Vikash Sharma's Review On S.P Mandali's Prin L.N Welingkar Institute Of Management Development & Research (WeSchool), Mumbai

We had to write the common entrance test conducted by Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Mgmt under the aegis of Mumbai University. In those days there were 8 colleges in Mumbai offering this course. Based on the written test scores one had to apply to one or more colleges for admission who had their own selection procedure consisting of Group discussion and personal interview. I had applied at Chetana's, Bhartiya Vidyapeeth and Welingkar Institute of Mgmt.

The course curriculum was exhaustive and was adapted to the requirement of the industry, there was a good balance between theory and project based assessment which helped students understand the finer nuances of the corporate world.

We had a two year full-time course which was broken up into four semesters. After the end of two semesters we had a summer placement which involved getting placed with companies for a brief period of 6-8 weeks, wherein a specific project was handled by the summer intern. If I'm not mistaken the stipends those days used to be 1000/-p.m, We had companies like Godrej, Crompton, SM Dyechem and a host of other companies who recruited summer interns from our college.

There was 100% placement from our batch, considering some students opted for their own start-ups or joining their family business. The typical starting package those days used to be in the range of 2000- 3500 p.m. We had major companies which came to campus such as Godrej, ITC, Citibank, B.B.T.C, TOI etc. This being 25 years ago, it would be very difficult for me to give packages in detailed figures.

We had a healthy mix of classroom theoretical teachings, field activities and project based assignments which made learning an enjoyable exercise. We used to have these Executive Development Programs conducted off-site for a period of 2-3 days which involved group activities, individual assessment and a lot of fun activities too. Our college used to conduct this International Management Film Festival.

This was 25 years ago and frankly speaking have no idea of what exactly the fee was, but it definitely was not that expensive as we hear nowadays of students having to take educational loans to fund their fees..this was definitely not the case in our time.

Back then educational loans were unheard of and really there was no scholarship endowment for a management degree as far as my knowledge goes. Today there are a host of scholarships set up by business families, state government, Central government, philanthropic institutions and of course bank loans at special rates of interests.

Our batch of 50 had a strength of 11 girl students which was pretty high those days- a 80:20 ratio was considered very good back those days. Nowadays this ratio could also be reversed with the no of girl students entering varying fields of education. We had quite a few extracurricular activities like Mr. Manager contests judged by the seniors and faculty. We used to conduct the International Management Film Festival.

The college had a host of distinguished academicians who were from the industry and who made learning fun. Prof Shahuraja, Prof. Banerjee, Prof. Mankikar, Prof Gondhalekar, Prof.Srinivasan etc it's not possible to name each and every one of them in this limited space. The seniors were a helpful lot and ragging was unheard of in our campus apart from some jovial banter asking jumiors to introduce themselves.

The first three semester exams were conducted by the college and the Final semester papers used to be conducted by Mumbai University.Our final grades were based on the aggregate of all the four semesters and the final year project submission. This was a full time course and frankly speaking was not that hectic considering the fact that the course was spread over 2 years.