read and engaged with in detail, preferably across genres. It also asks you to pick one book from your list and share your reasons for recommending it.
What it is really asking
Whether you read independently and whether you engage critically with what you read. This is not a question about which books sound most impressive. Listing Amartya Sen and Yuval Noah Harari without being able to say anything specific about what you took from them is a worse answer than listing a graphic novel you have genuinely thought about.
The recommendation question is the part most students answer too briefly. 'I would recommend this book because it is thought-provoking and well-written' says nothing. 'I would recommend it to anyone curious about how historical memory is constructed, because [specific argument or scene] made me rethink the way I had been thinking about [specific thing]' says something real.
Do: Choose books you have actually read and thought about, regardless of genre or prestige.
Do: For the recommendation, say something specific about what the book contains and what it does to the reader's thinking.
Don't: List books to signal sophistication. The interview panel will ask you about whatever you put here.
Don't: Include textbooks or syllabus reading. The question is about independent reading.
The Essay Section
The essay section is mandatory and consists of two prompts, both of which must be answered. The wording of prompts changes between application cycles, but the format confirmed by the official 2026 application guide is consistent with what has appeared in recent years:
Essay 1 (typically around 400 words): An intellectual question. In recent cycles this has been phrased as: 'What is an idea, concept, or theory that you find interesting and why? In what ways have you examined and engaged with this topic?' The first prompt typically offers Topic A or Topic B to choose from.
Essay 2: A personal question. In recent cycles this has asked about a significant personal experience that has shaped you and your perspective(s) on life.
Essay 1: The Intellectual Engagement Question
What it is really asking
Whether you have a genuine intellectual life outside your school curriculum. This is the question that separates applicants who have thought about ideas from applicants who have only studied subjects.
The word 'engaged' in the prompt is the part that matters most. Anyone can list an idea they find interesting. The question is what you have done about that interest: what you have read, what questions it raised, how you have pursued it. A student who says they find behavioral economics interesting and then describes the basic premise of Thinking, Fast and Slow is not demonstrating engagement. A student who says they find behavioral economics interesting and then describes a specific tension or puzzle within it, and what reading or observation sharpened that tension for them, is.
The idea you choose does not need to be from your intended major. An aspiring computer scientist who writes thoughtfully about a historical question they have been pursuing independently is more interesting than one who writes a formal description of machine learning. Authenticity matters more than relevance.
Do: Choose an idea you have actually thought about and pursued, not the one that sounds most academically sophisticated.
Do: Name something specific: a particular argument, a specific debate within the field, a tension you have not resolved. Specificity is the difference between a genuine response and a performed one.
Do: Show the trajectory of your engagement. Where did the interest start? What did you read or encounter that deepened it? What question are you still sitting with?
Don't: Open with a definition. Starting with 'Philosophy is the study of fundamental questions...' tells the reader nothing about you.
Don't: Summarize a book or subject area. The question is not 'what does this idea consist of' but 'how have you engaged with it'.
Don't: Write an essay that could have been written by any curious student who had read one article on the topic. The essay should be specific enough that it could only have come from your particular intellectual history.
Essay 2: The Personal Essay
What it is really asking
Not the most dramatic event in your life, but a specific experience that produced a genuine shift in how you see something. This is the question closest in spirit to a Common App personal statement, but with an important difference: Ashoka is not asking you to perform self-discovery. It is asking you to reflect honestly on how something specific shaped your thinking or perspective.
The most common failure on this question is the same as in the Common App: students write about something significant and impressive-sounding (a competition win, a family hardship, a leadership role) and describe it, and then say it changed them, without showing how. The shift is not named; it is claimed. A reader who finishes the essay knows what happened but not what it did to your thinking. That is not a personal essay. That is a story with a moral attached.
A strong response to this prompt is built around a specific observation or realization: something you noticed or understood differently as a result of the experience, which you can describe concretely and which actually connects to how you think now. The experience itself can be small.
Do: Be honest about what the experience actually was, including if it was uncomfortable or unresolved.
Do: Describe a specific shift in perspective, not a generic lesson learned.
Do: Choose an experience that is genuinely yours, not one that sounds like it belongs in an inspiring personal statement.
