GLIM Chennai-PreCovid-19 review

The exam I wrote was CAT and I used the help of TIME with their materials and mock exams. The main deciding factor was the location, I chose this college since it was in Tamil Nadu and one of the best ones here. The admission process involved a short essay writing followed by PI and the whole process was smooth. The adcom folks were helpful throughout the process. The college experience is mind-blowing. What is more important is the exposure you get when you are here.

The course curriculum is evolving primarily on the feedback of the students which is a mandatory thing. The fresher year had topics covering all the fundamentals but had less focus on operations. The faculties were in most part Phdians and were well versed in their particular domain. But some faculty had problems communicating their thoughts to the students. The mode of teaching was usually similar to that of undergrad with occasional case studies. The exams were spilt into the midterm, end term, and a few quizzes for each course. Regarding the difficulty of the exams, it was toned down after scathing remarks from the seniors.

Companies like Mckinsey(operation), JPMC, Barclays, SocGen, Nestle, VMWare, Gain Insights, HDFC, and others come for a variety of roles most often look at both PGDM and PGPM in the same pool. The stipends offered varied from none to INR 50,000 per month.

For the summer internships, certain big names come after the second month of starting college whereas the majority typically come around the second term which is from October to December. On account of Covid-19, the level of placement has come down drastically with most of the companies being startups. As far as final placements are concerned, there is a lot of scope for finance and moderate expectations for marketing and little to slim for operation roles. The placement percentage always becomes 95 or 100% either by forcefully putting students in irrelevant job roles or making them withdraw from the process.

The fees for PGDM was less than that of the flagship PGPM. All the programs are mandatory residential. The fees spilt up was tuition - 45%, program - 25%, accomodation (double occupancy) - 20% and food (veg) - 10%. There is a facility to avail loan assistance and the college helps in that regard.

The star festival is the L'Attitude organized around the month of January. Apart from this, the various committees present have their own event such as Quizzes, Treasure hunt, Case study competition, and so on. The college also hosts TedEx which did not happen in 2020. College life is vibrant even in the late hours of the night and there will be students doing projects, prepping for tests/ placement or arranging for upcoming events, etc.

The room allotted for PGDM students is double occupancy while PGPM can opt for single if needed. The hostels were separate for men and women and each room had AC facilities and a cot and study table for each of the two students. The meals were prepared by Sodexo who has been removed now and the new contractor is Compass. Regarding the taste aspect, it has been poor so far. There are additional stalls that serve sandwiches and other tasty stuff but are not covered under the mess fees already paid. The whole registration is fairly straightforward and smooth. Since this is a residential program there is no option of becoming a day scholar and opting to live outside in a PG.

The first round was a short essay writing and the topic was based on current affairs either political in nature or other areas. Following which there was a Personal Interview round. The interviews varied from person to person, my interview was focused more on my undergraduate course, and a few questions were raised on the projects I had undertaken. This was the case for freshers. Candidates with prior experience had questions focused on the nature of the job and the relevancy they felt towards doing an MBA. Apart from this were the basic personality questions. Having mock interviews will certainly help one in tackling this round.