IIFT Delhi - Admission and Overall Review

I chose IIFT Delhi because that was the best option available to me at that point. The flagship course of MBA in International Business is also something I found myself to be inclined towards while I was doing my graduation. Also, logically speaking, the batch size is smaller than the rest of my converts ensures a higher chance of placement. I had had the opportunity to speak to a few students during the GDPI process and the general vibe that I got was very progressive, which is exactly what I knew I needed. Also, a plus point was that it was closer to home.

The experience of the faculty here is probably unparalleled. Their network is unimaginably diverse and I feel lucky to be able to learn from them. Professors like Dr RM Joshi, Dr Ram Singh etc. are a few of the gems of this college. However, sometimes the class tends to feel a little advanced, but then again, MBA is all about taking on challenges. As far as exams are concerned, they were fairly timely, however, due to the pandemic, we started our academic year a month later than ideally scheduled. The exams were not difficult if one paid attention in class. They were quite application-based, especially subjects like Marketing and Operations. For some courses, we have 2 faculties covering the course and teaching us different topics under it.

Internship opportunities are available both on and off-campus. The average stipend last year was around 2,20,000. And we also saw some international offers crossing the 1Cr mark as well. Besides finance and marketing, companies also come in with roles in operations, product management, general management, IT etc. Microsoft and Google provide hefty packages in the finals and are among the first few companies to come in during summers.

Campus placements are quite lucrative here. My inclination is toward finance and some really great companies come in here with a role in finance. Goldman Sachs, JPMC, CITI, ICICI, HSBC to name a few. Marketing is another strong point of IIFT, with marquee recruiters like HUL, ITC, Dabur, Godrej etc.

In my opinion, IIFT has a decent fee structure as compared to colleges like MDI or NMIMs etc. For my batch, of 2020-2022, it is Rs.8,85,000 per year, including books, library and any other relevant inclusion. I'm afraid of not much aware of the scholarship part but some students do get selected for live projects with professors which is a tremendous opportunity to understand the inner working of an industry.

The first year has been online, so we haven't had the opportunity to experience campus life yet. But that never stopped us from interacting as such. A major catalyst for that were the clubs, cells and committees at IIFT. I am a part of the cultural committee at IIFT - Mlange. So far, we've conducted a couple of events, like section wars, open mics, comedy nights etc. But the flagship event of Quo Vadis, we are trying to hold off until we can conduct it offline. Other than this, one can check out the clubs and cells on the website, but what one won't find there is the fact that all these clubs, cells and committees have their own IG and FB pages which are highly informative and give you a real glimpse into the college. Also, pages like IIFTinsider make for a fun read.

We haven't been called on campus, yes, but there are three hostels at IIFT Delhi. The Old Hostel is where all the first years stay. The New Hostel is for second years. Both OH and NH are on campus. And the third one, C9, is off-campus, which is for boys only. The range mentioned above, for hostel fee, is subject to changes.

GD/PI/WAT

GDPIWAT generally happens in February for IIFT. There are two sessions, morning and evening. I was allotted for the morning session. First comes the WAT, where all candidates are seated in a classroom and are givens a topic to write on. My WAT topic was, 'Guilty are those who do not have the power to prove it otherwise.' Moving to GDPI, according to your name on the list, you go to your respective classes and wait to be called. My GD topic was 'Will AI replace human jobs?'. In an IIFT GD, each candidate has is given a minute to speak on this topic before it is opened for discussion. I personally found the process to be very fair for everyone gets a chance. The GD did have its highs and lows. But overall it was pretty civil, barring a few noisy candidates. My PI was quite interesting. It was a 3 member panel, with the academic dean seated in the centre. I was prepared for a technical PI but they asked me questions mostly around my extracurriculars, interest and hobbies, and some GK.