Choosing a B-School

Choosing a B School from your Final Conversions

ARKS Srinivas, CEO, VistaMind

IIMA vs IIMB vs IIMC
IIML vs FMS
IIMI vs IIMK
SPJain vs MDI vs IIMS
NITIE vs IITB vs New IIMs

If you look at various MBA sites, these are the threads in demand everywhere!

So, you have more than One FINAL ADMISSIONS from MBA/PGP in Management Schools!

There are times, when you want a lot of choice. But, there are these times, when you would wish that the choices were out of your hand and you are handed a fait accompli!

But, it is a good problem to be in! Getting the chance to choose the B School you wish to study in, is definitely something everyone should wish for as this is the beginning of your Management Career, a decision making career!

What better than starting out by choosing the right school (read decision making) for yourself from among the choices you have?

While this is not a comprehensive guide to selection, I will make an attempt to make your decision making easier.

Some of the parameters that one should consider when taking a final decision would fall under the categories listed below.

But before that, you have to decide on which parameter is of paramount importance to YOU. Otherwise, there is a danger of going around in circles in this decision-making circus. Depending on the number of people one asks for advice, there would be that many opinions!!

Placements & Profiles
Don’t look at the average package alone. If there is ONE METRIC which is completely misleading and plain simple fraud, it is the Average Package in a B School.
Instead of just looking at the Average package, find out the lowest and highest salaries, median salary. Spend time in going through the companies that have come to the campus and if available, the profiles the companies have given to the students of that Institute.
Say, you want to take a decision between NITIE & IITB. Both are of equal level in almost all counts. How do you choose then?
Here, the decision will depend on your current interest. If you are interested in Finance, then check out which companies have come to the two campuses.

At IITB:
Goldman Sachs, Barclays, JPMC, ICICI, Citicorp, HDFC, Axis Bank, India Forex, Cequity Solutions, Franklin Templton, Home First, GIST Advisory etc have come 14% of 114 students, which is around 19 students got the finance profiles last year.

At NITIE:
Axis Bank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche, HSBC, JLT, Yes Bank, JPMC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, etc have come.
5% of the students of 360, which is around 18 students got the Finance Profile last year.
Conclusion: There seem to be hardly any difference as for Finance is concerned between the two institutes. Hence a Batch size could be a easier metric to check and therefore take IITB, if one is going for Finance. (For Supply Chain or IT/ITES, the overwhelming favourite would be NITIE).



Fees
If you are deciding between the IIMs, there is very little to choose here. However a decision like FMS vs IIML would require a serious consideration on the Fees levels.
My bias for the top 3 IIMs is clear. If you have A, B or C, take that. If not, the above factor comes into picture.
Coming back to FMS vs IIML decision. Here, clearly the fees at FMS are a clear decider. While there are differences between the academic pattern of FMS and IIML (Semester vs Trimester) and the advantages of closed and residential campus at IIML, the fees charged at IIML is far higher than the final advantage one gets at studying at an IIM.
 
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