A walk through the panther's den

It had the best placement record and average salary in that year. The faculties are really good and approachable. Pedagogy is also interactive and engaging. Management is really strict regarding the placements, appearance (clean shave, jet black formals, etc.), attendance, and deadlines for the assignments. After getting a decent score in CAT, you need to clear the CAP i.e. (common admission process) interview round which includes a written ability test (WAT) and a personal interview (PI). Reason for preferring this college was it had the best placement figure as compared to other peers IIMs, it is in my native city and most importantly it has a beautiful new campus. I researched the placements report available on the college website, watched videos of Inside IIM.

PGP is the most valued course in the Indian market. The reason for choosing this course was that it would instil me with practical as well as theoretical knowledge of the present market scenario. It would provide me with a better understanding of the various functionalities of an organization. It would enhance my skills and change my personality altogether to become a better and efficient working professional. In the first year, a faculty for any subject looks after 2 sections having 60 students each. Faculties are extremely talented and most of them are PhD along with an FPM degree with at least 5 years of prior teaching experience in top b schools. Term exams were affected due to the Covid pandemic and due to the online platform, we faced difficulty in answering the subjective questions.

Companies like Deloitte, Reliance Jio, Ultratech, Asian paints, etc. visited this year for the summer internship and the average stipend was 70000 INR. The projects were basically identifying the problems in a particular domain and then providing solutions to the company. Increasing the profitability of the company and completing the stipulated tasks on time.

Students are eligible for placements right from the 4th trimesters. students get a PPO in their SIP which means that they are placed in the 4th term itself but the majority of placements take place during the 6th term. Companies such as Deloitte, Cognizant, L&T visit campus regularly and they usually offer 12-14 LPA to the students. Last year a total of 191 companies visited campus. Last year the average package was 15.10 LPA and the highest domestic package was 27.5 LPA. The profiles offered are mostly marketing and operations profiles and very few general management and consultant roles are offered here. IIM Raipur has a record of 100% placements from the last 10 years.

Due to the new campus, the fees have been hiked but it is still lower than the other new IIMs. The course would incur around 16 lakhs INR for two years and the international exchange program is separately charged which is around 3-4 lakhs INR. Students can easily avail loans from banks like SBI, HDFC which provides special interest rates for the premium institutes.

The annual fest of IIM Raipur is 'Karmanta' which is conducted in Jan-Feb each year but this year it stands cancelled due to the unavailability of students at the campus. The library is well equipped with almost all books for each and every electives and course. It has a vast e-library also which includes almost all the researches, journals, research papers, etc. It has the best classrooms with spacious air-conditioned facilities. There is a separate sports arena where all indoor sports like squash, badminton, table tennis, etc. are played and it also has a basketball court, a swimming pool, and a multipurpose ground used for cricket and football. We have 13 clubs and committees which are student bodies catering to the needs of students and bridging the gap between students and the management.

IIM Raipur has personal rooms in the hostel with attached toilets. The wings are designed in such a way that the need is of an air conditioner is not required. The mess is run by a locally outsourced body that takes proper care of hygiene and taste and quality of the food served. The menu includes items from all parts of India that make everyday food interesting. The registration for the hostel is included in the admission process only.

As per the revised policy of new IIMs, there was a written ability test WAT in which we have to write around 400-500 on the topic given on spot. The duration is usually 15-20 mins for attempting the WAT. The topics can be anything from current affairs, economic issues to abstract topics. I followed the news and current affairs for preparing for WAT and practised a few times to understand and improve my writing style. WAT is not an eliminating round but its score is added to the cumulative profile score of the candidate. After WAT the next round is the personal interview PI round, my PI was centred around general awareness about national and international topics like politics, sports, entertainment, etc. They also took an extempore on a topic related to my undergrad degree.