Things to Consider Before Joining An MBA Program

Full time MBA around the world is different. Even the US colleges MBA programs are not the same. Fundamentally every MBA teaches the art and science of business activities, each of them is distinct. Explaining the difference makes me highlight the variety of attributes and the available choices. When you add up all these attributes, you then measure which is the best suited for you. Of course you have the measuring scale of rankings produced by various organizations; they are now obsolete according to my conclusions.

Bschool Rankings: Confusion Throughout

I have made comparisons between Bschools as an analogy so you may understand my perspective. These are the attributes that I consider of importance to an MBA program.

Size of the program: ICFAI Hyderabad has 900+ seats to offer with Bimtech being one of the smaller programs.

Location of Bschool: IIM Kashipur is based in a small city; IMI is in the capital, New Delhi.

Things to Consider Joining An MBA Program

Specializations: IIFT MBA program includes doing business globally; XIMB is more of a general MBA.

Bschool reputation: What is your objective of joining a particular Bschool. Job location can be one of them. Tapmi is a well known institute in south India, FORE is known in the north.

Cost of MBA: I have seen many students who have no Ideas how they plan to payback loans from banks or even parents. In US the break even come in 1.5 years according to a report by HBR. LBSIM Delhi costs more than FMS Bhu.

Alumni: Alumni represent a college even if they don’t associate physically with it anymore. Well most of them are always there for their college during placements, internships, cultural programs, guest speakers etc. IMT-Ghaziabad has more MBA alumni than any IIT.

Mandatory Disclosures: Try to look for mandatory disclosures of bschools on Google. Mandatory disclosure is a document provided by bschools to AICTE. It contains exact and correct information as average salary in placements, names of regular faculty and other relevant information. They are not usually visible on bschool’s websites. Believe you me you will be amazed when you see the real picture.

Summer Internships: Look at the summer internship records you can know what kind of location, function and even company which you may get for summer internship. At NITIE you expect more manufacturing and operation based work, FMS has various profiles in every function.

One year program vs two year program at bschools: The industry is changing with more pace then ever. The two year program is following trend of becoming a year one. To choose between the two depends upon the trade off between time and investments you can afford. If you are making a lot of changes in your career then you may opt for the two year program. You will get to learn a lot and from the scratch. You will also get live projects other than summer internship.

However if you understand basics and have been working for a while, you may opt for a year program which is more focused on the niche. Every choice you make boils down to making trade-offs. What’s the right mix of attributes for you?

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