Welcome, Class of 2012!
First of all, congratulations on navigating what is undoubtedly one of the world’s most arduous (though not exactly perfect!) selection processes. All those hours put in on Sunday mornings for Mock CATs, all that DP(desperate participation) in GDs and worst of all, waiting — it is all over and done with! And now you are ready to join another batch of what we believe is India’s best business school!
As tomorrow comes, you will have other offers for other places — as you rightly should! And you will seek out to those you know to help you make the right choice. As someone who has been through the process (I graduated from IIM Calcutta this year) my task is to give you all the information you need to make the right decision for yourself.
At this point your mind must be teeming with questions. My first advice to you would be to finish reading this article, disconnect from the internet, shut down your computer and go celebrate! You will get enough time to make the right call but where you want to be right now is celebrating with friends, family and loved ones!
Great, assuming that makes sense, here are a few reasons why we think you should choose to come IIMC and to Joka.
1. Culture
My first point might surprise you. I could have chosen to highlight our great placements, or our faculty, or our great upcoming infrastructure but in my mind what makes IIM C truly unique is our culture. A culture where the administration believes that all of you are adults and trusts you to make the right decision for yourself. What this means is that there are no draconian attendance requirements, you are free to choose whatever path pleases you in terms of academics (the second year curriculum is 100% tailor made according to your choices) and are free to spend your spare time as you please (either involved in one of IIMC’s countless clubs, playing sports or simply sleeping off a rigorous week!). The administration understands that academics is only a part of what makes the MBA experience so unique and hence, never will it happen that you are so overloaded with class-work that you will not get a chance to catch up with friends or go out for a movie.
Calcutta also has a remarkably different way in which students compete academically. There is a very large degree of support from both the senior batch (You’ll be able to get a crasher for anything you wished) as well as from your own batch-mates. Don’t get me wrong, there is fierce competition but it does not prevent people from co-operating and helping each other out.
And then there are numerous opportunities for you to express you innate talent and drive in various non-academic spheres as well. From a nightout at the spacious Institute auditorium practicing for the next Dramatics Cell professional play or putting on your dancing shoes for the Choreography Club’s latest ensemble creation, joka helps pursue all your old interests, and even pick up a new one if you so wish. For the budding musicians, there is JBSBaroC, the oldest music band among the IIMs, and your ticket to becoming the cynosure of all eyes on stage.
The academic curriculum is rigorous, no doubt – but not to the point of trampling upon every other aspect of your student life in Joka.
2. Placements
I would urge you to ask all the people you talk to about making this decision to ask a few questions about previous placements processes of their respective schools. While it has been widely reported that IIM Calcutta bagged what was the highest salary across all the IIMs, you should know by now that this is a poor representation of a business school’s placement process. Yes, it definitely goes to show that we did exceedingly well this year (surprised some of us even!) and it can be safely said that our placements processes across the years have generally been at least as good if not better that any of the other top business schools in India. The highest salaries are always bagged by those who go on to work for investment banks, but it is a possibility that finance is not what gets you going in the morning. You want to make sure that the school you go to will offer career opportunities not just in banking, but also in other extremely exciting sectors of the Indian economy — consulting, marketing, information technology, human resources, general management, start-ups and the public sector / social service. And if banking and finance is what gets you going in the morning, then I’d say that you should sign on that acceptance form right away!
What counts in a placement processes is not height but depth. When you look at placement figures look carefully and ask questions as to which schools were able to ‘satisfy‘ their student’s expectations? That in my opinion is the best indicator of a well-run placement process. If and when you come to IIM Calcutta you will realize all the hard work that goes behind the headlines, and it is no co-incidence that they are a resounding success year after year. While a few students undoubtedly felt that they could’ve done better in terms of their final offers, there are fewer of them at Calcutta than at other places; an overwhelming majority of us were delighted with our respective placements.
3. Your peers (and everything else!)
I will be the first to admit that those that come into the IIM system are invariably pretty similar, but there is a marked difference in those going out. Each one of us embodies a distinct ‘institute culture’. There is something distinctive about the IIMC culture that is just difficult to state in words! While I’m sure other places have this too, I must be partisan here and root for the Joka culture! Given that IIM Calcutta is the oldest of India’s IIMs and you will be amazed at how far the IIM-C name will take you. Go to any of India’s top companies,(or even major banks, consulting firms, marketing organizations abroad) you will find a Joka-ite occupying a key position, and this institutional resource is just hard to beat! Past students often come down to campus to share their experiences in the corporate world and to recruit for their firms. And once you are working with them, they go that extra mile to ensure that you are enjoying yourself. It’s a privilege that has to be experienced to be believed.
Year after year IIM Calcutta has successfully attracted an extremely diverse set of students. Joka is not home to just a bunch of 300 geeks but also the campus-bred eclectics, eccentrics and intellectuals. You will never run short of a new dimension to add to that classroom discussion, all you need to do is delve into that vast storehouse of brilliant minds aka your peers at IIM Calcutta.
In conclusion
Those I believe are the top three things that I love the most about IIMC. I’m sure my batch-mates will disagree. Some will point out how amazing faculty members were, some will point to the long hours of philosophical conversations had over fried-maggi at night in a finance club meeting and others will point to our exchange programme. All this and more makes Joka an exciting place to do your MBA. Ask around and talk to as many people as possible and make the right decision for yourself!
That’s all from me for now! Feel free to use the comments section to ask queries. We are also present on twitter (www.twitter.com/iimc), facebook(www.facebook.com/iimcalcutta) and via our forums here on Jokatimes and on Pagalguy. We hope that you come to make the ‘right decision’ (:D) and come to Joka and join our amazing invisible community for a lifetime!
April 12th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
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April 12th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
[...] aravindva.. have PMed you.. and I know mjp already posted this.. but mannn this was well written!! Welcome, Class of 2012! | Joka Times Loved the fact that Abhishek put culture first .. would have been cross with him if he'd done [...]
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April 12th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
[...] aravindva.. have PMed you.. and I know mjp already posted this.. but mannn this was well written!! Welcome, Class of 2012! | Joka Times Loved the fact that Abhishek put culture first .. would have been cross with him if he'd done [...]
April 13th, 2010 at 10:49 am
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April 20th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
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