TAPMI Manipal, PGDM MSM - review

The admission eligibility criteria are anyone with a minimum of 50% in a bachelors degree can apply. There is no limit on the work experience. Freshers can apply as well, but there are some advantages if you have experience. The candidates with work experience are also eligible for profile based calls, meaning if you have a low CAT score but have relevant work experience and a good profile overall, you can still make it into this B school. The admission process was completely virtual because of the pandemic. It consisted of a GD round which was followed by PI. One tip for you is to go through the program structure for the applied course before the interview, as you can expect a few questions from there as well. There was a virtual induction ceremony conducted by the college which lasted for 3 days. We were told about the various academic activities, pedagogy, learning environment, faculties, campus infrastructure, hostels, rules and guidelines, clubs and committees etc.

I chose this program as Marketing is a field that allows you to express yourself and think out of the box. It motivates you to keep learning and stay updated with what's going on in the ever-changing world. The faculty to student ratio for my class is 1:38. The faculty are very highly qualified with most of them being PhD holders. Several of the faculty members are also regular case writers, whose works are published in various business journals. The teaching methods followed are great. The class is more of an interactive session. It is more of a 2-way conversation rather than being a 1-way lecture. Even though it is an online class as of now, regular class participation makes it a lively experience. We have platforms like Moodle and DigoProctor being used for quizzes and term exams.

There are various companies visiting the campus for the summer internship recruitment process. They offer various roles in domains like Sales, Marketing, Analytics, IT, Finance, HR and Operations. Most of these internships come with a performance based PPO/PPI opportunity. Apart from internships, there are a lot of opportunities to get involved in live projects. These could be academic or industry related. You will never feel that there is a dearth of opportunities coming your way.

The placement process begins from term 1 itself. It starts with the summer internship process in term 1. The final placement process starts sometime around term 4. There are various companies visiting the campus and offering roles for Sales, Marketing, Analytics, HR, Finance, IT, Consulting and Operations. The stipends for the summer internships are in the range of 25,000 to 1,50,000 per month with the average being somewhere around 45,000 per month. The CTC for the final placements is in the range of 8,00,000 to 24,00,000 per anum with the average being somewhere around 11,00,000 per anum. The placement report shows 100% placements. My plans after getting the degree is to work for a couple of years as a sales and marketing executive in startups and then establish a business of my own.

The fees structure is as follows Program fees : 15,10,000. Hostel fees : 3,10,000. There are various academic achiever scholarships and need based scholarships for economically weaker students as well. I haven't been to campus yet so not aware of the job opportunities on campus. Neither have I applied for any scholarships.

I have not yet had the opportunity to go to campus. Will update this as soon as I get there. But from what I've read on the website and seen in videos, there are a lot of resources available in the library which is accessible 24/7. There are many fests and competitions organised by the various clubs and committees of TAPMI. Life on the campus is a roller-coaster ride and you will certainly enjoy it.

I have not been to campus as yet. Will update the answer as soon as i get there and can experience things first hand. But from whatever I've gathered from various videos, speaking with alumni and the college website, the hostel facilities are really good. There are AC rooms available on twin sharing basis. The rooms have a bed, study table, chair and cupboard for each of the students. There is an attached toilet with the room which has a Western Commode, wash basin and shower area. There are enough sockets for charging electronic devices, so there won't be any fights over the charging points. Laundry services are also provided. The mess is not within the hostel building. We need to walk about 300m to go to the mess. Food is good. There is a coupon system followed for food. You can either use the coupon to have a fixed menu buffet, or go for a-la-carte and order anything you like by paying in cash. The quality and taste of food is pretty decent considering it is mess food.

The topic for my GD was "Impact of Covid on MSME".The entire selection procedure was conducted online over Cisco WebEx meets. There were 8 candidates for the GD. Everyone was given 1.5 min each to present their point of view on the topic. Once everyone had spoken, the floor was open for discussion. The discussion time was 15 mins, after which everyone was given 1 min each to state their conclusion from the discussion. After this, we were given our interview slots and the PI process started immediately. The PI panel consisted of 2 faculty members. The questions were pretty basic and more based on the profile. There were a lot of counter questions from my story I had shared with them. They also asked about a few subjects in the Marketing field which interest me the most and reasons for the same. For the preparation of these rounds, i went through a lot of articles online which had a list of common GD topics and interview questions. I then wrote down nicely framed answers to these ques.