Zeroing in on the right B-School made hassle-free

As mentioned in one of our earlier articles, residential full-time should be preferred unless there is some kind of family constraint. A B-school should be preferably in metros since it gives easy access to visiting faculty and industry experts to visit the campus. Other than that, if a student with entrepreneurial dreams is doing an MBA, it is better to choose a college in a place where the companies similar to his start-up are already present. For example: If one wishes to do something in technology side then it is preferable to do in the IT hubs of India like Bangalore. Such a selection gives a headstart in understanding the market. If a student is sure about the location of his start-up then MBA is preferable in that place itself since it gives a better understanding of that place.

It is very common that the B-Schools which charge higher tend to provide placements with higher packages. It is also important to keep in mind that there are colleges which provide higher value for money. In tangible terms, if the B-school Average annual take home vs Fees is +/- 20% then it is always a good B-School. For eg: if a B-School charges 8 lakhs then the average annual take home should be at least 6.5+ lakhs. If someone is doing an MBA for skills or for being an entrepreneur, then it is good to do from colleges which give a very good return on investment. Here are some such colleges: Tier-1: Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi, Jamnalal Bajaj institute of Management Studies- JBIMS, National institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, IIT Roorkee, Department of Management studies, IISC Bangalore. Tier-2: Delhi School of economics, Delhi. Faculty of Management studies, Banaras Hindu University, KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, Indian Institute of Rural management- Anand,  Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

How old the college is determines how large their alumni base is. The larger the alumni base, better the brand value of the college. Apart from that it is also important to understand how vibrant the alumni is which can be understood by how often the alumni meets happen, how close is the alumni and college connected. One obvious reason why alumni is important is the placements. Other than that, good alumnus also boosts up the brand value of the B-School. In addition, it is also important to look at how many industry experts visit the campus. Since such expert talk can always boost and give vital insights into the industry for an MBA student, which are otherwise difficult to gauge.

These are very important and almost every top B-School ensures that these are intact. A good faculty always contains a good mix of academic and industry expertise. However, it is always good to check with the present students on how the faculty are. More than the faculty profile, it is important to check the profile of the leader of the pack.

A good industry expert in this role can make a huge difference.  For someone who is doing an MBA for being an entrepreneur, it is very important to see if the campus has an incubation center.  An organization designed to accelerate the growth and success of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services that could include physical space, capital, coaching, common services, and networking connections. Apart from that the regular infrastructure includes- Good classrooms, Library, Computer centers cafeteria etc;

Summer internships are one of the major and most important activities of a B-School. A good performance in an internship might fetch a job for a student at the end of the internship program itself. Good B-schools often take these internships very seriously. Couple of good criterion to understand how the internships are going on are: How many of the students are under the paid internship program? 2. Also check how many recruiters are common to both the final placements and internships. The higher the number the better it is.

     When considering the placement records don’t just focus on the average package. Focus on Average and Median packages. The closer the numbers are the better the placements are in that college. This is because two or three high packages can push the average package to a very high number. So average package alone is not a good measure. Along with that look at what kind of companies are visiting the campus can help in choosing a college better. Before a student takes an admit if someone has an interest towards a particular sector prefer the college which has good quantity and quality of the companies coming in that particular sector.

     Another note for only people aspiring to be an entrepreneur, which is a placement holiday. This feature is specific for a very few top B-Schools. Placement holiday is an opportunity where a student can skip placements for 1 year and if all doesn’t go well with his start up in the first year then the student can return to the placements next year.