Why I Chose Five-Year-Old IIM Nagpur Over Decades-Old Private B-Schools

This is of course not for those who have calls from old IIMs and likes of SP Jain, JBIMS, MDI, XLRI.

Well, I thought of writing this article to address this specific situation because as a student I have experienced exactly the same dilemma in 2018. Infact, my dilemma was one step ahead - I had paid 9.25 lakhs INR for NMIMS Mumbai’s core MBA program (with an aspiration to go for Marketing) and then in 3 weeks, I left the institute. I was happy to lose 3.5 lakhs because my priorities and parameters showed that IIM Nagpur, or for that matter mostly any IIM has several intrinsic advantages over decades-old private B-Schools. IIM Nagpur results came in June and by then classes had begun at private B-schools. 

PS: I had converted NMIMS Mumbai Core, IMI Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad and SCMHRD by March and amongst these NMIMS Mumbai core was an obvious choice. I did not attend interviews of VGSoM IIT Kharagpur, XIMB because by then NMIMS Mumbai results were out and for me and also for all of you any day NMIMS Mumbai core MBA is way better than a VGSoM or an XIMB. But the dilemma happened when my wait lists at new IIMs started converting. And the battle was NMIMS Mumbai versus IIM Nagpur. I was not looking for IIM Jammu, Sirmaur, Sambalpur, Bodh Gaya because of location advantage that IIM Nagpur has.

And today, after a year when I am writing this experience, I don’t have any regret for what decision I took, IIM Nagpur has lived up to more than what I expected and in last one year I have come across many students across IIMs who have left those league of private decades old B-schools for new generation IIMs. Let’s go by each parameter now.

Placements

Without saying, this is one thing for which we go for an MBA.

Inflated placement reports are a critical issue with almost every B-School in India. Coaching institutes and other so-called experienced folks address these concerns by saying reduce 10%-20% of what B-schools placement reports show. After being in a premier B-School campus for 3 weeks, with more than 500 seniors in the batch, it becomes quite easy to understand the reality. Your class section mentors, club/committee seniors, you have a large sample size to talk to and gather right insights.

If any institute of decades-old stature says that you get 16 LPA or 17 LPA and upon research with current students and alumni, you get to know that reality stands at 13 LPA-14 LPA and if luck stands by your side and you end up getting a PPO, then you can get around 15 LPA – 16 LPA (notice so many ands, that means life at private schools with huge batch size depends on a good number of uncontrollable factors, thereby usually more risk). But this lucky pool of people is close to 150-200 out of 500 plus odd candidates. What happens with the last 200-250 candidates is something that is not talked of ever. This issue persists with every private B-School where the batch size is huge.

So, IIM Nagpur and some more IIMs have the practice of putting up audited placement reports. This is a real practice that every institute should do, every element of doubt automatically gets eliminated and I need not even write anything to justify the same. Thanks to IIM Ahmedabad, mentor of IIM Nagpur in the initial days that inspired us to adopt a transparent practice.

The only advantage those decades-old private institutes in metro cities have is that since they are so old, that many brands come for recruitment. But again that’s true for some 50%— 60% candidates, rest go for mediocre profiles and start-ups. With new generation IIMs, look at any IIM, every year as they grow a year old, entry of some new brands are definitely there. So, a year on year growth in placement figures (trust more on the IIMs as they get it audited, for instance, IIM Nagpur does), year on year brands getting added in the recruitment process is a huge boost.

For instance, IIM Nagpur has on campus prominent recruiters such as Deloitte, Berger Paints, Amul, V-Guard, Yes Bank, CRISIL, SIDBI, Blue Star, HPCL and many more. Now, these companies did not come during the initial couple of years, but now they have started to come. Next year, we will have more brands for recruitment. So, even that advantage which old private colleges have of seeing popular brands on campus is not sustainable, despite being in metro cities. IIMs will have all those recruiters in the next 1-2 years.

For aspirants, please know the reasons why in initial 1-2-3 years all brands do not come on some campuses. There are HR policies within companies that they will visit a campus only when it’s 3 years older or 5 years older, some says 10 years older, they also have a policy that batch size should be 100+ or 200+ because they show internally that when we visited a campus, X number of people sat in the recruitment drive, so a higher value of X is good for the HRs as well. Such and similar other policies result in many so-called brands not visiting campus in initial years but now things have changed. All new IIMs are having those firms on campus (at least 60% and rest will be coming up in a year or two).

Simple logic, if we are pushed to an extent where we are even comparing decade old well-established institutes with new IIMs, then the answer lies there.

In hardly 5/10 years, these new generation IIMs have already touched the point that much older institutes managed to get to in some 30-40 years. This rapid growth and improvement speaks for itself. Then why should we even doubt where to go?

