The 'I' at IIFT, New Delhi

College management is mostly helpful. Some areas like re-examination for some students, late fees, any initiative in college is fully supported by college faculty. Overall it is a fun fulled ride to be at IIFT for two years.

I took CAT, IIFT, NMIMS, XAT. I got 87% in CAT, 92% in XAT, (no interview calls from either CAT or XAT) cleared NMIMS interview as well as IIFT Selection process. Reason i opted for IIFT was it was a MHRD college, had better ratings over NMIMS, Hostel and a small batch strength.

The course curriculum is good in terms of the elective options. Apart from that the fundamental courses like that for Finance, Micro/Macro Economics, Marketing, Org Behavior, Operations, Statistics, IT are all part of the curriculum to prep you for the corporate world. Apart from that, there is strategy / consulting course also from Cognizant, Capgemini which is taken by corporate people from these respective firms.

Yes, IIFT does have a mandatory Summer Internship Program in place. Corporate visit our campuses to recruit the first year students for a 2 month internship program starting April. The internship recruitment process starts during the month of november. The senior year students help the new batch in preparing for the SIP by grooming their resumes, interviews and motivating them to study about industry and their areas of interest. The internship spans across various domains - Finance, Marketing, Strategy, Consulting, Operations, Trade. The average stipend is 50K+. Students are supposed to submit a SIP report to the faculty at IIFT on which they are graded as well. Internship experiences acts as an eye opener as to where the student wants to build their careers giving them to exposure to life after college as they get to interact with people from the industry.

Placement process is usually driven by a committee of students called placement committee. It comprises of students from the first year as well as second year. They make pitches to various companies to visit our campus highlighting to them the batch profile, diversity of the batch i.e. backgrounds of students, gender mix, demography etc, Opportunities available to students are from all walks of the MBA domain mentioned earlier. For finance domain - students with relative less work ex (1-2 years) are considered, same is the case for the marketing domain. Students with 2+ work ex (and if it is from IT domain mainly are the best fit for IT consulting, pre-sales roles in IT companies etc.) Trade companies visit the campus during the end of the whole process - so students aspiring to go into this domain usually have to wait for the process to complete. E-commerce & Finance companies along with some companies offering Consulting & Pre-Sales IT roles are the first ones to visit.

Starting from the first year, there is a Professional development program conducted for first year students by seniors. This acts like a induction program for the incoming batch. It lasts for a period of 7-10 days. Then there is a freshers party to welcome the new batch followed by reverse freshers which is conducted by the juniors for the seniors. There are few other parties on the similar lines. There is an intra-college sports fest which happens on the lines of IPL where students get auctioned for 4 groups / franchise and then those students represent their groups across various sports and events. there is real money involved as initially students have to bid for fanchisees. Winner of the event ends up winning the prize money from the sponsors. During the event, franchisees have to market themselves with banners & other promotions. The campus really comes to life during this period of 10 days. During the period of January, comes the most happening time of campus life at IIFt - Quo VAdis. It is IIFT's Annual Management fest. In this various management case study competitions are organized along with cultural events. Groups from Delhi university come to showcase various musical, drama etc. performances. Artists from bollywood like Vishal Shekar, Benny dayal, kailash Kher, The local train etc. also come to enthrall the audiences. Sunburn Campus event also occurs during this time.

Though being affiliated as a college associated with MHRD, the fee structure is on a higher side. The total fees for two years is 13.25 lacs excluding the cost of living on campus. There is separate hostel fees of 50K and mess fees which varies from 7-9K per trimester. It is not mandatory to eat (pay) in the mess.

IIFT helps students avail education loan easily from SBI's NCERT branch. For students fulfiling certain criteria, their interest payments can also be waivered off. Apart from this there is an option of scholarship from industry bodies like OP Jindal which offer scholarship upto 2 lacs.

Campus life at IIFT is something definitetly to look forward to. Located in the educational hub of Delhi, near to IIT Delhi, JNU there is a lot to look forward to. You have the option of visiting annual tech fests of IIT, or other events happening at JNU. There are student committees to help the batch exercise and improve their debating skills, then there are other B-schools / industry competitions which drastically help the students in improving their presentation skills and research skills too. There is a lot to look forward in sports area - though the infra is not that great. Gender ratio is generally on the unlikely side. If you look at delhi campus, it will be approx 30 girls in a batch of 150 odd students and if you combine the Kolkata campus it becomes 40 something in a batch of 220 students. But now the overall intake has incresed for Kolkata campus from 60 to 90 from 2014 onwards. So the Gender ration might have evolved.

Hostel - during first year, for boys it is on a sharing 3 person sharing basis with 2 rooms intertwined. So that means there will be 6 people in 2 interconnected rooms with sufficient space and number of bathrooms. For girls it is same but with 2 person sharing / 4 loomies (as they share the loos). Mess food's quality is not that great. Though on some days it is really good. There will be non-veg for a couple of days during the week. On Sundays there will be a better wholesome meal. Food committee can help in changing the menu with feedback from the students. Students not interested in eating mess food which generally is the case on most of the days have the option of eating food outside the campus from the Dhabas. Being in delhi, they offer good paranthas, omelettes etc.The Dhabas are opened till late night and also start as early as 4am. Inside the campus, there is nescafe outlet which offers coffee, maggie, eggs etc till 2-3am. Outside the C9 hostel, there is a good outlet which offers good options like paranthas, bun-makkhan etc. There are good outlets in the qutub institutional area offering student discounts for lunch and dinner.

There are alum meets organized during the internship period in various cities which are helpful for the current batch in networking with the alumnis. Then there is a grand alum meet organized during december at the campus where alumns from all batches are invited and an alumn of the year award is also given out. The alumni connect is helpful for students and other alumns too in knowing people from the industry and in job change at times.

From education point of view - IIFT follows a trimester system which is a usual pattern across most B-schools. For each course, there are 3-4 online quizzes along with assignments which have to be presented to faculties in front of the whole class in form of powerpoint presentations. Then at the end of the trimester, there can be a comprehensive assignment submission which entails a research on industry, market entry strategy etc. Along with that there is a written test also. Minimum cumulative marks to be scored in all the tests need to be 40%. Final CGPA is a relative score where students are marked w.r.t performance of the other students. At the end of two year, students achieving the best honors are awarded with Gold and Silver medals for recognizing their outstanding academic performances. Also there are some corporate scholarship programs as well like OP Jindal Scholarship awarded to students who are toppers in first year. Then there is the best internship program which is also conducted by industry body to recognize students whose internship was very detailed and had an impact on their respective organization.

IIFT conducts its own entrance exam. This is the first exam to take place as it is scheduled in end of October or early November - mostly with this exam the MBA entrance season kicks off. Once you clear the written exam the results for which are declared in mid-December, you will have to submit a detailed form talking about your profile and credentials - your schooling, under grad, extra curricular achievements, work-ex, PoR held, your aspirations, why you want to be a part of MBA program at IIFT. Starting January end the interview process kicks off across various centers in India. Final results are declared in March with a waitlist as well. You are supposed to confirm your admission with an acknowledgement and a fees submission by June.

The faculty is really a good mixture of experienced and enthusiastic professors. Their credentials are well established as the ones having good corporate exposure, renowned in Trade domain with recognition received from Commerce Ministry and WTO itself, from the economic fraternity. There are faculty members who are taking lectures on Trade (Import / Export Strategies), International Marketing for international students in Tanzania and other locations in Africa.