Tuesday, September 25, 2007

List of B-Schools which accept CAT Score

If you will write the CAT 2007 or the CAT 2008, my best wishes are with you - i hope that you make it to one of the IIMs. But if you don't make it to an IIM don't blame yourself much - the fact is the odds are stacked against the brightest of students. Almost 2,00,000 students write the CAT every year - chances are that figure may swell upto 2.5 lakhs in CAT 2008. The total number of seats offered by the IIMs is fewer than 3000 which means only 1% of the students can expect it to make it to India's best b-school. And it's nobody's case that 99% of the students writing the CAT every year don't deserve a seat in a good b-school.
Here's a list of other Business Schools/Institutes which accept CAT scores for admission.
1. Academy of Management Studies, Bhubaneshwar
2. Alliance Business Academy, Bangalore
3. Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore
4. Apeejay School of Management, New Delhi
5. Aravali Institute of Management, Jodhpur
6. Army Institute of Management, Kolkata
7. Army Institute of Management & Technology, Greater Noida
8. Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneshwar
9. Asia Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi
10. Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Information Technology & Management, Gwalior
11. Bhartidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirappali
12. Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida
13. Centre for Management Training & Research, Kharar, Mohali
( this list will be added to regularly till we have a more comprehensive list)

Friday, September 21, 2007

Business Today Indian B-School Rankings 2007

The fifth annual Business Today - Nielsen Best Business Schools of India survey's findings have just been released. Here are a few of the key results:
Top 10 Business Schools of India:
(In some browsers, the 'Tick' may appear as 'a' in the Our Remarks column)

Rank 2007

Rank in 2006

Business School

Our Remarks

11IIM Ahmedabada
22IIM Bangalorea
33IIM Calcuttaa
44Symbiosis-PuneSymbiosis at No.4?? Over IIM-L and XLRI?
55IIM LucknowShould be at No.4 or at No.5, just after XLRI
68IIM Indore? We suspend our decision on IIM-I
67Bajaj(JBIMS), MumbaiCould be anywhere between Ranks 7 and 12
86XLRI JamshedpurShould be at Rank 4 or 5
913ICFAI HyderabadThis business school has no business to be in the top 15
1017Narsee Monjee (NMIMS) MumbaiCould be anywhere between Ranks 10 and 13

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Is your target called "CAT 2008"?

Of all the problems faced by you and your rivals preparing for CAT 2008 the one that is the most illogically problematic is this: Is it too early to start studying for the CAT that will only happen in November 2008, much more than a year away? There will be the smart-alecs in your college who will try and run you down - tell you that the CAT is no more than a 3-4 month game, that you are being foolishly 'book-wormish'!! I have just one bit of advice for you to give to this mates of yours: BUZZ OFF. ( and it is for the sake of decorum that i have replaced one of the words in that 2-word advise!)

Only one person should decide when you should begin preparations for things in your life: whether it's marriage, life-insurance plan, raising kids, or even the small matter of CAT 2008!! So if you think that you need to start early, congratulations on your decision. Now stop bothering yourself about the wisdom of that decision - don't seek any advice from anyone - not from those idiots at college, nor from the bigger ones at the coaching institutes! Just go get yourself a study plan for the 14 months ahead and BEGIN: we will look at the 'study-plan' bit in the next post, so do come back soon. Cheers!

Sunday, September 02, 2007

XAT 2008 Notification: XAT & XLRI facts

XAT 2008 Test Date: Sunday, 6th January 2008
XAT 2008 will serve as the admission test for XLRI Jamshedpur, Xavier Institute of Management (XIM) Bhubaneshwar, Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai (LIBA), XIME Bangalore and more than 30 other Indian B-Schools.
Where can you purchase the XLRI prospectus from?
1. Branches of State Bank of India ( demand draft of Rs.800)
2. By sending a non-refundable demand draft for Rs.850 or Rs.1350 (if you are applying for more than one programme) in favour of XLRI, Jamshedpur payable at SBI, XLRI Jamshedpur Branch ( I don't understand why this institutes try and make life hell for students - now what kind of drafts are not payable at SBI, Jamshedpur or any other SBI for that matter). You also need to enclose alongwith the draft the XLRI PA form that you can download from the XLRI website.
The XAT 2008 prospectus/bulletin can be purchased from September 1 to November 30 2007.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Forbes ranks top B-Schools(2007) on ROI criteria

In its 2007 rankings of the top Business Schools of the world, Forbes has gone in for the 'Return on Investment'* criteria to rank the best B-Schools across the globe. (though the sample used for this is not from the immediate past batches, which raises a question mark over the current validity of the results - however, the rankings can be a good indicator of the top B-Schools. Word of warning: Should you see some very surprising results, do take a second opinion. Do i see you running to the FT rankings already!!)


Here are the FORBES B-School Rankings for 2007.

Forbes Top 10 US B-schools 2007:
Rank 1. Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth 2. Stanford 3. Harvard 4. Virginia (Darden) 5. Pennsylvania (Wharton) 6. Columbia 7. Chicago 8. Yale 9. Northwestern (Kellogg) 10. Cornell (Johnson)

Forbes Top Non-US One-Year Business Schools 2007:
Rank 1. IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland 2. Insead, Fountainbleau, France 3. Judge Business School, University ofCambridge, UK 4. Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, Spain 5. Cranfield, Bedford, UK
Forbes Top Non-US Two-Year Business Schools 2007
Rank 1. Australian Graduate School of Management 2. British Columbia (Sauder), Canada
3. Esade, Spain 4. Ceibs, China 5. McGill, Canada

****
Related Posts:



*What is Return on Investment?
- ROI is return on invested capital. While using this criteria for b-school rankings, a simple way of going about it would be to weigh the average placement salaries against the tution fees or the total expenses incurred to complete your MBA. A more complicated approach might try and factor in the cost of 'lost opportunities' as well. For example, if you gave up a 45,000 USD job to join Tuck that goes into the investments!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

IIM Shillong for CAT 2007

Rajiv Gandhi IIM ShillongIf you are writing the CAT this November, the govt. has good news for you. All CAT 2007* candidates automatically qualify for the 1st session (2008-2010) at the IIM Shillong. The only sore part : It has been christened Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management. Now I am quite appreciative of the efforts of the ex-PM but i don't quite like this idea of prefixing his name to the new IIM. Some of the greatest brand-creators and brand-custodians of this country have and will pass out of the hallowed portals of the IIMs and tinkering with that brand itself ain't such a great idea. They did it earlier with my college in Delhi: a few years after I passed out of the College of Business Studies i found out that the name of a freedom fighter had been added to the name. It now became a very boring sounding Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies. CBS sounded ok, if not cool. Nowadays students refer to the college as Sukhdev. Yipes!