Don't: Open with a quotation. This is extremely common in essays from Indian school backgrounds and consistently reads as a lack of an original opening thought.
Don't: Write a transformation narrative with a neat before-and-after arc. Real shifts in perspective are messier and more interesting than that.
Don't: Use this essay to list additional achievements. It is a reflective essay, not a second chance to make the case for your record.
The On-the-Spot Essay (OSE)
The OSE is written during the Admissions Assessments, in-person at a designated test center. You are given two prompts and must choose one. You have 30 minutes. There is no word limit, but a minimum of approximately 250 words is expected. No external resources are permitted. No notes from before the assessment may be used.
The prompts cover a wide range of topics: recent cycles have included questions about the relationship between history and literature, the implications of social media for science communication, and contested questions around sport and inclusion. The topics change each round and are not announced in advance. Sample prompts are published on the Ashoka website.
What it is really assessing
Engagement with the prompt, critical thinking, clarity of thought, and creativity. Ashoka does not expect a polished, fully developed argument in 30 minutes. It expects to see how you think under moderate time pressure, whether you can identify what the prompt is actually asking, whether you have something of your own to say about it, and whether you can write with some clarity and structure.
The most important preparation for the OSE is not practicing essay technique. It is reading widely and developing the habit of noticing your own reactions to ideas. Students who read across disciplines, engage with current debates, and have practiced thinking about ambiguous or contested questions are better prepared for the OSE than students who have drilled essay formats.
Do: Read the prompt carefully and identify its actual question before starting to write. Many students begin writing about what they assume the prompt means rather than what it says.
Do: Take a position. The weakest OSE responses are the ones that describe a debate without taking any stance. Ashoka wants to see you think, which means committing to a line of argument even under time pressure.
Do: Use specific examples or observations to support your argument. One specific, well-used example beats three generic references.
Don't: Spend the first half of your time producing a lengthy introduction or restating the prompt.
Don't: Try to write a comprehensive account of all perspectives. Choose a position and develop it with depth rather than covering the topic from a bird's-eye view.
The Ashoka Interview: A Note
Shortlisted candidates are called for a panel interview, which Ashoka describes as designed to understand the candidate, their background, and their story, and to evaluate the application in depth. Crucially, the interview panel uses your essays and non-academic engagements as the primary anchor for their questions. Everything you have written in your application is fair game. Students with specific, honest, substantive essays have richer interviews because the panel has something genuine to engage with. Students with generic essays have thin interviews.
Interview preparation is specialist work that falls outside InkStudio's remit. What we can tell you is that the best preparation for the Ashoka interview is writing an honest and specific application, because the interview follows from what you have written.
Using AI to Write your Undergrad Application Essays?
With the growing availability of AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.), you might be tempted to use them to write your application essays. Is that a wise approach? How low should your AI Detection score be? What do Universities have to say regarding this issue? Click the button to know more
FLAME University
How FLAME's Written Components Work
FLAME University, Pune, operates a holistic admissions process with three written touchpoints: a Statement of Purpose (SOP) submitted as part of the application form, an On-the-Spot Essay conducted during the assessment process, and a Personal Interview.
The SOP is submitted when you apply. The On-the-Spot Essay and interview are conducted once you are shortlisted after the FLAME Entrance Aptitude Test (FEAT) or, if you have valid SAT or ACT scores, after the initial application screening.
The Statement of Purpose
The SOP is completed within the online application form. It asks you to outline your academic interests, career goals, and reasons for choosing FLAME University.
What it is really asking
Three things simultaneously: what you are intellectually interested in, where you want to go with it, and why FLAME specifically. Most SOPs answer the first two adequately and fail badly on the third. 'FLAME has excellent faculty and a liberal arts approach' is not a reason for choosing FLAME. A reason for choosing FLAME is specific: what about the curriculum, the interdisciplinary structure, the program flexibility, or the pedagogical philosophy connects to something real in how you want to learn?
FLAME's educational philosophy emphasizes experiential learning, interdisciplinary engagement, and an integrative approach across arts, sciences, and management. The SOP should reflect genuine understanding of this, not a surface-level restatement of FLAME's marketing language.
