Reply from WIMWI passout on my queries

I have put this mail up here to the benefit of all. Standard disclaimers apply. Edited it to correct spelling mistakes and to make it more readable. Its not that this mail made me join A. I also edited it to remove certain very minor comparisons with other B Schools and have the part which only talks about IIMA.

I am posting it as a for-your-information-only. Hope it benefits few.

QUOTE:

Expectations out of MBA:

- Learning general biz stuff will happen in both A&B. However A has some fantastic electives in both finance and strategy and you can rest assured that you will have ample choice.

- Sitting in classes of superb profs in my view is the biggest strength of A. If someone asks me why is A so different from others enjoying such a brand value, I always say its because of the profs. I have never witnessed such genius personalities and trust me, You will enjoy the aura of intellect thoroughly in the classes. All brand value, placements, rankings...all of these are after effects.....the foundation is that A has some excellent profs in all fields who will simply blow you away with their expereience and depth of knowledge. Prof Ajay Pandey, prof Seb Morris, Prof Abraham Koshy, are just few examples u can search on the net about !

- Good CGPA.....IIMA is absolutely the place to come if u are interested in academics. Period. Acads is clearly the first preference here and everything else depends on student's enthu. You can do everything else as well but thats only after acads. The peers r simply brilliant here and hence the level of competition is absolutely unimaginable. But that inspires you to study harder and get good grades. Little bit of RG and all happens but that happens everywhere n you can't run away from that. In fact its good coz u will face such pressures in work as well n hence this is a great dress rehearsal ! IIMA is also known as IIM Acads. And if u have a good CGPA, well you are the bond then :)

- Get a good job---well, I need not say anything here. The variety is immense. You can check our placement report I posted on PG. Don't even waste a second having doubts on placements. It can get better than this place. Period.

- Learn 1-2 games/sports : Even though IIMA is lot about acads, the best thing is that the opportunities to do whatever u want to are infinite. Its all about managing your time. We have about 40 odd clubs ranging from lits to sports to bike riding to movies :) And trust me , we all do everything along with studies. It just makes u an all rounder :) Frisbee, Cricket, Badminton, TT, Football, Volleyball....All are extremely popular sports here....We even got a foosball table this year :) U can learn whatever sports you want :)

- Peer n/w : The junta in IIMA is the top cream of the country. The amount of intellect around you is mind blowing. And hence you need not bother at all about the peer n/w.

- Work Ex/Mature junta : See, in every institute, u will have a bunch of guys who just wanna pass 2 yrs, and get a good job and then there will always be those who are here for learning and chose courses seriously to gain the max out of the place. And finally there are those who want to do both. I was in the last category :) So the thing is that its completely up to what you want out of the place. You can take all fundoo subjects and you will get good junta to support you and have some intelligent discussions with u and if you get tired u can chose some easy subject to relax. The onus is fully on you. You will always find a sect who will be there to take and learn good course. So don't have any doubts on that.

As far as work ex is concerned I can tell you that the %age of work ex people is steadily on the rise in A and my junior batch has much more work ex people than my batch. Plus I have learnt that its not always true that higher no. of work ex guys implies higher level of intellect n maturity in discussions.

So don't go so much on the figures of no of work ex guys. The quality of work ex guys is more important and thats where IIMA scores above all instis.

Doubts about IIMA :

- Balance in both years -----Thats the biggest misconception people have. See, the thing is that since the first year is so grueling, that many people want to chillax in 2 year which u can afford coz theres no compulsion in the subjects u chose. However, that does not imply that u cant chose good subjects in 2 year and study with the same tempo in 2 year. I have known people who took equally demanding but good subjects in 2 year as well :)

Its simple - Its fully upto you. Both years can be academically demanding or 2nd year can be chill. Its completely a personal preference. Insti allows you to do both. And u should'nt worry at all !

- Profiling - As i said earlier, don't go on sheer nos. See the quality as well. Trust me, you will find the best of minds and personalities in A. And forget just acads, there are all rounders galore here.You will find swimming champs, national tennis players, Music band members, professional singers, professional bikers, debaters...you name it you got it ! Every guy in IIMA has a special talent apart from acads and am not kidding ! What more do u want in terms of learning environment !! Its all upto you how you harness the environment to gain max benefit.

Overall, whatever said and done IIMA's brand value is impossible to match and that brand value is the result of quality of faculty and students. Hence I would strongly recommend you to shed all inhibitions coz none of them hold good from my 2 yrs at IIMA and 2 yrs before that in preparing and comparing B Schools extensively :)

Congrats for your achievement and I hope you don't make the mistake of rejecting A for the doubts you had mentioned because they don't hold much water when you see how IIMA is in 2 years :)

Lemme know if I can be of any other help !

Hope to se ya in IIMA sometime in the next 2 years if I do make a visit :)

All the best !

UNQUOTE