Should you want to know more, you can contact the offices of Mr. Pramod Tandon, the Vice Chancellor of North Eastern Hill University ( NEHU). Mr. Tandon is currently doubling up as the Project Director of the Rajiv Gandhi IIM Shillong.
Address: NEHU Campus, Shillong, Meghalaya. Phone: 0364-2550101
***
*The CAT 2007 notification issued on the 15th July 2007 doesn't mention the 7th IIM, therefore there was confusion amongst the students.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

IIM Calcutta Campus: Virtual Tour

IIM Calcutta Faculty The IIM Calcutta site has added a new feature: "An Online Tour of the IIM-C campus". If that's where you are planning to go to do your MBA, it might be worthwhile to check it out. Click here.

I remember a friend of mine who used to take an evening walk in the IIT-Delhi campus, during the days of his IIT-JEE preparation. He found the walk very motivating - and it sure did work for him - got through the JEE successfully though he ended up doing his B.Tech a few thousand kilometres to the east, in IIT Kharagpur. You wouldn't mind landing up in an IIM a few thousand kilometres west of Kolkata, would you? No, i'm not talking of Indore.

Browsing the IIM Calcutta site, there is another interesting info i noted - not that you would be unaware of it, but an official line makes things that much more clear. This from the CAT page of the IIM Cal site..

Verbal Ability (VA)
This section explores your understanding of the English Language and also tests you on Reasoning Skills.

So there it is: i guess you need to get ready for more LR everywhere, English included.

******

ps: I found the picture of the IIM Cal faculty members quite interesting. (are you a fitness freak?) So i added it here to add to the visual appeal of my blog!

Friday, August 24, 2007

Blog Advertising: A win-win situation

Many of the readers of this blog will be doing their MBA, specialising in advertising and marketing. As you will find out in the next few years, one of the biggest challenges for the advertiser is to make sure that the 'ad is actually seen' by the Target Audience. Of course, you will then get into more refined targets like 'reaching out to your audience at the lowest cost per head' (CPM or Cost Per Thousand as the Media Planners call it).
It's possibly because of this reason that marketeers loved the internet - here was a way to reach out to a focussed audience. Weblogs or Blogs as they are called took this revolution a step further - Each blog is a potential media - while a single blog may not have the traffic of a larger portal, but it has its own loyal audience. Marketers get an option through blog advertising to reach out to their audience in a language that they preferred listening to. Advertisers also get to link back to their own websites from the blogposts, helping them get quality traffic directly onto their sites.

For bloggers like me, this provides with an option to monetize my efforts. A win-win situation for everyone, ain't it? Smorty.Com, acting as a bridge between advertisers and bloggers is a place to check out for - for both advertisers and for bloggers. It's a great opportunity for bloggers in that you can now actually make money off your blog. How much you end up making is entirely upto you - your earnings are a function of the opportunities you will get, which are proportional to the efforts you put into your blog.

I have been using Smorty for the past few months and what i liked about them was - 1. Service Quality and 2. Speed of Response. Besides they are amongst the fastest in terms of approval and payments. Highly Recommended from this blog.

Favourite B-School: Opinion Poll Results

I had been running this "My Favourite B-School" opinion poll on this blog for the past 3 months and it's time now to share the results with you.
A total of 413 MBA aspirants have taken part in this poll so far. (still running) The b-school at No.1 is not very surprisingly the IIMs ( the six IIMs clustered together) - the IIMs were chosen as the B-School of choice by 193 respondents, a little under half the total number of respondents. B-School Rank 2 is XLRI, Jamshedpur - with 57 votes. At no.3 is MICA, the specialised b-school for marketing communications in Ahmedabad. 'Others' make it to No.4, closely followed behind by FMS, Delhi with 30 votes. 20 students voted a non-Indian B-School as their preferred place to do an MBA.
Are you preparing for CAT 2007 or CAT 2008? Or are you amongst the few that are not looking at the IIMs but at the specialised b-schools like MICA, TISS or IRMA - do let us know your favourite b-school by participating in the poll.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Tackling the MOCK CAT 2007

It's that time of the year again, when CAT aspirants get ready to start tackling the battery of CAT-like tests administered by various coaching institutes across the country. For those of you preparing for CAT 2007 or XAT 2008 or any of the many other MBA Entrance Tests, here go a few suggestions:
1. These tests are important no doubt - whether you are taking at a centre or at home from your study material, but be careful. These tests are just that - tests. A test is supposed to help you evaluate where you stand, you get an idea of the yields of your preparation efforts and it also helps you identify your strengths & weaknesses. Once these objectives have been achieved, please move on ahead. Get back to your books and work on the deficiencies. Don't keep taking tests after tests. ( A maximum of 2 a week, i'd think )
2. Should you find after Test 1 that there are too many areas that you have no clue about, then the test has served its job. Go back to your basic material/fundamental books , Part 1 or Part A or whatever else you were using - immediately. Forget all about tests. First get your basics in place, because if that ain't there, even God may not be able to help you - so what can a test do?
3. Do spend some time evaluating your efforts, once you get the results. That's where the value of the test lies - remember these tests are only mock, so they are but stepping stones to the real thing.
4. While you will obviously work on your deficiencies, don't forget the strength areas completely. Keep doing a few questions from them from time to time and be in touch with them. Giving any topic a 2-3 month break is never a good idea.
5. Chill. It can do wonders!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Make money from your blog

I started this blog about just under a year back. While it's a great feeling to be running a site which is visited and read by hundreds of MBA aspirants, I always had this feeling that if i could put in more time and effort into the site, maybe i could provide more value to my readers. However, the constraints of a living force one to do only so much. I was constantly looking for ways to monetize my blog, and have been very happy to find one good potential source of revenue for this blog. It's called Bloggerwave and if you run a blog too, I would suggest you to check it out.