Do: Be specific about your academic interest. Name a subject, a question, or a set of ideas you are genuinely curious about. A vague 'passion for learning' tells a reader nothing.
Do: Connect your interest to something specific about FLAME's curriculum or approach. If it is the combination of disciplines, name which combination and why. If it is the residential aspect or the small class structure, explain what specifically that offers you.
Do: Be honest about your goals. A career goal stated as 'I want to make an impact' is not a goal. Name the kind of work, the kind of problem, or the kind of role you are drawn toward, even tentatively.
Don't: Write a generic liberal arts SOP that could apply to any institution. The SOP should make clear why this university, not just why this type of education.
Don't: Describe your achievements. The application form collects academic records and activities separately. The SOP is for motivation and reflection, not for a summary of your CV.
The On-the-Spot Essay
The FLAME on-the-spot essay is approximately 200 to 250 words, written in 20 minutes. The topic is given on the spot during the online assessment. Topics typically relate to personal experiences, social issues, leadership, or self-growth.
Two hundred and fifty words is roughly half an A4 page. You cannot develop a complex argument in that space. What you can do is take one clear position and support it with one specific, well-chosen example or observation. A focused, clear 200-word essay that actually says something is stronger than a scattered 250-word essay that attempts to cover multiple angles.
Do: Take a position in the first one or two sentences. There is no time for a long introduction.
Do: Use one specific example. Real and personal beats vague and general.
Don't: Try to cover both sides of a question. At 200 words, balance produces only thinness.
Don't: Use the space to introduce yourself or describe your background. The essay is about the prompt, not about you as a candidate.
Krea University
How Krea's Written Components Work
Krea University's School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences (SIAS) has an application form with six sections. Section 1, the Personal Story, is the primary written component. After the application, shortlisted candidates proceed to the Krea Aptitude Test (KAT), and subsequently to the Krea Immersive Case (KIC), which includes a field visit, reflection essays written during the event, and a quantitative reasoning component.
Krea's SIAS philosophy, which it calls Interwoven Learning, holds that knowledge across disciplines is not just compatible but connected: that understanding economics is richer with psychology, that understanding history benefits from environmental studies, that specialization and breadth are not opposites. This philosophy should inform everything you write in the application.
Section 1: Personal Story
What it is asking
Section 1 of the Krea application is described as your 'Personal Story'. This is your primary opportunity to communicate who you are as a learner and thinker before any test or interview. Krea is looking for students who are genuinely curious about the connections between different fields of knowledge, who approach problems from multiple perspectives, and who are not content to stay within a single disciplinary lane.
The most useful lens for writing the Krea personal story is the SIAS philosophy itself. A student who has genuinely found connections between seemingly unrelated interests, who has pursued a question that crosses subject boundaries, or who has experienced the limitations of a single-subject approach to a problem is precisely the kind of learner Krea is building its program for. If your interests or experiences map onto this naturally, show it. If they do not, do not force the connection: write honestly about what genuinely interests you.
Do: Show intellectual breadth where it is real. If you have pursued an interest that connects multiple subjects, describe it specifically.
Do: Write in a voice that sounds like you at your most intellectually engaged, not like you at your most formally accomplished.
Do: Connect your story to what you are hoping to find at Krea specifically. The interdisciplinary structure, the residential campus, the research integration: any of these can be the anchor if the connection is genuine.
Don't: Treat this as a UCAS-style academic argument or a Common App personal narrative. It is neither. It is a story about who you are as a curious person.
Don't: List your subject interests without showing the connections or tensions between them. The connections are the point.
The Krea Immersive Case
Shortlisted applicants participate in the Krea Immersive Case, which includes a faculty-led field visit to a site of historical, economic, social, political or environmental concern, followed by a reflection essay written on the spot. The reflection essay asks you to engage with the problem statement, the observations from the field visit, and your thinking about what you encountered.
This component falls outside InkStudio's remit since it involves real-time in-person writing on a topic unknown in advance. What it is testing is your ability to integrate observation, contextual knowledge, and original thinking into a written response under time pressure. The preparation for it is the same preparation that serves any good thinker: reading widely, observing carefully, and developing the habit of noticing the questions a situation raises rather than just what is visible on the surface.
