Why Did You Choose IIM Rohtak?

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It is said, that people actually are not afraid that they might not be able to achieve their goals, rather they are afraid of doing something incredible.

The time I started writing about ‘Why did you choose IIM Rohtak?’ it seemed like a pretty simple task. But the more I tried to write about it, the less sense it made.

I wanted to write about the obvious fact of IIM Rohtak being IIM Rohtak. Along with the heritage of being an IIM, it has a heritage of being, and making a person ‘Kathor’. It is reinventing itself every single day, every single year. More than the bricks and mortar the new campus has, it is made of the passionate people working day in and day out to make IIM Rohtak’s mark on the map. It has a brand name, great reputation, pioneer of a leader, amazing students, diversity, exposure, placements and what not!

But a choice is made of two entities: the chosen one and the one who chooses. The entity in the other half of this question, I, had a few hiccups before being able to stand and make this choice. A year and a half ago, I had another choice to make. It was either to join any private college for MBA or to wait for the whole year, toil again for the possibility of a great college. I had tried to tame CAT once but lost with a close margin. Fear gripped me to the core. I was scared of my dreams, of them not coming true and of them coming true. So, before making a decision, just for the sake of it, I decided to write down of what kind of college I would want if I were in a different world. I wrote the answer to the What?

“An institution which teaches me the skills needed tomorrow to make, in the words of Steve Jobs, a dent in the universe, and to build something innovative. A place to learn the nuances of start-ups and business world. Which pushes me to the unknown possibilities of work. Where I get to meet leaders, learn from timeless professors and be with people passionate in their journeys.”

The fuel to the fire of this ambition was my experience in the last college where the environment of no-initiative, no-enthusiasm for improving oneself and just fun had rubbed on me. This time, a lot was at stake. Cut short to CAT 2017 where I managed to get good results despite the monotonous routine and the interviews in 2018, where questions like ‘Why MBA after Aeronautics?’ or ‘Tell me how an aeroplane flies?’ were repeated to me again and again.

In the race for that one golden seat, we tend to ignore answering the questions with hard facts. I knew what kind of an institute I wanted but whether it existed, if yes then where? And most importantly, if I would get admission there or not. I researched and researched, even did SWOT analysis of colleges. (Business-school goals) And finally, got the offer letter from one of the institutes scoring high on this analysis chart: Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak.

As I look at the offer letter now, I realise why writing this article was difficult. Maybe the entities assigned to the chosen one and the one who chooses were wrong. Maybe there is a different, better question to be asked and maybe then the playing grounds will be even.