The process is simple: You register at BloggerWave, then you can choose from the review options available at the site, do the reviews that you want on your site and get paid for it. In case you are confused, a review is like a 'product description' or your opinion of a new site/product/service. Advertisers want to market their product, and through your blog, they have a platform to get talking to your readers. Your blog is a media vehicle like any other website or televison channel or newspaper - and just like they get paid for doing an ad or talking about a product, you too. Isn't that nice, and good?


Friday, April 13, 2007

IIM OBC list creates confusion galore

Bangalore / Ahmedabad
Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, on behalf of all the six IIMs, has sent a letter to Human Resources Minister Mr. Arjun Singh suggesting three dates when they coould announce their first list of selected candidates without the OBC quota.

"We are ready to release the first list. In case the government recommends inclusion of the OBC quota, it can be done in the subsequent lists. We have to release the first list at the earliest to ensure that the academic session is not disturbed," IIM Bangalore Director Prakash Apte said.
"We have submitted three dates, and April 21 is one of them. We have given the government enough time to respond," he added.

An IIM spokesperson said that the IIMS may be forced to release the list this year without the quota list if a decision was not made by the government or was not possible for the government to make a decision in time.

The government had asked all the centrally-governed elite institutes such as IIMs and IITs to implement the 27% OBC quota. The IIMs had decided to do so in a phased manner starting this academic session. However, last week the Supreme Court put a stay on the law implementing the quota on the ground that the government had no clear data on who comprise OBCs.

If the IIMs release the first list on the suggested date without the OBC quota candidates, about 1,350 candidates would get a call from the 6 IIMs, put together. A number of students will soon face another tricky question – the other b-schools they may have applied to will soon release their results and they may be forced to pay the fee there.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Preparing for CAT 2007: Reading Comprehension section

reading comprehension for CAT 2008

I have always found the Reading Comprehension (RC) section the most intriguing of the various sections in the CAT and other MBA Entrance Test. Now, here are a number of questions, where the answers lie right in front of your eyes. Yet, the RC section troubles those preparing for CAT like nothing else.

If there is one area of the CAT, for which the faculty, students and other experts (not excluding the idiots at the various top coaching institutes) have devised the maximum number of tips and strategies, it’s this R.C. section. 30 CATs have gone by, and CAT 2007 is just a few months away. Another new CAT, yet the same old question still lingers in every student’s mind – What’s the best strategy for the Reading Comprehension section?

I think the answer to this conundrum lies in the fact that it’s still an unsolved mystery – if after so many years, there is still no well-defined answer to this question, then chances are there is no well-defined answer. Just because the experts are supposed to give you an answer, they do.

Then, what should a CAT writer do in the Reading Comprehension section? My suggestion is – don’t listen to anyone, or if you do, don’t agree to anyone. Hear them all out, if you must – but find your own answers through your own experiments.

If there are 5 passsages with 5 questions each, try all these RC strategies and see what works for you.
·

- Do them as quickly as possible, and try and answer as many questions as possible. Objective of RC Strategy No.1: Maximize attempts.

- Do the passages as quickly as possible, and answer the questions which you are sure of /easies ones. Objective of RC Strategy No.2: Maximize passage and question scanning but filtered attempts.


- Scan passages and do the 2 or 3 that you like. Objective of RC Strategy No.3: Filtered attempts

So, while RC Strategy 1 will work towards attaining maximum attempts, it’s assumed that your accuracy levels will be lower. But since there are more marks for a correct answer than negative for an incorrect answer, if you can beat the odds sufficiently, this will work in your favour.

(Attempting 24 and getting 12 wrong leaves you with a net score of 44. on the contrary if you are choosy and do only 14 questions, and get 10 right you score 39)

Similar calculations can yield similarly better answers for each strategy. What will work best for you can be decided by only one person – you. But you will need to make an effort, after all getting it right means making it to the IIMs, so I guess it sense to put in that bit of work.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

B-School Ranks: Top US Business Schools

United States B-School Rankings : Top Schools for your MBA


Rank 1: Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
( Rank 1 in Financial Times B-School Rankings and Rank 2 in Business Week Top MBA Schools 2007)
Wharton, founded in 1881, besides being the best place to do your MBA in the US is also the best in the world। This school places emphasis on solid grounding in the basis principles of management and as such the first years’s curriculum provides an intensive foundation in general management skills. Students can choose from a variety of dual and joint degree programmes.

Average GMAT Score = 713
GMAT score range = 660 - 760
No. of full-time MBA enrollments: 800
Percentage of female students = 36%
Percentage of Asian students = 22%
Average age of student = 28 years
Average work-experience = 5.8 years
Application Fee = 215 $ (Credit card only)

Rank 2: The Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford Graduate School of Business offers an MBA Program that is a two-year, full-time residential program, focusing on the academic facets of general business management, a Ph. D Program and the Stanford Sloan Program, a ten-month general management program for mid-career executives, leading to a master of science in management.

Average GMAT Score = 711
GMAT score range = 530-800
(GRE score may be accepted in lieu of GMAT score)
No. of full-time MBA enrollments: 749
Percentage of female students = 32%
Percentage of Asian students = 11%
Average age of student = 28 years
Average work-experience = 4 years
Application Fee = 245$ (Credit card preferable though you may pay through checks and money orders in US currency)

Rank 3. Harvard Business School
This home of the “case-study” method of teaching offers a two-year, full-time program that starts in the fall with the summer off between the first and second year. Harvard also offers a number of short-term courses for working executives.

