After months of preparation and hard work which includes cracking CAT, then going through numerous WAT/PI/GDs, aspirants face a significant dilemma; “Which college to choose among a list of premier B-schools?”. I was one such aspirant two years back going through the same predicament. After days of comparing placement reports, faculty lists, opinion polls on Pagalguy from random strangers, I decided to join IIM Udaipur and believe me I have never regretted that decision ever since.
My major concern was campus life, and during that time IIM Udaipur was one of the few ‘New IIMs’ having a fully functional campus. This swerved my decision, maybe subconsciously, and I ended up here. Now, apart from beautiful campus (located in the midst of Aravali hills), there are few other factors which I came to know after I joined here. I would highlight some of those:
- Culture: We have our own unique culture, which includes formal as well as informal activities. Some of the formal activities I cannot disclose here on a public platform, but they are as engaging and fulfilling as they could be. Some informal activities include things like birthday emails, month end birthday celebrations (where we have a giant cake provided by college itself at month end and celebrate that month’s every birthday), cluster (hostel) wars, recreational activities such as FLU (football league of Udaipur), BPL (kind of like IPL where players are auctioned according to their worth). This list is quite long. So, I would stop here.
- Infrastructure: The accommodation provided and the facilities are world-class. It can make you so sluggish such that on a beautiful rainy day you may want to sit in your hostel rooms, have a cup of tea and just keep looking at beautiful hills of Balicha from your window (disclaimer, the PGP office is VERY strict on attendance criteria, and you should never do that). Other facilities in the hostel include fully air-conditioned rooms, water cooler, fridge, microwave, and washing machines. Other individuals are there to take complete care of your room and hostel blocks. Just give them a call and that's it.
- Coming towards more serious stuff like academics, placements, student activities; I would like to point out one common feature present everywhere. Transparency is one of the six values that we religiously follow. You will find complete transparency in admission, placements, academics, club/committee induction and every other aspect of the institute. This is something you will be taught from the day you joined this institution with a hope that you will follow it all along your professional career.
- Academic rigour: This is something every aspirant must have heard before joining this institute. Yes, IIMU believes in academic rigour as it is one of the most important features that make us unique. But this does not mean you won’t have time for other activities. It is just that you will learn to manage your time efficiently to find time for everything. And the first valuable lesson for future managers is managing their own time.
- Club/Committees/SIGs: Any B-school is incomplete without club activities. We have many clubs ranging from academia to cultural activities to assist the management in the proper functioning of the institute. As mentioned earlier, the induction process is fair and transparent. Apart from clubs and committees, special interest groups are there which enables students with shared interest in leisure activities to come together. There are two major fests organized along the year, management and cultural fest. We have speakers from industry visit our campus and interact with students. Also, there are a large number of competitions to bring together students from premier B-schools and compete against each other. These activities, according to me, constitutes important learnings and MBA course in incomplete without such activities.
- Lastly, one major point which sets this institute apart is the presence of entrepreneurship culture. We have a specially dedicated club for this and an incubation centre to promote young entrepreneurs to come forward. The institute gives equal opportunity to everyone to develop an idea (If any) and provides monetary support if that idea has potential. Students also have the chance to fully work on their idea for two months (during summers), and college provides financial assistance to such students opting for summer entrepreneurship program. This program has seen many entrepreneurs in the past and is continuously supporting young entrepreneurs to come.
The institute believes in the collective growth of the individual along with the institute itself. Every individual is encouraged to come forth for a common purpose of “BUILDING U TOGETHER”.
Aditya Birla Group:
Given the opportunity, I would like to work with Aditya Birla Capital of ABGLP group. I am a PGP-II student, five months away from placements on which my whole career depends.
During my first year, I was not concerned with the majors. But as time came, I started giving it a thought and found out finance is an area where I would like to develop my career. To meet that, currently, I am preparing for the CFA Level 1 exam and other various certifications. To have a greater understanding of the subject matter, I chose 4 out of 7 electives in the same domain.
Aditya Birla is a great name to start a career with. It is there in the industry for more than 30 years. I believe this wing of ABGLP aligns with my career goals and I will have great opportunity to develop my career with Aditya Birla Capital.