I hope for each one of us the statement, ‘keep improving, that’s important and most positive’ has been true since school days and so while looking at B-Schools comparison we should follow this saying.

Look at what IIM Ranchi, Trichy and likes of Udaipur, Kashipur have done in just 7-8 years. They have left those decades-old private colleges across Delhi and Mumbai way behind in so less time. IIM Nagpur, Vizag and Amritsar are also on same lines; already this league of IIMs is at par with them and in next 1-2 years we will be roaring louder.

A new thing that every aspirant should check, whether a college has an AUDITED PLACEMENT REPORT or not.

Curriculum, Faculty, Academics

After placements, curriculum and academics are quite important. At IIM Nagpur, complete curricula of what happens at IIM A and IIM B are taken as a benchmark. All faculties are from elite institutions such as IIM A, IIM B, XLRI, IIM I. I am interested in Marketing and in 3 weeks at NMIMS I recall just one case based discussion in out of some 6-7 lectures. 100% Case-based pedagogy is the best and nobody wants a lecture class in a B-School, so instead of 60% case-based system why not have a 100% case-based teaching. Across all IIMs, this holds true.

One guarantee that an IIM brings with the name is much better faculty and curriculum than private B-Schools. This is justified now, especially after I have experienced classes at a decades-old B School and a 5-year-old IIM.

Even for Statistics or Quantitative Methods, in those 3 weeks at a private B-School, method of teaching involved solving questions from a sheet. 3 weeks it remained the same, and questions were what you get in a textbook.

When I came to IIM Nagpur, even QM or statistics had case studies in every single 20 sessions. Now, this is real learning where you apply analytics out of QM learning in real life business cases. So, a private school gives you 50%-60% case-based learning, that too may not be in every subject but an IIMs don't compromise on the same.

Amongst IIMs, let us talk of IIM Nagpur only. Here, your faculties are from IIM A, B and XLRI, and the cases they discuss in class or the concepts they teach is same as what happens in old IIMs. So, if we have missed getting in IIM A, B, C, why eliminate the chances of learning from the same faculty who teaches there/who have taught there. 100% faculty from elite IIMs versus few faculties from IIMs in a private B-School - what will you ask for? The answer lies here.

Return on Investment

I won’t talk on this because I believe what we spend in two years that helps us earn for a lifetime. So, even a high fees or total expense at a place like NMIMS Mumbai (in two years close to 25-26 Lakhs INR you will be investing for an average CTC of close to 14-15 LPA is perfect because you then build on this base and earn for life. So, looking at fees one shouldn’t choose a college unless you have some severe loan issues/financial burden that doesn’t allow a high loan).

Remember, this article is to highlight how I compared my choices. So, I would state that for me fees wasn’t a critical factor in this decision. Even I have a loan but I believe that this investment of two years pays me for life, so that’s my real ROI. Still, for other candidates, fee and loan have been important and even if we look at that aspect, IIMs are way better. You spend on a new IIM close to 13-14 Lakhs and two years and average CTC you get is in the range 11 LPA – 14 LPA. In fact, this has been increasing every year. So, new generation IIMs are giving you close to 1:1 ratio.

There goes a saying that if I will invest more than 20 lakhs for MBA, then better to write CAT again and invest this in old IIMs and not in private B Schools. Seems quite logical, although it’s another story if you don’t have the option to write CAT one more time.

Long term benefits of IIM/IIT tag

There is a saying that an IIM/IIT tag helps in the long run. But how? Many experienced people will say, "No yaar. In the long run, it’s just your capability." True, our own capacity and capability matters but what a great tag gives you. It gives you more opportunities, it leaves that one moment mark in every eye that looks at your profile, and it gives you a higher probability of not being sidelined in some situation.

For instance, after ten years of work experience post MBA, you are competing for some high profile role along with a few others from non-IIMs. There, an additional trust builds up, that this candidate has been from a prominent league of institutes and we can’t deny him/her a chance, and once you are there, you can put up your best possible show that would differentiate how you are better off than many others. So, grabbing an opportunity or getting attention is what an IIM/IIT tag gives you - the initial preference based on trust and legacy that these brands carry - after that you only have to show your capability. This is that intrinsic benefit that people talk of, and there is no harm in getting this by doing an MBA from an IIM.

Consider, IIM Indore, Kozhikode - they started in 1996 and they were also new when they started and today, for example, an IIM Kozhikode graduate of 2000-02 batch wherever in career would be, nobody would be telling him/her that  'Oh, you were from the 5th batch, so new, not working.' Instead, today, if you meet that alumnus, you will be amazed to see the growth and you yourself will be more interested in knowing how things were in 2000. The same flow holds true for this generation new IIMs. So, a flawed statement to some extent is hovering around in minds of aspirants that new IIMs have drawbacks, no benefit in long run blah blah.