Average GMAT Score = 707
GMAT score range = 600-800 ( TG Guessestimate)
No. of full-time MBA enrollments: 907
Percentage of female students = 35%
Percentage of Asian students = 10-14%
Average age of student = 27 years
Application Fee = 237 $ ( by credit card only)
Average Work Experience = 4 years 6 months
( No minimum work-experience criteria)

Rank 4. MIT Sloan School of Management
Sloan offers a Full Time MBA and Executive Programs. Sloan offers a Doctoral Program leading to PhD in management and an
Undergraduate Program leading to a Bachelor of Science degree in Management.

Average GMAT Score = 702
GMAT score range (middle 80% range) : 640 - 760
No. of full-time MBA enrollments: 328
Percentage of female students = 31%
Percentage of Asian students = 23%
Average age of student = 27.9 years
Average Work-experience = 5 years
Application Fee = 230$ (payable by credit card only)

Rank 5. Kellogg School of Management
Kellogg School of Management offers full-time, part-time, executive and international executive MBA programs. Kellogg is organized into six academic departments and each area offers individual Doctoral Programs

Average GMAT Score = 703
GMAT score range (74% of students) = 650-740
No. of full-time 2 yr MBA enrollments: 506
Percentage of female students = 38%
Percentage of Asian students = 28%
Average age of student = 32%
Average Work experience = 5.2 years
Application Fee = $ 225

Other Top Business Schools in the United States:

- GSB, University of Chicago
(Rank 1 in Business Week Top MBA School Rating)

- University of Columbia
(Rank 2 in Financial Times Top B-Schools 2007)

- Dartmouth College, Tuck

- New York University – Stern

- Yale School of Management
(FT B-School Rank 2007: 10)

Disclaimer:
Unless mentioned, the data given is for the full-time MBA program in each college. Wherever possible, we have tried to use the official websites and the prospectus as the source for the information, else we have employed other credible sources. However, we suggest that before taking a decision, you cross-check this information with at least one more source. Most of the data given above is dynamic and may change within a given range over a period of time.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

The Tent People of INSEAD

A humorous documentary about two students at a top 10 business school who lived in tents with no electricity while pursuing their MBA, contrasted sharply with the housing situations of other students.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Oxford MBA Michaelmas Term 2006

Planning to do an MBA from Oxford? You may like watching this video then - it captures moments from a student's term at this prestigious college in the United Kingdom

B-School Ranking: UK Top 5

Rank 1: Oxford - Said Business School

oxford said business school






Rank 2: London School of Economics

Rank 3: Warwick Business School

warwick business school



Rank 4: University of Cambridge - Judge Business School

Rank 5: University of Bath - School of Management

Thursday, March 29, 2007

A to-be MICAn's queries - answered.

I'm reproducing a mail which I received this morning from someone who has received a final call from MICA. He has raised a few perninent questions, which I thought might interest more than a few people, so I'm reproducing it here. The coloured text has the answers to his questions।
I have got the offer letter from MICA and I have some queries which I know you will have answered million times but for me it is the 1st time so I hope you will get time to answer it.Here it goes:

Q 8 Lacs for the course. Is it worth it? I mean, will I be able to repay my loan or in other words what will be the salary range for 2009 batch?
- Since it's a money-money question, let's look it from a finance angle. Treat this 8 lakhs as any other investment - Supposing you had to put this money into an investment fund what Rate of Return would you have been happy with. What are the normal and good rates of return in the market?
When you pass out in 2009, unless the economy sinks into a 1930s kind of depression or even the 1988-90 kinds, you should at the very least make 4 lakhs p.a. Assuming that this 8 lakh is the principal which can never be gotten back, you have just bought a fund which gives you 50% interest in Year 1 and it's an expanding balloon where the returns will keep increasing for the next 30-35 years. And don't forget, 4 is the bare minimum we are talking about!!
Q. If you are creative you can rise to the top through this course. Is it true? If yes how?
- No, this course is not about "creativity". (PGPCM) You will be working as Brand Managers/Account Executives/ Research Associates/Media Planners etc after this programme - so while you may remain in close association with creatives, you will yourself not required to be one. Of course, a bit of creativity helps one everywhere - but the primary answer to your question is NO.

Q. For lateral placements what docs are needed?
- Certificate of Work Experience besides the regular documents. Nothing special, i guess.

Q. Since I am in the bond period my company can demand the huge compensation so is it advisable to pay them and get the work ex certificate or salary slip and bank statement will be sufficient docs for lateral recruitment?
- It's always advisable to remain on the right side of things, however for this question I'd suggest you take the advise of your friends and parents/relatives also.

Q. I have work ex of 21 months till April. Will it count for lateral placements?
- Yes, of course. Why did you doubt? ( Unless it's part-time or was done along with your studies or before your graduation)
( The advise and the answers given here are general in nature. They may not apply to every single case, so you would be advised to factor in your own peculiar circumstances and take a second opinion)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Next MAT on 6th May 2007: Notification released