OP Jindal Global University (JGU)
Which Programs Require a Written Component
OP Jindal Global University has different written requirements across its programs. The key one for students applying on the basis of academic interest in the humanities or social sciences is the BA (Hons) in Liberal Arts and Humanities, offered by the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (JSLH), which requires a 1,000-word Personal Statement.
Law programs (BA LLB, BBA LLB, BCom LLB) require the LNAT (Law National Admissions Test), which includes an essay section, plus a personal interview. The LNAT essay is a separate, test-based written component outside InkStudio's scope. Other JGU undergraduate programs use the JSAT entrance test and interview without a required personal essay.
The JSLH Personal Statement (1,000 Words)
What it is asking
The JSLH personal statement asks you to explain why you want to study at the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, covering your passions and your ambitions. At 1,000 words, this is the longest personal statement among the Indian universities covered in this guide, and it gives you meaningful space to develop a case.
The Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities is interdisciplinary and globally oriented. The personal statement should reflect genuine understanding of what this means for your study: not just that liberal arts is broad, but what breadth offers you specifically, which disciplines you are drawn to and why, and how you expect your thinking to develop across them.
Do: Be specific about your intellectual interests. 1,000 words is enough space to name not just a field but specific questions within it that genuinely engage you.
Do: Connect your interests to the JSLH's interdisciplinary structure and global perspective. This university's identity is built around crossing disciplinary lines and engaging with international contexts.
Do: Say something real about your ambitions. Not 'I want to make a difference' but what kind of work, what kind of problem, what kind of contribution you are drawn to.
Don't: Write a general statement about why liberal arts is valuable. The reader knows. Write about why it is specifically valuable for you.
Don't: Spend significant word count on your academic achievements. Those are in your application. The 1,000 words are for motivation, intellectual interests, and ambition.
Azim Premji University
Who Applies Here and What the Process Is
Azim Premji University in Bengaluru is a genuinely distinctive institution. Its stated mission is to support the development of a fair, humane, and sustainable society, and this shapes everything including its admissions. Students who are drawn to questions of social equity, public policy, development economics, education, environmental sustainability, and related areas find at APU something that the other universities in this guide do not offer: a sustained engagement with the real problems of a complex society, in a deeply interdisciplinary undergraduate curriculum.
The admissions process is test-driven rather than essay-driven. Students sit the APU National Entrance Test (APUNET), which has three sections: reading comprehension (MCQ), quantitative reasoning (MCQ), and a domain-specific section based on your intended major. The second component is a written section, which varies by discipline: humanities applicants write an essay, science and mathematics applicants may be given data analysis or problem-solving tasks. Shortlisted candidates attend a personal interview.
The In-Test Written Component
What it is asking
The essay component of the APUNET is not a personal essay. It is an analytical writing task tied to your intended major, designed to assess writing and analytical skills within the domain you are applying to study. For humanities and social sciences applicants, this typically involves responding to a source or question with a structured analytical essay.
The in-test written component falls outside InkStudio's standard essay preparation remit since it is conducted under examination conditions on the day. What it rewards is the same thing that any analytical writing task rewards: the ability to read carefully, identify what is being asked, organize a response around a clear argument, and support that argument with specific evidence or reasoning.
The Statement of Purpose for mature applicants
The APU admissions FAQ notes that applicants between 19 and 21 years of age must submit a statement of purpose in the application form. This is a brief written statement about why you are applying and what draws you to the program. It is not a lengthy essay, but it should be specific and honest. APU is particularly interested in motivation: not what you want to achieve in terms of career outcomes, but why these questions matter to you and what has brought you to this application.
Do: For the SOP: be specific about the questions, issues, or fields that draw you to APU. The institution's focus on development, education, and social equity should be reflected genuinely in what you write.
Do: For the in-test essay: read the question or source carefully before starting to write, structure your response around a clear line of argument, and support it with specific references to what you have been given.
Don't: Treat APU as a backup or a test-prep option. The students who thrive here are the ones who are genuinely interested in the mission. That should be evident in everything you write.
