My Ongoing Journey with IIM Raipur

I had given CAT 19 on November 24th, 2019. After giving my CAT I was quite disappointed with my performance. Hence, I made up my mind for CAT 20. But received calls from all New and Baby IIMs. The first thing I did was connect with the students as well as the alumni. I had several contacts from my close acquaintance through which I discussed various aspects of the Universities. I wanted a university with a good campus and I wanted my university to be in a capital city. Hence IIM Raipur, IIM Ranchi came into the final list and considering the final call, as IIM Raipur had a good campus, I chose the same. The Admissions team was very friendly and they were supportive throughout the entire process of admission. Initially, during the registration process, we had some technical glitches and later on it was resolved to make the process became very smooth.

During my tenure at SL Luamx, I wanted to do an MBA because of personal interest to understand the overall aspect of the business. Considering my work experience, I decided that a 2 year MBA will be most apt for me and my interests. After deciding to pursue an MBA, I made up my mind to pursue MBA only in reputed institutions. Hence I chose IIMs and prepared only for CAT and applied only for IIMs. Now coming to the IIMs, the faculty to student ratio is good with 15:1 and all the professors were doctorates and they had published many research papers in national as well as international journals.

IIM Raipur being the New IIM, the number of brands visiting the campus are on the rising trend. Before I joined the university, I went through the placement report which was available on the university website. Brands like Deloitte, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahendra Bank, Ultratech, TATA Steel, etc are the prominent recruiters in the campus for both the summers as well as the final placements.

IIM Raipur being the new IIM, the placements are decent. Considering the Placement reports according to 2020 report, the average package stood at 14.2 lakhs and the Median package stood at 15 lakhs. All the students of the batch were placed in final placement as well as the summer placements.

As went throughout the average placement packages as well as the fees of the universities, IIM Raipur seemed to be apt as it had its own campus with state of art facilities as well as the fee was 3-4 lakhs lesser than its peers. Considering the B-School environment, we won't be given any stipend. But many paid live projects and internship opportunities were provided which took care of our financial requirements.

Among all the new IIMs, IIM Raipur has the most number of clubs with the new campus, all the sports are also available in the campus. We also have a vast library with thousands of books and now as we are learning remotely, we are provided with remote access of the Library with subscriptions from many journals which helps us to get the necessary data required for our competitions and studies.

IIM Raipur provides single accommodated hostels to all its students with attached bathroom. The room has a chiller which helps during summers and hot water will be available around the clock during the winters. The college also has a huge canteen facility as well as vendors like Amul catering to the needs of the students.

Most new as well as the IIMs come under the Common Admission Process (CAP), IIM Raipur as well comes under the CAP Interview process. When I gave my interview, IIM Ranchi, took care of all the interview process and It was a smooth and seamless process. On the day of WAT/PI, we had a topic on whether India will attain 5 Trillion Economy or not. In PI, it went on starting with tell me about yourself and it was a great experience I carried the interview. My preparation at the coaching institutes helped to prepare well and that preparation boosted my confidence and finally, I cracked my interview process. I got calls from all IIMs in CAP except IIM Trichy and Udaipur as they had given more weightage to CAT scores in their admissions criteria.