Deciding to go for an MBA after your undergraduate or maybe after gathering some corporate experience, is an important one and it will have multitudes of effects on your life. That being said, it is equally important to know when not to pursue a degree of MBA.
In this article, we will cover the following important topics of MBA-related decisions:
• Is MBA the right way forward for you?
• Your exam results are out, should you go for admission now or wait for the next attempt?
• The decision for admission into MBA is final, but which college?
These topics need to be addressed in the exact order to avoid making any ill-informed decisions in a haphazard way and this article will help guide you through your dilemmas.
Throughout the article, I have maintained a neutral stance regarding each and every B-school and stream. I will guide you on how to do your own research to solve your confusions and queries. This is done to avoid forming any kind of bias in your mind regarding any aspect of decision making.
Let’s start by talking about the decision to do an MBA. The most profound reasons are:
• Lack of good-paying job opportunities after the undergraduate degree
• A stagnant career or wanting a bump in career
• Peer or parental pressure
• Simply wanting an extension of the college student life
It doesn’t matter what your official story for the interviews is, these are the commonly found reasons for the question ‘Why MBA?’ and we will discuss them all.
In all the B-schools across India, we will find the bulk of students with an engineering background. Some of them would be fresh graduates and some of them join after wading through corporate waters, mostly belonging to the IT industry. These MBA aspirants have a very simple aim: to get
a well-paying job at the end of the course. This is actually a
valid reason to have and many people have benefited from it, so you need not worry. You are in the bulk of population here and the major dilemma would be deciding when to do it and from which college, which we will come to later in this article.
If your choice to do an MBA is due to peer or parental pressure, simple advice would be to not go through with it. The logical path would be to find viable alternatives to an MBA, which interest you, and then sit down with your parents or family and have a rational discussion with them. Remember, an answer like ‘I just don’t want to do it’ might not help you. You need to give logical reasons and alternatives of your own. Or if you can’t, then try to understand the other point of view without any bias, that might actually turn out to be good for you. If this is a parent reading this article, please have a rational discussion with your ward. The journey to getting admission into a good B-school is not easy and will not be possible with an unwilling participant.
Lastly, for the people who just want to enjoy the responsibility-free college life for two more years. I don’t think I would find many aspirants with this reason in mind reading this article. But on the off chance that you are, please consider the emotional, mental and financial toll this venture will take on you and your family before making any kind of decision. An MBA has turned around entire lives for many people, use it wisely.
Now, let’s talk about the second and third dilemmas, which come after your entrance exam results are out. These dilemmas usually go hand-in-hand, so we will be discussing them together. The decision to take admission with that score in your hand or to give it another go. And if you are taking admission in this attempt, which college you should go to?
Imagine you have given CAT, XAT, TISSNET, SNAP, NMAT and/or any other entrance exam that you wish for and you have test scores in your hand. You might be overjoyed at the unexpected high percentile or a little down because you couldn’t score upto your expectations. In either case, I would give the same advice: hold your horses. The game isn’t over, in fact, it has just begun. What most people don’t realize is that the exam scores form only a fraction of the final score that a college evaluates for the admission process. Granted, it forms a big chunk of the weightage, it still has a lot of factors.
After the results are out, there is a second round for the admission process commonly referred to as
GD/PI round. This round has slight variations for all the colleges, with a Written Ability Test included in some, the crux, however, remains the same. If you are attempting the entrance for the first time, there is something you need to know. As soon as the results are out, all the colleges will start their GD/PI rounds. You might not have realized it while applying for the colleges, but with good percentiles, you might have up to 10 calls for the second round and it may not be possible for you to travel and give all of them. Also, now you realize that you never fixed a priority order for the colleges because you never actually studied the individual colleges. Let me help you here.
As soon as you have a list of the colleges you have calls from, go check out the B-schools rankings. I know, some of you might have already done so. But, it is pertinent that you do it again as it will be more off a targeted study now. Don’t be alarmed to see a little discrepancy in the rankings. All the sites use different criteria for a ranking which results in some differences. Average out the rankings to form an informed opinion. This will help as one of the criteria to form a priority order of colleges for you.
In the next step, start comparing statistics for all the top colleges in your list of calls.
Along with these websites, also visit the individual college website for placement reports and more information. The most common facts and figures to look for are:
• Placement reports for the past 2-3 years
• Median salary
• The companies which come for placements - brand image, sector
• The batch composition - academic and corporate background
• College location - highly affects the placements
• Reviews - students, alumni, faculty
• Affiliations - other colleges, guest faculty
• Brand image - usually formed by alumni presence due to years of operation
• Programs offered - the specializations
The above mentioned are just the hygiene factors and aspirants are requested to do as detailed study as possible.
It is also important that you have a
specialization in mind before you appear for the GD/PI rounds. This is because most of the colleges offer a general MBA program in which the student can choose his/her specialization at the end of the first year of the course. But, the reality is that all the colleges have mastery in one of the specializations and they are known in the corporates mainly for that particular branch. So, if you have a particular branch in mind, this will help you narrow down your list of preferred colleges by identifying the core streams present at all the colleges. For this information,
• Try to get the contact information of current students or recent alumni of the colleges you want to get in
• The location of the college also gives us an idea of their forte. For eg, as Mumbai holds most of the head offices of the banks and financial institutions in India, colleges in and around that place are much more likely to have better programs and placements in the stream of finance
• This clarity will even help you frame your answers for the interview rounds of the admission process. Also, some of the colleges even offer dedicated courses in some specific streams. If your preference for the stream coincides with it, the road ahead becomes even clearer.
Now, we move onto the trickiest of the dilemmas. You have your results, you have done your research, you have appeared for your GD/PI rounds and now you have final admission calls from the colleges. But, should you take it?
Let us first understand the concept of
ROI or Return on Investment. It is a common term but let’s understand it briefly to cover all the bases. Typically, it refers to the returns you get after you invest your money into any kind of venture. But here, we are talking about more than money. We are talking about energy, efforts, time and of course money too. We are talking about the emotional, mental and financial toll it takes on you and your family.
We are also talking about the cost of a lost opportunity here. If you have decided to take the admission in this attempt, it is likely that you are giving up the opportunity for an earning job right after graduation. Or if you already were working, you lose out on salary for 2 years along with the promotions and increments. These are all the hidden costs of doing an MBA.
And of course, there are direct costs involved which are the tuition fees, boarding and lodging, and other misc. living expenses. So, is the MBA really worth all of this?
Most of the tier-1 B-schools make it worth your while with their impeccable placement records. The official story is that none of the colleges guarantee placement but truthfully, it is a major criterion for a top B-school and thus, placements are a big priority for all the top B-schools.
The problem appears when you move towards the tier-2 and tier-3 B-schools. Surprisingly, as you look at their program structure, the average fees remain about the same as the tier-1 B-schools while the placement figures fall drastically in terms of both figures and quality. This is essentially the moment for you to make the call.
The first question you need to ask yourself is, did you give about 75-100% of your best efforts for the entire process? If not, then there might be scope for you to improve your scores dramatically and you can contemplate giving it another shot. But, if you think you have indeed given your best efforts and this the best result you can get, then you need to weigh your ROI here. All the direct and hidden costs v/s the MBA degree and what it gives you in terms of salary and career growth. All the data is in front of you and you need to make the call now.
I have tried to cover all the common dilemmas faced by every MBA aspirant and I hope this article guides you to make the most informed and rational decisions.