Roughly 9 months ago, on a very hot and humid morning, I had landed in Mumbai. I was going to join, much to the chagrin of my family, the National Institute of Industrial Engineering in Mumbai. Yes, my family was not happy with this decision of mine as I had decided to forego the chance to join some other institutions which, putting it bluntly, have a better PR agency or are attached to a greater brand.

I had taken into account some parameters like the ROI, faculty, infrastructure, location, placements, curriculum, alumni base and even the batch profile. Frankly, back then I had put much more weightage to placements and the ROI offered by NITIE than I would do now. I've matured enough in these nine months to realise the importance of a good alumni base and faculty. I'll talk more about them later in the article.

Though I did not doubt my decision even then, I was indeed tensed about the possibility of my decision going wrong and getting flak from family for not going with their choice.

So, after 9 months in the college here is my analysis of NITIE:

1. Academic rigour: NITIE does have a trimester system and a really quant-heavy syllabus, which is why people from non-engineering backgrounds are not accepted by NITIE. As no one has studied in two campuses at the same time, so it would be prudish to compare the rigour at NITIE with that at any other b-school.

2. Location: NITIE has an edge there. Period. The campus remains abuzz with corporate interaction all year long. When it comes to guest lectures by corporate biggies, I would be understating if I said we have a problem of plenty. Also, we have the opportunity of joining startups in Powai and go for weekend projects all round the year. And yes, there is also the added incentive of having a ton of cool hangouts nearby.

3. Brand: Maybe your neighbour has not heard of NITIE but the industry definitely has or else we would not have such stellar placements.

4. Infrastructure: Well, the size of our library is bigger than most B-Schools in India. We have the tallest hostel building in India - Taylor Hall. Our new academic complex almost merits the word ‘luxurious’. We have a lake on campus and two bordering us. The entire campus is WiFi enabled. Need I say anything more?

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5. Faculty: This is an area which is neglected often but should not be. I would suggest aspirants to check for themselves the faculty directory and compare the faculty at NITIE with that of other B-schools. The current director of IIM Shillong is a professor at NITIE. Our faculty teach full-fledged courses at the IIMs besides giving guest lectures.

6. Case Studies: All the big case competitions open at NITIE - HUL LIME, P&G CEO Challenge, Deloitte Maverick, Amazon ACE, RB Mavericks, J&J Quest, Nestle Plan-o-Chain, L’Oréal Brandstorm – the list goes on. In fact, there are a few Supply Chain case studies which open only for NITIE.

7. Alumni Base: Most FMCGs have NITIE alumni managing their supply chain, courtesy of which NITIE did not feel the heat of the recent downturn in the economic scenario. A lesser known fact is that a huge number of NITIE alumni work in the BFSI sector as well.

8. Scholarships: It is well known that NITIE charges half of what other B-schools in the same league charge but what is less known is that a good percentage of the students get scholarships in the form of partial or full fee waivers. Even students from the Open category are eligible to apply for partial need-based tuition fee waivers. Ministry of Minority Affairs’ scholarship is applicable for students from the minorities.

9. Placement Process: Easily one of the best things about NITIE, the process is one of the most student-friendly ones and you won’t be rushed into accepting an offer you don’t like. Instead of focusing on making records the team focusses on getting quality profiles on campus.

10. Research Centres: The institute has numerous centres like the Centre for Technology and Innovation Management, the Centre for Supply Chain Management, the Centre for Environment Studies etc. Students can do projects running under these centres and gain tremendous insights into real life techno-managerial issues.

Needless to say, I am extremely happy now that I had the sanity of choosing NITIE back then.

adil mirza

10 Things That Make NITIE Special