If you have any other plans apart from usual jobs in life, be it entrepreneurship or something in a creative field, trust me it may look illogical but IIT/IIM graduates do get preference in terms of break/funding/investment.

For entrepreneurship, it goes without saying; investors are always looking for IIT/IIM grads. Just because a friend of mine wanted to be an entrepreneur, he left NMIMS right after 3 weeks once he had IIM Kashipur converted. Also, look around in the startup ecosystem. The most successful startups, with a sustainable model, usually have come up from some IIT guy or an IIM/SP Jain/XLRI/JB alumnus. We have very few from non-IIM private school graduates. I don’t mean that non-IIM graduates are not capable of. Of course, they equally are, but then in so many decades, their alumni base hasn’t come up with a number that could be recalled.

I come from a creative field, I write and with two books published, I have seen the publishing industry and print media from very close. So, my second aspect of what you want to do in life apart from jobs has an experience that if I approach a media house for some coverage or news, they first ask me, what’s your background. A real incident is when I visited TOI Delhi office in 2015 to ask for a review of my books and the first question - ‘Are you from an IIT?'

Till November 2018, I didn’t get a TOI review, and once I had the IIM tag with me, TOI asked me to do poetry coverage for them. So, this is India, here a lot of things are not logical but very intrinsic, so an IIT/IIM tag gives you opportunities slightly more than others.

Batch Size

No need to discuss on the same. Each one of you knows that batch size of 500-600 has so many hidden elements, shocks and side effects and so a batch size of 120-250 across new IIMs is quite ideal.

Campus life

Who doesn’t like a campus life; one may miss this being in Mumbai or any metro. People will say new IIMs don’t have a campus of their own, but every IIM has a temporary campus as of now and permanent ones are under construction. And what’s wrong when your temporary campus is in a lush green environment like we have at IIM Nagpur (within VNIT campus). You stay in proper hostels, single occupancy with an attached balcony here at IIM Nagpur and that’s the best part. The amazing feeling of doing assignments together till late night hours, studying for exams together, sitting in college canteen at 2 am, is something you miss if you are in college without a campus and hostel life. So, any IIM brings this added advantage.

Career, money, and everything else will happen one day, but these hostel memories you won’t live again. So why not add an emotional segment in your MBA journey?

To end now, faculty, curriculum, academics, improved, audited placement reports with no inflation (most importantly trusted placement reports, AUDITED ones at IIM Nagpur); increase in opportunities and visibility that an IIM/IIT tag gives you, smaller batch size at IIMs than any decades-old private B-Schools and yes if you want to be an entrepreneur/do something else in life again an IIM/IIT tag helps in building a connect on the go as you easily get a recognition and people easily remembers you. These basic yet important factors helped me choose IIM Nagpur over decades-old private B-schools.

So, do make proper analysis before you make your choice. It’s not just a job that matters in life; there are several other factors which we tend to ignore in the race to get a job.

All the best!   

PS: These are entirely my views and the logical thought process that I used to make my decision and today after a year I have no regrets, I am much happier since last 1 year than what I was during those 3 weeks in Mumbai, Eventually, happiness and satisfaction if a decision gets true matters the most in life. So, you do what satisfies you the most. I did what makes me happy, and is in sync with my career goals.

Here's a college list as per my understanding and thought process. I hope it helps some if not many (these are not the rankings, just a tentative distribution of top 45 institutes in 5 tiers that an aspirant should aim for).

Tier 1: IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, XLRI Jamshedpur, SP Jain Mumbai, FMS Delhi, ISB Hyderabad, JBIMS Mumbai, IIM Lucknow, IIFT Delhi & Kolkata.

Tier 2: MDI Gurgaon, IIM Kozhikode, DMS IIT Delhi, SJMSOM IIT Bombay, NITIE Mumbai, TISS Mumbai, IIM Shillong, IIM Ranchi, IIM Trichy, IIM Indore & IIM Indore Mumbai campus.

Tier 3: IIM Udaipur, IIM Kashipur, IIM Raipur, SIBM Pune, MICA Ahmedabad, SCMHRD, IIM Rohtak, IIM Nagpur, IIM Vishakhapatnam, NMIMS Mumbai.

Tier 4: IIM Amritsar, DMS IIT Madras, DoMS IISc Bangalore, VGSOM IIT Kharagpur, IMT Ghaziabad, IMI Delhi, Sydenham (SIMSREE)  Mumbai, IIM Bodhgaya, XIM Bhubaneshwar, DMS IIT Roorkee.

Tier 5: IIM Sirmaur, IIM Sambalpur, IIM Jammu, IME IIT Kanpur, SIIB Pune.

Others (worst case scenario in case you don't have the option to write the exam again): KJ Somaiya Mumbai, TAPMI Manipal, DSE University of Delhi, Fore School Delhi, MHRM IIT Kharagpur.

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