The College Life at Loyola Academy, Hyderabad

I chose the course of Business Administration since I am an aspiring entrepreneur and wanted to learn the techniques and methods employed by the corporate world while giving me the flexibility in my education to pursue a startup in my part time post college hours. The student faculty ratio is 1:60 for every class and 6:60 or 70 if seen from the perspective of all subjects. It's not a huge hindrance since the teachers are very approachable in clarifying all the doubts whether in breaks or after college hours. They even share their WhatsApp numbers and encourage us to call and ask them doubts prior to examinations. The teaching method of few teachers is a bit old fashioned since they literally screenshare a Word Document and read off it sometimes. But in practical subjects like Accounts and Taxation, the faculty has a strong expertise over their domains. Term Exams happened thrice - 2 mid terms & 1 final semester. Mids happen in a gap of a month. They aren't very difficult to pass.

Well, MyCaptain is very active in Loyola which offers Campus Ambassador opportunities with performance based incentives. Essentially 5% monetary commission on every sales. Voice4Girls is an active NGO offering a Teacher/Volunteer role in a residential camp setting for one month with a competitive stipend of nearly 5 digits. There are many more social organizations and educational firms which offer opportunities here. Proper digital marketing or corporate internships are rare unless you take up their courses, do live projects with them and then get internships. These often end up costing around 8000-12000 instead.

Students become eligible for placements in their final year. The placements are average in a course such as BBA and okaish overall as well. They are providing Campus Recruitment training in the pre final years to equip students with some skills. Lot of companies do visit Loyola such as Deloitte, JP Morgan, Tata Consultancy Services and few students do get offered. However, conversion rate of applicants to offers wouldn't be that good. The highest package heard in BBA was around 6 - 8 lakh per year back some time. The average would range from 2.5 - 3 lakh per annum and profiles would range across HR, Marketing, Sales and Finance domains. My plans after the degree are to complete my Masters or a Diploma abroad to add value to my profile before I properly head into the corporate world. Once I gain enough work experience and knowledge of a certain industry, I would launch a startup in that domain or anything else where I do my market research.

Loyola is one of the best colleges when it comes to evaluating ROI compared to other similar institutions like NMIMS Hyderabad, ICFAI Or Symbiosis. You pay a total course fees (all across 3 years) of around 2.5 lakhs including the other small miscellaneous fees such as semester end exam registration (around 2000 every 6 months), NPTEL exam (1000 for once), Skill Enhancement Certificate Course (2000 for once) and the occasional event participation fees which are optional. There is a scholarship and financial assistance scheme of the college as well which provides a support of 10000 to 15000 to academic merit holders and concessions for national and international sports performers. On Campus Jobs aren't present unless you take an industry-integrated course like Retail Operations Management where it's compulsory to work real time for a certain number of hours in your course to be eligible for the degree. However, through good alumni connect various Loyolites manage to land jobs

Life at campus from aesthetics and external view perspective is beautiful. I would notify you however is that the college is really strict. The hold discipline in highest regard where despite being Co-Ed girls and guys are not allowed to sit together and literally separated like it's done in orthodox schools. Dress code is really stringent. Clubs are namesake and happen only for one year where they don't really manage to connect with students. The only clubs which are really effective are Magic Youth, AICUF, Ignitus Sanctus, NSS, NCC, etc. The annual fest is Resonance and happens in the first week of December. Classrooms are not airconditioned but there's plenty of fresh air. The sports facilities are amazing although the selection process is really competitive at Loyola. Extra curricular activities are really encouraged but honestly, they only work out well if you consistently perform good amongst faculty eyes. Else you face attendance issues

The admission process was a smooth and simple one really. It's a two part process - entrance exam and personal interview. The entrance exam is an online examination which revolves around basic logical aptitude and english language skills. The eligibility to write the exam is to attain around 60% score in your intermediate in any stream in class XII if you are opting for BBA. Then, a shortlisted group of students are notified about the schedules of their interviews which happen on Microsoft Teams where often a Head of Department or Senior Faculty member takes a personal interview evaluating your confidence, personality, background and general knowledge in the selected domain.

There was no group discussion which took place. There was an online examination which contained logical aptitude and language skill questions. Eg. Blood Relations, Number Games, Series, Jumbled Sentences, etc. Interview questions were simple to answer such as your introduction, aim or goal in life, questions revolving around the field you are interested in such as I was asked what is an entrepreneur or opportunity cost, principles of management, etc. Process is simple: 1. Fill the application form through website 2. Attempt online entrance exam 3. Give the personal interview 4. Get selected and submit required documents Eligibility for different courses is listed out in the UG Admissions Notification issued by them. I didn't really have to prepare for these rounds since they felt really simple and I just showed up for them and got selected.