Plaksha University
How Plaksha's Written Components Work
Plaksha University in Mohali offers BTech programs with a distinctive project-based learning philosophy. It is STEM-focused, but explicitly interdisciplinary in its pedagogy, integrating design thinking, entrepreneurship, and liberal arts into its engineering curriculum. The admissions process requires written and video essays as part of the application form, followed by a virtual interaction for shortlisted candidates.
The Plaksha Essays
The Plaksha application includes two written essay prompts:
Essay 1 (approximately 500 words): 'What excites you about a career in engineering or technology? Why do you think your abilities and skills are a good fit for Plaksha's BTech program?' This is simultaneously a motivation essay and a fit essay.
Essay 2 (approximately 150 words): 'Share a time when you contributed to a project or activity that positively affected your school or community.' This is a brief community contribution essay.
What Essay 1 is really asking
Plaksha is not a conventional engineering institution. It integrates technology with design thinking, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary problem-solving. The essay is not asking you to demonstrate passion for coding or circuits. It is asking you to show that you understand what kind of engineering education Plaksha offers and why that specifically matches how you want to learn and work. Generic enthusiasm for technology will not serve you. Specific alignment between your interests and Plaksha's project-based, interdisciplinary approach will.
What Essay 2 is really asking
Community contribution in the specific sense: not general goodwill, but something you actually made happen. At 150 words, this essay needs to be very focused: one project, your specific role in it, and what it changed.
Do for Essay 1: Show that you understand what project-based, interdisciplinary learning means for engineering education and why that appeals to you specifically. Name the kind of problems you want to work on.
Do for Essay 1: Connect your technical interests to broader impact. Plaksha is explicit about caring about 'bold engineering for the real world'. What real-world problem draws you?
Do for Essay 2: Be specific about your role. Not 'we organized an event' but what you personally initiated, designed, or led.
Don't for Essay 1: Write a generic engineering motivation essay. 'I have always loved problem-solving and mathematics' could have been written by any applicant to any engineering university in India.
Don't for Essay 2: Choose the most impressive-sounding activity rather than the one you can describe most specifically. Specific and real always beats impressive and vague.
Other Universities Worth Knowing
Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts (SSLA), Pune
SSLA requires a Statement of Purpose as part of the application, highlighting the applicant's interests, motivations, and alignment with a liberal arts education. The program is interdisciplinary with a strong emphasis on critical thinking and social engagement. The SOP should reflect genuine interest in a liberal education rather than a specific professional outcome, and should connect the applicant's background and interests to the SSLA model.
The admissions process also includes a personal interview.
Keep this section proportionate to the requirement: the SOP is substantive but the institution's essay burden is lower than Ashoka or FLAME. The same principles apply: specific over general, honest over performed, connected to what the institution actually offers.
Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida
Shiv Nadar University offers undergraduate programs in engineering, sciences, humanities, and management. Most admissions are primarily entrance-test based (JEE Main, SAT, or the university's own assessment). The university's School of Humanities and Social Sciences may have written components for specific programs; check current requirements on the official admissions portal. For most programs, InkStudio's essay-specific support is most relevant to the interview preparation stage, which falls outside our standard scope.
BML Munjal University and Others
Several other private universities with interdisciplinary orientations have application processes that include short personal statements or motivation essays. The quality of the essay requirement and the weight it carries in admissions varies significantly. If you are applying to a university not covered in this guide and it has a written component, the same principles apply as throughout: be specific, be honest, write for what the institution is actually looking for rather than what you assume all universities want to hear. If you are unsure whether InkStudio can help with a particular university's written requirements, contact us directly.
Writing Habits That Work Against You: A Note for CBSE, ICSE, and IB Students
These patterns appear consistently in applications from students from Indian school backgrounds. Some are more deeply ingrained than others.
Opening with a quotation.
This is the single most common and most damaging habit, particularly among students from CBSE and ICSE curricula. An essay that opens with a quotation from Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, or Einstein signals to a reader that the student defaulted to a school essay convention rather than finding an original opening. At every institution in this guide, a quotation opening will be read as a weak start. Begin with something specific and true about you or the idea you are writing about.
Overly formal, textbook-style prose.
