B-School Scenario in India

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Chapter 2

CASE

A young lot of students who are eager to begin their journey into the world of management are in dilemma. In search for their answers the come across a b school ranking data set which has details which are intriguing!! They are fascinated about the discovery but each of them has diverse criteria for selecting a b-school.

Ram one among them comes up with an idea of applying statistics which Rahul (his brother) was talking about when they were having a conversation over lunch. All of them agree to the idea and pose questions which they would like to get the answers of. Rahul who is a student from KJ Somaiya starts working on their questions and applies various concepts such as probability, Hypothesis testing, correlations etc to develop solutions. The methods and concepts applied by him are explained clearly so that all the students get a clear idea of what was done to get to the conclusion.

He starts with a generalized case of B-school scenario in India by describing the about the need for management education, the various B-schools, the average age of a student, Fees that the B-school’s charge, the chances available for people preferring to study abroad have been described in today’s context.

Then he describes the major factors like Placement which is relative to the Average CTC, Quality of Students which is generally a measure of Cut-off score at the institute, here the GD/PI have not been considered as they cannot be quantitative in nature, Image of the Institute which by default is the Ranking given by various websites, Ownership which is whether a school is public or private ,Location of the Institute which area is it in Metro, Non Metro & the zone (North,East,West,South) and finally the age of the institute. All these for the top 100 B-school are to be analyzed as they are detrimental in selecting a B-school.

Rahul takes up this because he had lots of issues and dilemma in selecting a B-school himself and could not get any significant help, which would help him take an informed decision. He feels the pain and the mental anxiety he went through to select a few school which he thought were good by information from various diversified sources which to collate and get a proper decision was a nightmare to him. Although, he joined a good B-school in the end, he still feels that the process can be simplified and the can play a significant role in doing so and accepts this task.

CRITERIA TO BE USED FOR SELECTING A B-SCHOOL

Many aspirants feel that the toughest part of the process of getting into a top B-School is not the entrance test itself but the process involved in selecting which B-Schools to apply to! The large number of B-Schools, with an equally huge amount of marketing blitz surrounding them, makes this an arduous task. For this reason students need to look at the following criteria carefully and then decide on what B-Schools to apply to

- Placement (Average CTC)

- Quality of Students (Cut-off score at the institute)

- Image of the Institute (Ranking)

- Ownership

- Location of the Institute

- Age of the institute

1. Placement

A post-graduate qualification in management or its equivalent will get you excellent placement opportunities. If the qualification is from a top ranking management institute, securing the best placement opportunity becomes a cakewalk. This is one of the main reasons why the placement track record of a management institute should be taken into account when choosing a particular institute.

It is generally observed that the best institutes in the country achieve a near-100% placement record. A very important factor to be taken into consideration regarding placements is the level of salaries offered to the graduating students. The IIMs and other “Ivy League” institutes claim an average placement salary of about 10 lakh to 15 lakh per annum. The highest salary on offer for domestic placements can be as high as 30 lakh to 40 lakh per annum. The lowest salary on offer at these management institutes is about 5-7 lakh.

When it comes to the average salary in the next level of management institutes, it is usually about 6 lakh to 9 lakh per annum, with the range between a low of 4 lakh and a high of 9 lakh to 10 lakh.

As one goes progressively down the ranking list of management institutes, the average salary on offer drops and goes down to as low as 3 lakh to 4 lakh per annum.

2. Quality of Students

Another factor that clearly establishes the difference between good and not-so-good institutes is the quality of the students at the institute. The best institutes are the places where one interacts with the best students, which in turn is compared on the basis of the cut-off of the college. A top institute attracts the best students and the best students, in turn, gravitate towards the best institutes in the country. Thus, a good institute and good students have a symbiotic relationship.

Students should understand that it becomes increasingly difficult to get admission into a management institute, if it is amongst the top ones in the country. It is akin to saying that the better the institute, the more difficult it is to get into. This explains why the competition for admission into the top institutes has always been extremely stiff.

Why is the quality of the students at a given institute important? The quality of the students makes a very big difference on account of the interaction that a student has with his peers. Much of the learning that takes place at any B-School is on account of the group activities like group work and group projects. Hence, if the students are brighter, the learning experience gets richer.

3. Image of the Institute (Ranking)

A factor that need not specially be emphasized is the reputation a given management institute commands and the image it perpetuates in the industry. This is represented in the rankings published in various magazines and websites. While it can be said that it is natural for older institutes to have a better reputation than the ones that have started recently, it cannot always be generalized. Also, remember that it is often possible that a recently set up institute has been established by an older, well-established institute. In such cases, the “parent / guardian” institute