AIMA has released the notification for the next Management Aptitude Test (MAT). One of India's more popular entrance exams for various MBA courses, the MAT will be held on Sunday, 6th May 2007 from 9:30 am to 12:00 noon. Over 400 B-schools/Management Institutes are participating in the May MAT.
How to obtain the MAT Bulletin, Prospectus & Application Form?
by post: Send a Demand Draft for Rs.690.00 drawn in favour of All India Management Association - CMS payable at New Delhi alongwith two self-addressed slips/adhesive stickers.
by hand: You can get the MAT Bulletin and Application Form by cash payment at AIMA counters in Delhi and some UTI Bank Branches. (Phone: 24653382, 41757046)
UTI Bank Branches with Phone No. for Sale of MAT form:
Ahmedabad: 66306102
Agra: 2850979
Allahabad: 2421845
Aurangabad: 5621969
Bangalore: 25370615
Bhagalpur: 2409444
Bhopal: 4273882
Chandigarh: 2621591
Chennai: 65295844
Coimbatore:2217765
Delhi - Karolbagh: 51451175
Delhi - East Delhi / Vikas Marg: 22014245
Delhi - Shakti Nagar: 23843389
( for Delhi University North Campus students this will be the nearest UTI branch to collect their MAT forms)
Dhanbad: 2300667
Faridabad: 4039739
Guwahati: 2340522
Indore: 2436908
Jabalpur: 2375601
Jaipur: 2375601
Jamshedpur: 2422307
Kanpur: 2346210
Kochi: 2384270
Kolkata: 22829837
Kota: 2365511
Kozhikode: 2761359
Lucknow: 4009522
Ludhiana: 2402361
Meerut: 2664519
Mangalore: 2410981
Mumbai - Borivali (Suburb): 28903992
Mumbai - Fort (Town): 22835788
Muzaffarpur: 2244009
Mysore: 2512093
Nagpur: 2555647
Panipat: 4015001
Patna: 2206702
Pondicherry: 2227311
Pune: 56015723
Rajkot: 2455931
Ranchi: 2301039
Siliguri: 2642745
Surat: 2663109
Thiruvananthapuram: 2558470
Tiruchirapally: 2769790
Thiruvanantapuram: 2558470
Vadodara (Baroda): 2311313
Vijaywada: 2570672
Vishakapatnam: 2712806
AIMA Nodal centres for sale of MAT form:
Delhi - South - JIMS: 26462385, 26237887
Delhi - Central - DIMS: 23370989
Noida - Vishwa Bharti Institute of Management: 2455197
Faridabad - Faridabad Institute of Management Studies: 2278895
MAT Bulletins will be available till 18 April 2007 (last date)
Last date for submission of filled-up MAT application forms is 20 April 2007
Disclaimer: The above information may not be comprehensive. MAT bulletins also available at other places. We have tried our best to avoid any errors in providing this information. However, you may confirm the above with AIMA, New Delhi (located near the Sai Baba temple)

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

IIM Calcutta Placements - Better than ever before

Two students of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (now Kolkata), IIM-C have bagged the highest paying placement offer in IIM history, worth $250,000. In rupee terms, that works out to Rs.1,12,50,000 per annum. ( One crore twelve lakhs+) . These salaries have been offered by an investment bank for a job in its New York branch. In 2006, the highest salary offered was $152,000.

In sheer percentage terms, domestic salaries have recorded an increase of 100% this year. Again, the highest offer is by an investment bank - Rs. 43 lakhs.

Besides fat pay checks, the IIM-C students this year have also been offered great positions - for the first time in history, Indian b-school students have been offered the post of associates. This brings the IIM students at par with graduates from Harvard, Stanford and Wharton.

Companies which visited the IIM-C campus for placement this year included:

Mc Kinsey, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), AT Kearney, Optiver, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, UBS, CIC, Value Partners, JP Morgan Chase, BNP Paribas and the Sun Group.

(source: Hindustan Times)

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Best Schools under MAT (Management Aptitude Test)

The Management Aptitude Test, generally referred to by its abbreviated name MAT has become one of the most popular MBA entrance tests in India. It has now been approved by the Government of India as a National Entrance Test and a wide number of AICTE approved institutions and some University departments now use the MAT as their entry level test. Conducted by the All India Management Association (AIMA), the MAT is held 4 times in a year.

B-schools affiliated to the MAT are by no means comparable to the ones under the Common Admission Test (CAT) or the XAT conducted by XLRI, but there are a few good ones which can be considered by those who have for some reason or the other not been able to make it to the top b-schools.

The MAT is an 800 marks test, similar to the GMAT, though the level of difficulty is lower than either GMAT or CAT.

This is a list of the top institutes under MAT. Not in any particular order though Amity & Alliance are the most preferred ones.

Alliance Business Academy, Bangalore
( from the Alliance website: Alliance is the first B-School in India to be accredited by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE), USA, one of the 3 premier accrediting bodies for management education.)
Outlook C-Fore survey in 2006 ranked it at no. 9 amongst India’s top private b-schools. In another survey carried out by AIMA, Alliance was ranked as an A+ institute.

Amity Busines School, Noida
(Though it has been ranked as the no.1 private b-school, I am not too sure about that. There are too many b-school surveys happening in India, and the results of most of them are pretty suspect. I won’t be surprised if some of the b-schools they include amongst their top ten are sometimes paid for)
Amity also has a campus each in Delhi, Lucknow, Manesar, Gurgaon and Jaipur.

Indian Institute of Modern Management, Pune (IIMM)
( Though it also conducts another test called BAT (Balaji Admission Test) for the institutes in the Balaji Society, IIMM being one of them. It also accepts CAT, XAT and SNAP scores.)

Christ College Institute of Management, Bangalore
Ranked as an A grade institute by AIMA b-school survey. Christ College accepts the February MAT scores. Minimum requirement: 600

Jagan Institute of Management Studies, Delhi (JIMS)
A comparatively new institute, JIMS has been able to create a name for itself, at least in Delhi and its neighbourhood. Its BBA programme is widely rated as the best under the IP University.
Also accepts CAT scores. Ranked at B+ in the AIMA survey

Institute of Rural Management, Jaipur
Needs a MAT score of 600. You can also apply through ATMA. Ranked as an A grade institute in the AIMA survey.

School of Communication & Management Studies, Cochin (SCMS)
Ranked at A grade by the AIMA survey. Also ranked as A+ by Business India. CAT scores also accpeted

Caution: This is only an indicative list, and by no means an exhaustive one. Please corroborate this information with atleast one more source before taking any decision.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Earn an Online Degree

Wouldn't you like to prefix a degree against your name, that too from the Kaplan University or the University of Phoenix? That too sitting at home!
EarnMyDegree.Com presents an opportunity for working adults to advance their careers by earning a degree. While there are quite a few quality online programmes to choose from, you may also opt from one of many campus opportunities as well - without ever having to give up on your current assignment.
Benefits:
1. Hundreds of online degree programmes to choose from
- Associate, Bachelor's, Master's, MBA, Doctoral, & Certification Programs
( Even within programmes you can choose from a long list of subjects - to name a few, Business, Criminal Justice, Legal, Nursing, Religious Studies, Science and Maths. You can further drill down on each subject area - say within Business, you may go for Marketing/E-business/Accoutning/Finance.)

