A broad learning experience with WeSchool in Virtual Mode

Other colleges that I applied to were NMIMS, KJ Somaiya, and N.L. Dalmia after the exams of NMAT & XAT. I did clear cutoff and GDPI for KJ Somaiya but did not go for it as the fees were more (14 Lakhs) as compared to Welingkar (11 Lakhs). Also, Welingkar provided broader and newer coverage of subjects. Also, the average placement ROI is almost the same for both colleges. The admission process for Welingkar was very good as compared to KJ Somaiya as it took only took 1 hr max for any candidate for the GDPI process, which was not the case at all for KJ. It suggestively gave me an idea of where I would learn management better. Admission criteria included 78 percentile for XAT & GDPI score. The entire process was based on Merit only, which I found was fair.

I went for Business Design because the course provided Management teachings based on Design Thinking & Innovation, which is a very new & globally accepted approach. Very few institutes in World provide this course like Stanford. The curriculum is designed in such a way that we have many projects to be done through various structured approaches and in varied fields of our choice. It also gives exposure to planning a complete business. The syllabus includes all management subjects along with subjects from design as well like UI/UX etc. The student strength is about 60 in a batch. The faculty comes from a highly experienced background from various sectors like IT, Automotive, Design, Finance, etc an average of 12+ years of experience. The faculty is also frequently involved in research and publishing works at the international level. Most faculties have PhDs in varied fields like Analytics, Investment Banking, Marketing, HR, Operations, etc. and though are very much friendly and helpful.

The college provides a plethora of Summer & Winter Internships from various industries like FMCG, Automotive, Lifestyle, Retail , Consultancy, Banking & Investment, Insurance, Media & Entertainment, Government, Journalism, etc. The projects range from fields like HR, L&D, Investment Banking, Analytics, IT & Technology, Market Research, Sales, Digital Marketing etc. The stipend varies from 0 to 75K / month depending upon the company offerings and roles. The summer internship is compulsory and the winter internship is optional. The college allocates 2 months full for these summer internships but also parallelly students have to do an industry project given by the college (GCL program) which exposes students to more live industry exposure.

The placements start in the 2 years of the course. Some companies visiting the campus are Amazon, ICICI Bank, Deutsche Bank, Nestle, Morgan Stanley, Siemens, Cognizant ,EY,Accenture, Deloitte, GEP, Viacom 18, Oracle, Manpower Group, Estee Lauder, Schneider Electric, JLL, Parle Agro, Mattel, Welspun,DHL etc. The highest CTC offered was 15.45 Lakhs for the 2018-2020 batch & the Average CTC was 8.4 Lakhs for Business Design. Total 358 companies visited the campus. The campus placements are umbrella placements which means all students can apply for all companies unless the companies have any criteria.

The entire Fee for the course is 11 Lakhs. The college hostel cost was about 1.5 Lakhs per person, but due to the pandemic, it was not taken from students. Opting for a college hostel was not compulsory. Never heard of any scholarship or financial assistance. The campus does provide summer & full-time placement opportunities. Currently, I am placed with Petronas Lubricants for my summer internship. Next year there will be opportunities for full-time jobs.

Being in Virtual mode, the college has not yet conducted any fest to date. But the guest and industry sessions on various topics are frequent on a 15-day basis. The e-library access is provided to every student which I would rate 3/5 as it includes access to various database & journal platforms like Ebscohost, Statista, EMIS, ProwessIQ, Shodh Ganga, etc. There are internal informal clubs and groups for Consultancy, HR, Marketing, SCM, Photography, Dance, Design, etc.

The admission process had GD, PI, and Paragraph writing post the entrance test cutoff of XAT,CMAT,CAT etc. My GD topic was 'How rural India can be uplifted in financial terms. Post which all students were asked to write a summary of the discussion. Others topics that I heard from peers were 'Pros and Cons of B2C Industry', 'Pros and Cons of Blockchain Technology. The Interview panel was very good actually were willing to know the candidate which was not the case with other college PIs I gave. It went around 20 mins and had a very structured approach. It was based more on my profile and what I knew and have experienced and all about my opinions, rather than being asked about the world and financial facts and figures like another institute PIs. After having approached the seniors, I had prepared before by reading the current affairs, brushing up about emerging technologies and going through coaching class material.