Things Aspirants Should Know Before Getting Into An MBA

MBA is not a degree, it's a journey unlike any other. It's more than DCP (Desperate Class Participation), 11:59 PM deadlines and sleepless nights. Okay no, it's a lot about sleepless nights. But anyway when you have decided to get on board for this roller coaster ride there are a few things you’ll need to know before you wave the green flag.

Firstly, if you are one of those early to bed early to rise kind of people like me, your body clock is in for a major shock. If you get to sleep by 1 AM, it's either because you are superhuman and have finished all assignments, pre-reads, projects, etc OR neither of the deadlines is tomorrow and you could get a second degree in procrastination. It becomes increasingly easier to stay up till 3 AM and wake up again for the 8 AM class, attend classes till 5 the guest lectures till 7 AM or 8 AM and work till 3 AM again. Sleep is a luxury good here, make full use of it every chance you get!

You’ve talked to all your friends in B-Schools and have a fair idea about how full the days are and think you’ve got this. Right? Wrong. You have no idea what  “busy” is until you have lived the MBA life. People have stayed up for 72 hours straight and still aced every test and you don’t realize you’ve got it in you until you have no other option.

Powerpoint and Excel are going to be your best friends. If they’re strangers to you now, try to get familiar with them before getting into MBA. Once your course starts, you’ll just keep pushing through everything and be knowing these two beforehand will save you a lot of time and end up being a great help for class presentations and competitions.

Learning opportunities outside the classroom are just as much if not more than the ones in the class. The learning curve is steep, you learn new things at an exponential rate and it gets difficult to manage all the subjects and keep track of what all is happening. Sometimes you’ll have 6 hours of non-stop classes on the same subject and sometimes you’ll have a month between two classes of the same subject!

Finally, know that MBA is the road, not the destination. Don’t think of this as the end goal of your life and you’ll be just fine. And in case all of this feels overwhelming and a little scary, it is. But the good part is you’re not alone and you will be having so much fun doing all of the things the campus has to offer that very soon you learn to ‘manage’ it. There’s a lot to do and miraculously we do it all and still find time for those spontaneous jam sessions in the night canteen. You need those to keep you sane in this whirlwind of the classes, the guest lecture sessions, the extracurriculars, projects, competitions, and evaluations.

Know more about Life at SIBM Pune and my journey to MBA here: Coffee with SIBM Pune