2. Convenience - You decide when and where to take your classes

3. Fast - Earn a degree online in as little as ten months

4. Financial Assistance - Flexible financial aid options
As for those looking for assistance or information on Online Educational Programmes, this place has compiled all required information for you. Just check the Online Education Learning Centre for yourself.
Earnmydegree also helps you find out whether a certain career option suits you. For example, Should you go for Criminal Justice as a career option? Without going in for a full-fledged psychometric analysis, they have tried to help you find out at a basic level whether this career would appeal to you. There's also a separate section devoted to Online Military Education.
*****************************
( This is a Sponsored Post)

Friday, March 02, 2007

MICA (Mudra) Interview Questions

MICA or Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad, unlike most other schools you would have applied to, is not actually a b-school. The people behind MICA like referring to it as a C-School or a Communications School. It's a specialised b-school, with its area of competence being "marketing communications'. Even the degree you will be awarded at the end of your 2 yrs stint in Shela will not be an MBA or a PGDBM. You will hold in your hands a "Post Graduate Diploma in Communications Management".

Owing to its narrower scope, the MICA interview may include a few questions pertaining to the areas covered under "Marketing Communications". Of course, it's not necessary that you will be asked one such question - but if you include the entire pool of questions, there should be quite a few of them.

Let me enumerate a few to get you thinking along the right lines:

1. What is the difference between 'advertising' and 'p.r.'?

2. What is 'brand management'?

3. What is 'marketing'?

4. Do you know the difference between 'marketing' and 'sales'?

5. Do you think advertisements work? Why? Which one did you like? Do you think it worked? Why do you think so?

6. What's your favourite ad? Do you know who has created it? The agency? ( generally asked if you cite advertising as a career choice, which is true for quite a few people who apply to MICA)

7. What exactly is Maket Research? How is it done? Do you know what a sample is? Can you give the name of a famous market research agency? What's the full form of ORG-MARG?

8. Is there any difference between TV ads and Print ads? Are the products different? When should one go for a TV ad/Print ad/

9. What is your favourite brand? If you were the creative head, what kind of an ad would you have designed?

10. Tell us the name of India's top 10 ad agencies.

11. What is "Marketing Communications"?

12. Do you think you have the sensitivity required to work with highly creative people? Would you be able to handle such people? ( a strength/weakness question in a twisted format)

13. What is Media Planning/Account Management/Accout Planning?

14. Do celelbrity endorsements work? Tell us one.


This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but more so an indicative one..to give you an idea to get started. Take it further from here...all the very best.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Common MBA Entrance Interview Questions..Contd.

q. what are your strengths?

While it's easy to give just any correct answer, it's far more difficult to give a correct yet imressive one. Lots of interviewees end up giving answers like - "I'm very hard working". Now, it's all very good to be hard-working but at this level, hard-work is almost a basic requirement and even if one is not, everyone claims to be one. Hence, the answer comes across as unimaginative and doesn't really add to the interviewers knowledge about you. Please remember that there is approximately 20% chance of selection, so you need to weed out about 80% of the competition through your answers, and in that scenario this answer is not sufficiently good.
If you had indeed been hard-working you should have worked on this question already - the first step would have been to try and categorize your strength areas:
1. Professional strength areas (displayed in case of those already working or in case of students this would be what you think are your potential strengths)
- You may be very good at "analysis" - try and give an example to buttress your point. You may also explain how it can help you be a good manager.
- A great "team player". - you can cite about your success in your college festivals or events.
- Technical strengths
- Any other.
2. Personal strengths
- "I am thorough, meaning you give attention to details and then explain how it wil help you in your professional areas"
- punctual, diligent
- patient, persevering
- flexible, open
3. Other skills & strenghts
- Communication Skills
- Good listener ( this may be a sub-set of the above)
- Friendly / easy to approach / sociable / easy to get along with
The above is only an indicative list, and by no means exhaustive. Please find your own and add and subtract from the list - but spend some time forming your answer. Your friends and family may be a good help here.
***
Next question we will deal with: "What are your weaknesses?". Keep watching this space.
***
The World Cup Cricket is round the corner. Log onto Cricket Etcetera for more.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Preparing for the MBA Entrance Interview - part 2: Common Interview questions

In these posts, we will discuss some of the most common b-school/mba entrance personal interview (p.i.) questions.

q.1 Why MBA? / Why do you want to pursue Management as a career?
-
No interviewer worth his professional/academic experience will accept you as a likely candidate if you go wrong with this one. So you must get this right, without fail.
This question may come disguised also - for example, if you are an engineer, the interview panel may want to know as to why you don't plan to do a Masters in Engineering or Technology. Why not GATE or GRE? But essentially they just want to know that - that why is it that you want to do an MBA?
Where do interviewees go wrong with the answer? - They miss the wheat for the chaff. While it's alright that you do want to make a lot of money in life, please understand that money is an end and not the means. It's not that one cannot make loads of money without doing an MBA - please understand the question clearly: they are asking "why you have chosen this means - that is, management". Similary, lots of other students say that they want to become CEOs or achieve other such exalted corporate positions. Again, the same problem - becoming a CEO is an end, not the means. Getting it?

To understand the question completely and give a suitable reply, you need to understand what becoming a manager entails. What are the roles of a manager? What skill sets does he need? You must know for your own sake the definition of a manager - do you think you have the required skills? Do u think the ones that you don't can be acquired? Can some of your existing managerial skills be refined? As you hunt for this answers, all the while asking yourself as well, the answer to the "Why MBA" will become clear to you.