CBSE and ICSE examination writing rewards comprehensive and formal prose. Application essays at Ashoka, FLAME, and Krea reward a more direct, exploratory, intellectually honest voice. The tone shift is real and requires deliberate effort. Write as you would speak to a very thoughtful person who is genuinely curious about what you think, not as you would write for an exam board marker.
Summarizing subject content rather than demonstrating intellectual engagement.
'Quantum mechanics is the study of the behavior of matter at the subatomic level. It has many applications in technology including...' This is a textbook description. An essay about intellectual engagement with quantum mechanics describes what specific question or puzzle about quantum mechanics you found compelling, what you read to understand it better, and what it raised or complicated for you. The difference is between describing a field and demonstrating that you have been inside it.
Listing achievements rather than reflecting on them.
Indian school culture and the competitive pressure of Indian university admissions have created a habit of treating essays as additional space to demonstrate impressive credentials. Ashoka, FLAME, and Krea are not impressed by a list of achievements. They are impressed by a student who can reflect honestly on what something cost, what it changed, and what it revealed. The reflection is the essay, not the achievement.
Writing what they think the university wants to hear.
This produces essays that are technically responsive but feel hollow and generic. Admissions readers at competitive institutions are experienced at distinguishing between genuine engagement and performed enthusiasm. The only thing that works is writing what is actually true about how you think and what you find interesting, in the specific and concrete way that truth usually appears.
A note for IB students:
IB students typically have better instincts for the kind of writing these applications reward, because the IB Extended Essay and Theory of Knowledge train exactly the kind of reflective, argumentative, evidence-based thinking that Ashoka and Krea are looking for. However, IB students are not immune to the habits above. The greater risk for IB students is producing essays that are intellectually polished but personally generic: well-argued, carefully structured, but not specific enough to sound like a particular person.
The Simultaneous Application Problem
Many students applying to Ashoka or Krea are simultaneously writing Common App essays, a UCAS Personal Statement, and possibly Singapore university applications. The register and purpose of these are genuinely different from each other, and the pressure to produce all of them in parallel is real.
What can be repurposed and what cannot.
The personal story or reflection: The personal experience you write about for Ashoka Essay 2 may share material with a Common App essay, but it is not the same essay. A Common App essay about the same experience is likely to be more narrative and personal; the Ashoka essay is more explicitly reflective and analytical. You can draw on the same experience but you should write two different essays.
The intellectual interest essay: Ashoka Essay 1 (and the JSLH personal statement's academic motivation section) may share material with a UCAS Q1 if the subject area is similar. But the UCAS statement makes a case for subject readiness and academic preparation; the Ashoka essay shows intellectual engagement with ideas. Different emphasis, different function. Do not paste one into the other.
The SOP: FLAME's SOP, Krea's personal story, and the JSLH personal statement are all different enough in focus, length, and purpose that they should be written separately. Using the same text for all three is visible.
What the Common App personal statement cannot do for you here
A strong Common App essay is often a story about a personal experience told in literary voice. That essay will read as soft and unfocused in an Ashoka context, where intellectual engagement with ideas is the primary evidence being sought. Do not submit your Common App essay to Ashoka without substantially reworking it.
Practical advice: Start the Ashoka essays early, because they require genuine reflection and multiple drafts. The Indian university deadlines often fall earlier than most students expect. Ashoka's Round 1 deadline for 2026 was in late November, before most Common App Regular Decision deadlines. Students who treat the Ashoka application as something to finish quickly after their US essays are done consistently submit weaker applications.
Working with InkStudio on Indian University Applications
InkStudio works with students on the written components of university applications. For Indian university applications specifically, that means:
Ashoka University: All three written components in the application form: the Non-Academic Engagements descriptions, the Book List recommendation, and both essay prompts.
FLAME University: The Statement of Purpose.
Krea University: The Personal Story (Section 1) and additional application sections.
OP Jindal Global University (JSLH): The 1,000-word Personal Statement for the BA Liberal Arts and Humanities program.
Azim Premji University: The statement of purpose for mature applicants.
Plaksha University: Both written essay prompts in the application form.
We do not advise on university selection, entrance test preparation, or scholarship strategy. Our work is on the written components, however, we can extend interview coaching services as well for a nominal add-on charge.
