A college with the legacy of IIT Bombay and a great ROI

I had a total of 24 converts including 15 IIMs right from IIM Shillong, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, NITIE, etc. Yet after a lot of contemplation, I decided to pursue my MBA from SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. The major reasons for doing so are the short batch size which reduces the competition especially during the placements by a significant amount, the branding of IIT Bombay for life, tremendous extracurricular and other activities and interaction with peer groups at IITB, and top-notch placements which makes for a great ROI considering the average and median packages. The admission process begins with filling up the form, post which you get calls for the interview process. The process generally includes a WAT and a personal interview post which your composite score is created and if you are above the cut off you are given an offer of admission. On a personal front, I have thoroughly enjoyed my tenure of 1.5 yrs in the college until now and truly the college lives upto its name of being an elite.

The course curriculum is divided into core courses and elective courses. In the first year, only core courses are provided, which are basic courses to build up a base of all the domains such as finance, marketing, IT, strategy, operations, etc. For the second year, there are complete electives wherein a student can choose the subjects as per his/her preference of specializing in a particular domain of choice (degree is general management) There are 24 core faculty members in the college at present and with the batch strength being nearly 240 including the first and second year the ratio is approx. 1:10. It is even lower if we consider the numerous visiting faculties that regularly come for teaching. Each of the faculty is highly qualified with many of them having multiple publications in famed research journals. The exam follows a semester pattern with each semester divided into two terms. Both the terms have entirely different subjects and exam is conducted as per the IITB calendar.

The internships that the companies offer are generally for a period of 8 weeks or some even going on to 12 weeks. The domains include consulting, supply chain, IT, finance, marketing, etc. The college is specifically known for placements in the supply chain domain, although there are also plenty of prominent recruiters from the BFSI and marketing sectors. The roles offered by the companies include fields such as Investment Banking, procurement consulting, IT consulting, product management, transaction banking, corporate banking, management & strategy consulting, etc. Regular recruiters on campus include top names like P&G, Kimberly Clark, Mondelez, Asian Paints, Nestle, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, JP Morgan & Chase, Britannia, Marico, Colgate-Palmolive, etc. There are also a significant number of live projects offered by top firms of which students can be a part off to gain valuable experience.

For summer placements, students get placed in the first semester itself. The students are placed before completion of the first semester, and the actual summer internships are from April to May and even June for people with 3 months of internships. The highest stipend for two months is Rs. 3.2 lakhs and the average stipend is more than Rs. 2 lakhs for two months. The final placements generally begin in the third semester. The highest package for the batch of 2020 was Rs. 32.8 lakhs CTC and avg. was Rs. 21 lakhs CTC. The placements are 100 percent in summers and finals as every student gets a job in a well-reputed firm. The companies' profiles vary right from the core supply chain to IT consulting and even the BFSI sector. Prominent companies on campus include Nestle, P&G, Colgate-Palmolive, Asian Paints, Marico, JP Morgan & Chase, Yes Bank, Kimberly Clark, Mondelez, etc. Many of the firms are giants in their own fields, and thus, there is also scope for international exposure.

The college's overall fee structure is approximately 10.5 lakhs (for general and NC-OBC), 6.5 lakhs (SC, ST, PwD) for 2 years inclusive of mess fees and laptop which is provided by the college. The fee has been constant for the college for a long period of time, and hence the ROI has significantly shot up. There are also various scholarships, including a department provided merit scholarship. The students can also apply to the various government of India scholarships being a part of a government institute. The best part about the institute is its batch size. Due to the small batch size, almost 96 to 97 percent of the batch is sure to get a six-digit salary stipend over a period of two months during summers. Also, the list of regular and legacy recruiters includes quite prominent MNC's and Global 500 companies that come for summer and final placements to the institute.

The campus life is pretty amazing. Situated inside the beautiful and serene campus of IIT Bombay you have all the world-class facilities at your disposal. This includes right from a full-size tennis court to an Olympic sized swimming pool, gymnasium, sports ground, and much more. The annual B-school fest is Avenues and it is generally conducted in the month of November. A good thing is that the library is well stacked and if any books are missing you always have access to the IITB central library which has every journal, book, and subscription you would need. The classrooms are spacious, are air-conditioned and have all the required facilities such as projectors, etc. Significant sports activities occur on the campus, such as Inter-IIT sports championships and General championships. There are multiple student-driven clubs related to every domain of MBA as well as various student driver committees such as Placement, Admissions, IT which students can be a part of.

The hostels of IITB are quite good. In the first year, each room is given on a twin sharing basis, i.e., two students in each room. In the second year, every student has his/her individual room. The room facilities are quite good. There is a provision of a proper cupboard (almirah) for storing your clothes and other items that you would be bringing. Everyone has a study table beside the bed, which also has a connection to LAN. The internet speed is blazing fast, and thus the internet connectivity is no issue at all. Hostel registration is compulsory since it is a residential program. The mess facilities are good with food being provided 4 times a day - breakfast, lunch, evening snacks, and dinner. The food is of good quality and does taste good. Also, the menu is changed regularly and has items such as chole bhature, fried rice. etc for the main course and items like pain puri, vada pav, dabeli, pav bhaji, etc., for snacks. All in all, the mess and room facilities are excellent.

The final admission process consists of a combination of WAT and PI. The WAT topics are generic topics related to the topics mostly in the news or some common topics related to the environment etc. The personal interview process is generally conducted by a panel of 3 interviewers - one alumnus of the institute, one SOM professor, and the other would be a professor from the engineering stream same as that of the candidate. There are plenty of questions related to work experience and a significant amount related to engineering or undergraduate course. For WAT preparation, the best thing to do is keep yourself updated with all the latest and current happenings that are in the news. This can be done through daily reading of newspapers. For the personal interviews, you need to know about every word you have written in your CV and details about work ex and thorough about core background knowledge from your undergrad.