I don't plan to give you an answer - that will defeat the whole purpose. But think of it like this - people do an MBBS to become doctors, not to become the Medical Superintendent of AIIMS. But will AIIMS ever give the post to a non-MBBS? Why not? Does every MBBS stand a chance of going to the very top? Think about it..and the answers will come flooding in.
***
You may write to me should you need a bit of help - but please write only after you have gone through the process i mentioned.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Preparing for the MBA Entrance Interviews

Let me begin with a question: Would you fear an examination if you were told most of the questions that would be asked, beforehand, and further given time to prepare the answers for them too?
Quite a few things in life are actually pretty simple - just that we somehow manage to complicate them on our own. The B-school (including the IIMs) interviews are one such thing. The interview board rarely ask you questions that you were not expecting or couldn't have expected if you had done even some amount of homework. Even if they do throw a few surprisers, it' s unlikely that a good interview board would reject you on the basis of your lack of knowledge of a particular fact. I have been on the interview board of one of India's finest b-schools myself, and believe me when I say this - each one, mark my words, each one of those rejected was rejected for failing to give a good answer to question/questions that they should well have expected. Yes, we did ask a student to tell us the exact number of districts in India, but she was never rejected because she failed to answer it correctly. We further gave her time to give us an approximate answer, but she was not even rejected for failing to do even that. Such questions are generally "select" answers rather than "rejection" answers. If she had told me that for administrative purposes the great country had been divided into 593 districts, you can't blame me for forming a positive disposition towards the country, can you? I'd have been even more pleased if she wouldn't have known the precise figure but worked out an approximate one. ( 10 small states x 8= 80, 10 mid-sized x 5= 150, 7 large ones x 25 = 175, total: 405 - each one of these figures is wrong, but full marks for an immediate approximate analysis).
If you could become a fly on the wall in any IIM interview room, you would be amazed with some of the answers that you will hear. Students don't go wrong with some of the tougher questions, it's rather the simpler ones which seem to elicit some very weak responses. Inane questions like "Why do u want to do an MBA?" or "What is Marketing?" - well if you want to do an MBA and you expect India's premier b-schools to pick you up you should have a good answer for that, shouldn't u? The marketing sitter is asked to only those students who show an inclination towards marketing, and then not being able to suitably define marketing is a crime, don't u think so? I mean, it's okay if you don't know the precise Philip Kotler definiton of marketing, but your answer should be sufficiently explantory, thats all.
The problem is - interviewees are looking for much external help but don't really sit down on their own and do some good old-fashioned homework. Please understand that the iim interview or for that any other interview is no rocket science. The interviewers are not going to ask you questions out of nowhere. The interview is not so much a knowledge of your test but a test of your aptitude again, just like the CAT. Hence it is not too difficult to gauge what the interview is going to be like, and it follows then that, it's a test where the interviewee already knows the questions beforehand. You just need to be ready with those answers.
Likely scenario:
"Tell us something about yourself/introduce yourself/give us a background et al" are the most common interview openers. There are 2 aspects you need to take care of while answering this question:
1. You should have a rough sketch of the answer ready - of course you know that don't rehearse or memorize the answer.
2. This answer will by and large dictate the rest of your interview. Spend more time or show sufficient enthusiasm while talking about areas that you would like the interviewer to ask you more questions on. If you are a cricket fanatic and would be very happy answering questions on the game, may be you could start with "I am a cricket lover born in a rare non-cricket state in India. It surprises me how Sachin Tendulkar became my favourite sportsman whereas most of my schoolmates at Kochi would swear by Ronaldo or Beckham". Just a suggestion, you could form your own ways of going about it. But don't overdo it as you should cover the various facets of your life and if you drag too long you might be cut short. Also, don't end your first answer talking about a segment of your life from which you do not want the questions to emerge. So don't wind up with academics if that's not where you want the questioning to happen.
to be contd....

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Indian B-School Cut-offs & Percentile requirements

This is an attempt to compile the likely cut-offs for various business schools for admissions to their MBA/PGDBM programmes. Unless specifically mentioned, the cut-offs given below are for the flagship programmes of the respective institutes. All cut-offs are for open/general category students and unless mentioned the cut-offs are in percentiles and not percentages (%) or absolute scores.

Wherever possible, the cut-offs mentioned have been sourced from the respective b-schools, else it has been predicted based on past and current data plus personal interactions and experience. Though I have tried to minimise mistakes to the best of my knowledge, please forgive should a mistake have crept in. The cut-offs mentioned may not be the lowest cut-off but of the lowest point after which very few students would get a call. Please confirm this information with at least one other source before making any final decisions, and use the data prudently.

IIM Ahmedabad - CAT- 98.3 percentile
IIM Bangalore - CAT - 92 percentile
This year, IIM Bangalore has given huge weightage to work-experience thus bringing the cut-offs down. I have personally seen students not getting calls with 99.8 percentile!! ( this student had very good scores across sections but no work-experience)
IIM Calcutta/Kolkata - CAT - 97 percentile
IIM Indore - CAT - 98 percentile
IIM Kozhikode - CAT - 98 percentile
MDI Gurgaon - CAT - 97 percentile
cut-off for MDI Human Resources programme would be about 95 percentile
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) - CAT - 90 percentile
MICA also accepts XAT and GMAT scores. Though there is no confirmation for the same, it's widely believed that MICA expects a high English/Verbal score. Yet, quite a few Engineers do make it through so there is no bias against any academic groups.
Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad - CAT - 95 percentile
May not be considering sectional cut-offs
International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi - CAT - 93.6 percentile
You also need to fare well across sections as IMI considers sectional cut-off as well.
FORE, New Delhi - CAT - 88 percentile
Quite a few very high scores, with percentile over 98 in the CAT were not given calls - FORE may have an upper cut-off.
NITIE, Mumbai - CAT - 97 percentile
Sectional cut-offs considered, only for Engineers
XLRI, Jamshedpur - XAT - 95 percentile
Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa - XAT - 87 percentile
T.A. Pai, Manipal (TAPMI) - CAT - 93 percentile
Sectional cut-offs required
University Business School (UBS), Chandigarh - CAT - 93.6 percentile
Sectional cut-offs: don't know for sure
Nirma, Ahmedabad - CAT - 90 percentile
K J Somaiyya, Mumbai - CAT - 83 percentile
for those without any work-experience the cut-offs may jump to over 88
Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management - CAT - 85 percentile
Great Lakes, Chennai - CAT - 85 percentile
Work-experience required
Welingkar, Mumbai - CAT - 85 percentile
ISWBM, Kolkata - CAT - 80 percentile
IMDR, Pune - CAT - 70 percentile
IMFR, Chennai - CAT - 70 percentile
Amity, Noida - CAT - 70 percentile
Amity also has its own separate entrance test called AMCAT, you need to score over 60 approx out of 100, there is no negative marking here. You can also enter through MAT with a score of 600 plus.
SDM, Mysore - CAT - 75 percentile
Birla Institute of Management & Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida - CAT - 80 percentile
You may apply through MAT as well. BIMTECH also has a separate category of admissions for industry sponsored candidates.
Alliance, Bangalore - CAT - 82 percentile
Kirloskar, near Bangalore - CAT - 70 percentile
Jamnalal Bajaj (JBIMS), Mumbai - MAT percentile of 99 plus
the chief entrance test is Maharastra's state test, the Common Entrance Test (CET) or what's also known as MH-CET or M-CET
Symbiosis Centre for Management & Human Resource (SCMHRD), Pune - CAT - 94 percentile
the chief entrance test is the SNAP, a score of 75 should do, though like other Symbiois colleges, SCMHRD also factors in other parameters like work-experience and educational background before arriving at the GD/PI shortlist.
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune - SNAP score of 83.75
IMT, Nagpur - CAT - 90 percentile
S P Jain, Mumbai - CAT - 89 percentile
SIIB, Pune - Internation Business - SNAP score of 76.75
SIIB, Pune - Agri Business - SNAP score of 51.00
Both the above Symbiosis cut-offs have been arrived at after giving weightages to various parameters including work-experience, education etc. For details, check the official SIBM site