If you are building your applications to Ashoka, FLAME, Krea, or any other Indian university covered in this guide and would like InkStudio's support on the written components, leave your details below and we will be in touch.
Frequently Asked Questions about Indian University Undergrad Application Essays
Can I reuse my Common App essay for the Ashoka application?
Not directly. A Common App essay is typically a first-person narrative built to show who you are as a person. An Ashoka essay is asking for intellectual engagement with ideas or honest reflection on a specific experience. While the same personal experience might appear in both, they need to be written as separate essays with different emphases. Pasting a Common App essay into the Ashoka portal without substantial reworking will produce a response that reads as wrong for the format.
How different is the Ashoka essay from a UCAS Personal Statement?
Significantly. A UCAS statement is a structured academic argument for why you are prepared to study a specific subject. It is formal, evidence-based, and primarily about academic readiness. An Ashoka essay is about how you think and what you find genuinely interesting. It is more personal, more exploratory in tone, and less concerned with demonstrating formal academic preparation. The two documents serve different functions for different evaluation systems.
Do all Indian universities covered in this guide require essays?
No. Ashoka has the most substantive essay requirement. FLAME has an SOP and an on-the-spot essay. Krea has a personal story section and reflection essays at the immersive case stage. JGU's JSLH requires a 1,000-word personal statement; most other JGU programs do not require one. Azim Premji has a written component in the entrance test rather than a pre-submitted essay. Plaksha has two short essay prompts in the application form. If you are applying to a university not on this list, check its current admissions requirements directly on the official website before assuming whether an essay is required.
What is Ashoka looking for that other Indian universities are not?
The clearest answer is genuine intellectual life outside the school curriculum. Ashoka is looking for students who read independently, who pursue ideas that interest them beyond what they are assigned, who can write about what they find genuinely engaging with specificity and honesty. Most other Indian university applications reward academic achievement and motivation. Ashoka rewards those things but also asks: what do you actually think about, and can you write about it in a way that is specific and honest enough to distinguish you from every other curious student who also says they find ideas interesting?
Should I write differently if I am an IB student versus a CBSE student?
Not fundamentally. The same qualities are rewarded across all boards: specificity, intellectual honesty, the ability to reflect rather than just describe. IB students sometimes have a slight edge because the EE and TOK have built the habit of reflective, argument-based writing. CBSE and ICSE students need to consciously shift away from the formal, comprehensive, examination-register writing that their boards reward. But neither background guarantees a strong or weak application. The essays are the equalizer.
Is the Ashoka On-the-Spot Essay harder to prepare for than the application essays?
They require different kinds of preparation. The application essays can be drafted, revised, and polished over weeks. The OSE is written in 30 minutes on a topic you have not seen before. The preparation for the OSE is not essay technique but intellectual range: reading widely, engaging with contested questions, developing the habit of forming and committing to a position quickly. Students who read broadly and think about a variety of current and historical debates are better prepared for the OSE than students who drill practice formats.
Can InkStudio help with the On-the-Spot Essay preparation for Ashoka and FLAME?
Unfortunately, we are not in a position to offer structured On-the-Spot Essay practice as a service, simply because there is no way to predict what could be the prompt you receive for your On-the-Spot Essay. This is one aspect in which only the applicant can help themselves, not by preparing for the essay but by widening their own perspectives through reading on diverse topics.
Is Ashoka worth applying to if I am also applying to universities abroad?
This is an admissions strategy question, which falls outside what InkStudio advises on. What we can say about the written components is that the Ashoka application essays are substantive enough to require genuine investment. Students who apply to Ashoka alongside international options and treat it as a quick additional application consistently under-perform relative to their ability. If Ashoka is a genuine option for you, treat it as a genuine application.
How early should I start the Ashoka application?
Ashoka runs four admissions rounds per year. Round 1 typically closes in late November, well before most international university deadlines. If you are targeting Round 1 for earlier scholarship consideration, start the essays in September at the latest. The application essays require multiple drafts to arrive at something specific and honest. Students who start in October and apply for a November deadline are submitting first drafts. Start earlier than you think you need to.
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