Good news. Joining IIM B as of now :)

Life is funny. When I prepared last year like crazy, I did not get a single call from the IIMs for interviews. I had final admits from SPJAIN Marketing, NITIE and IIT Delhi and a Waitlist from XLRI BM which never converted. I had almost decided to join SPJAIN. But then, got an offer to join a good firm and also I was not so sure whether I wanted to do Marketing. I would have joined XLRI had it converted. But it did'nt. But all for good only.

This year I appeared for CAT with minimum preparation, but due to luck and God's grace secured all 6 calls. I secured a call from IIM Shillong too though was not ready to join and did not attend the interview. I finally converted BLIK and got Waitlisted at IIM A (no. 31). C did not convert.

The WL at A may not clear. But not sure whether to join A even if it clears. I am postponing the decision hoping it wont convert. :) I like IIM B mainly because its in Bangalore and I have some senti on it.

I like the selection process of IIM B, which is different from others and results in more experienced and a diverse set of people getting through,and I hear from B junta that they are more "pseud" and hence more business like than their counterparts. If I tell I am joining B for the above reasons, I will be acting as if I am rational.

But I hope I get to join IIM B finally. I don't have the mind to reject A for B or B for A. Both are great instis. :)

I am seeing the threads and discussions at the yahoo group. Pretty good discussions.
I participated in few discussions too. But really nice that the 2nd years are taking out time to reply to our queries. Replies are received within 4-5 mts. I guess our batch is slowly picking up. I hoped it would not be a very "senior junior" kind of relationship, the engineering college style. I am also in the yahoo group of an another college where I have been selected. Its primarily the same kinda relationship everywhere. The 2nd years thinking the "1st yr kids" have come and likes. It should slowly shift to the ISB style of interactions which I felt are at a more mature level. Its not do with work ex. Guess its because of the past precedence.

Our batch has considerable no. of people with work ex. I am pretty impressed.

Gut feel from orkut polls tells:

Freshers - must be 23-25%
< 1 yr - 8-10 %
1-2 yr - 33-35%
2-3 yr - 15%
3 yr + - 20%

The above is definitely a very impressive for IIM Bangalore since once upon a time, there used to be figures like 70% freshers in IIMs etc. Lemme see how the figures finally turn out. This is just based on some orkut poll.

But I guess some other IIMs have 50% freshers even this year. It should change slowly. Nothing against freshers, but having work experience helps in gaining some maturity and getting a feel of the real world outside, especially for a course like MBA. Anyway, that will be a different post altogether. Will post my views on that too. :)

You can expect this blog to be some sort of a chronicle of real life at IIM B. I hope I do not fall into the bandwagon of "My school is best" or the "B is B" kinda crap which is liberally doled out these days by many students. I hope to post my perspectives about things as they happen here and hence would be useful to future students interested in joining IIM B or any IIM.