****
For the sectional and overall cut-off for the IIM CAT 2008, click here.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

MICAT: Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad's (MICA) Selection Test

Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad (MICA) is South Asia's leading Communications School today. The Post Graduate Programme in Communications Management (PGPCM) is MICA's flagship programme, the elimination for which happens through either of CAT, XAT or GMAT - the choice being yours. However, post this stage MICA uses an additional written test, besides the regular GD & PI as a part of the selection process. It's called the MICA Admission Test or in short MICAT.


The MICAT is designed to assess the candidates' skills, analytical and divergent thinking, written communication and familiarity with the Indian ethos (this is from the official MICA website). The entrance test is of 1 ½ to 2 hours’ duration and consists of objective-type questions on English and reasoning. There will be some questions on communication as well. You could be asked to develop a slogan/jingle or an advertisement for a brand of mineral water, a new holiday resort, etc.

One myth which almost everybody holds about MICA is the need for "creativity". Please bear in mind that the PGPCM programme at MICA will not land you up with a job in the creative department of any advertising agency - you will instead be in the Media Planning or Account Management or Planning Department. So don't try to be unnecessarily creative while attempting otherwise simple questions. Yes, feel free to let yourself loose if a certain question demands so. And please don't use any verbose language - keep it short and simple. ( you will learn more about KISS once you are inside MICA)
****

MICAT Sample Questions:

Reasoning:

Each question has a set of four statements. Choose the alternative where the third segment in the statement can be logically deducted from the preceding two.

A. All fools are idiots; some men are fools; some men are idiots.

B. All fruits have seeds; All seeds have vegetables; All vegetables have fruits.

C. No fruits are vegetables; All flowers are vegetables; No flowers are fruits.

D.No fruits are seeds; All flowers are seeds; No fruits are flowers.

Communication:
You consume so many products. Mention any of one your favourite brands in any category and tell us (a) why it's your favourite? (b) Did the advertisement and promotion of that particular brand influence you in any way to buy it? Do not exceed 30 words.EnglishUse each of the following words in a sentence to clearly bring out its meaning: (a) clandestine (b) misdemeanour (c) cataclysmic (d) debatable (e) criteria (f) divisive (g) junket

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

East Delhi: Addresses of MBA Entrance Coaching Institutes

List of CAT Prep Institutes in East Delhi. Though East Delhi is a huge geographical area, all these coaching instiutes seem to be clustered on the Vikas Marg stretch. Here's a list of the branch offices of some of these coaching institutes in this part of town.

1. PT Education
First Floor, Above Sony World, 3, Park End,
Vikas Marg, New Delhi
Phone: 011-22443402 / 08

2. Career Launcher
1st floor, Sikka complex , Commercial Complex,

Preet Vihar
New Delhi - 110092, Delhi
Phone: 011-22443352, 22443382
Email:
pv@careerlauncher.com

3. TIME (has 2 centres in East Delhi)
C-4/18, Ankur Complex, Acharya Niketan,
Mayur Vihar Phase I, New Delhi - 110091

F203, IInd Floor, Ashish Complex,
New Rajdhani Enclave, Vikas Marg,Opp. Jhankar Banquet
Phone No. : 42440139/22017044

IMS, surprisingly seems to not have a centre in East Delhi.

Addresses of Coaching Institutes for CAT / Other MBA Entrances: West Delhi

1. IMS Learning Centre,
J-2/21, Najafgarh Road, Rajouri Garden Pin 110027
Phone: 41447295-97
E-mail: rajouri@imsindia.com

2. Career Forum
EFS Institute, 116-117 Suneja Towers II,
Janakpuri District Centre, NEW DELHI - 110058
Phone Numbers: 011-25555494, 9818550475

3. T.I.M.E ( Triumphant Institute of Management Education)
J-2/6A 1st Floor, B.K. Dutt,
Rajouri Garden, New Delhi-110027
Phone Numbers : 25441026/41447973

4. PT Education
J-1/164, Nandi Apartments, Rajouri Garden ,
New Delhi Ph: 011-25412263, 25419384

5. Career Launcher
Building No. 22, Ist floor , Central Market, Punjabi Bagh(W)
New Delhi - 110008, Delhi

Phone: 45408237, 45408238
E-mail: punjabibagh@careerlauncher.com

Remark: Career Launcher doesn't have a centre for CAT prep in West Delhi proper. Punjabi Bagh is in North-West Delhi