WHERE TO GO FOR AN MBA?
Various factors determine where to go for an MBA. Some of the determinants are listed below:
1. Quality of Students:
It can be an important factor, while looking for a good business school. Interaction of the students with their companion makes a huge difference in the learning environment of a business school. There is always another learning environment developed outside the class and a significant part of this is peers learning. Group activities such as assignment and projects always help in creating best environment for quality studies. Hence, better students makes richer learning environment.
2. Quality of Faculty:
Most of the top management schools make a significant investment in recruiting eminent faculty members. A good faculty is required for providing continuity and monitoring required during the two years duration. Student to faculty ratio is also an important factor while selecting a business school. No matter how good the infrastructure of the college is, if it does not have a competent faculty, all things go to waste. Faculties are the ones who make the infrastructural facilities of the college useful. They provide direction, guidance and purpose to the students.
3. Placements:
Placement is the most important factor while selecting a b-school. There are more than 2000 management institutes in India and many specify offers from big time companies. Going through the past placement records of the college/institute will give you an idea about the college’s position and reputation in the market. But it may not be necessarily true that the companies, which the institutes claim of being the best recruiters, are actually recruiting students in final placement process. Placement in any college depends on various factors such as infrastructure, facilities, faculty members, college rank, and performance of the students, market reputation, personality and many more.
4. Location:
Location also plays a significant role while choosing a business school. A college located adjacent to any industrial or software hub offers a perfect environment to improve one’s skills. It will also help students during their industrial training and placements. Trends have shown that companies often recruit from colleges located in areas that are easily accessible or are closely located to industrial hubs. Institute located in cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bengaluru always get better placement scores than other cities.
5. Infrastructure:
Infrastructure does not only mean that the campus must look good from the outside, but it also must have quality facilities required to function satisfactorily. The college must provide sufficient facilities with respect to its intake capacity. Infrastructure includes workshop, computer labs, classroom, administrative building, various laboratories etc. All of these amenities should be accessible to all the students at all times.
6. Fee Structure:
The expectations of students from the 'Return on Investment' (ROI) perspective were not met in a lot of cases due to the growing number of business schools and stagnation in the Indian economy for last four years. As the course fee of business schools are increasing sharply, it is absolutely necessary to ensure that the fee invested also works out to be reasonable. Fee structure in top business schools are generally very high, but the placement records show that most students can easily cover the cost incurred in studying within two years’ time.
7. Programmes offered by Institutes:
Business Schools in India offer generally two types of programme
General Management Programme (GMP)
General Management Programme is related to the flexibility of the students to join any sector. So it offers numerous career opportunities in comparison to specialized programmes. Most of the IIMs and top business schools offer this PGP programme.
Sectoral Programme
Some of the business schools offer programmes in a specialized area. Institutes such as IIFT-International Business, IRMA-Rural/Agri-business Management, MICA-Strategic Marketing and Communication, TISS-Human Resource Management, and XLRI-Human Resource Management offers programmes in the specialized area.
8. Reputation of the institute:
One can easily access the reputation/brand-value of a b-school by superficial observation of the MBA scenarios. One should always look for the two important factors while selecting business schools viz. reputation of the institute between student community and its acceptance in the industry circle. It is obvious that the older institute gets better reputation than the newer institutes, though it can’t always be generalized. But situation changes when an older institute establishes a new campus. In such type of case the parent institute helps the newer one in faculty support, admission support and placement support.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR PURSUING AN MBA
Though the general eligibility criteria are same for most of the management institutes, some institutes have more conditions stated which the candidates must satisfy in order to be eligible. The basic criteria are listed below:
To enroll into an MBA program, candidates must have a bachelor’s degree from a recognized institutions with at least 50% marks in any discipline like Commerce, Arts, Science, engineering and MBBS etc.
There is no age limit and no number of attempts restrictions
All aspirants must appear for a written test which shall be prescribed by the management institutes.
SELECTION PROCESS
The selection process for the MBA and other management related programmes consists of 3 stages generally, which includes:
- The written Test
- GD (Group discussion) and PI (Personal Interview)
- Final admission notification
Written Test - The first stage is written test in which candidates are required to appear in any of the following management entrance exams mentioned below:
- CAT (Common Admission Test)
- MAT (Management Aptitude Test)
- XAT (Xavier Aptitude Test)
- SNAP (Symbiosis National Aptitude Test)
- CMAT (Common Management Admission Test), etc.
Group discussion and Interview - This second stage mainly includes two parts i.e. Group Discussion and Personal Interview.
In Personal Interviews, major assessment of candidate’s personality attributes like leadership abilities, awareness, reasoning ability, flexibility, confidence, capability, analytical thought process, communication skills etc. are made.
In a Group Interview, apart from the parameters mentioned above, a candidate is also checked on his analytical ability.
Final admission notification - The final selection is done on the basis of marks obtained in the written test and PI & GD. Most institute give additional weightage to work experience of the candidates. In this stage, selected candidates get a final call letter.
LIST OF TESTS CONDUCTED FOR ADMISSIONS TO MBA PROGRAMS
CAT -
CAT (Common Admission Test) was started in the year 1950 with an objective to facilitate the admission to Postgraduate management programs offered by IIMs, Faculty of Management Studies and various other top Indian universities and colleges. It is a computer based standardized test which contains objective based type questions covering Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation, Data Sufficiency, Verbal Ability, Reading Comprehension, Logical Reasoning and Analytical Reasoning. It was started by the Indian Institute of Management for selecting students for their business administration programs. It is 3 hours duration test and conducted once in a year (usually in November).
CMAT -
CMAT (Common Management Admission Test) is a national- level MBA admission test which was first conducted in the year 2012. It is an online computer-based standardized test, conducted by AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), Government of India which comes under ministry of human resource development. The main purpose of the CMAT is to facilitate the admission to Postgraduate management programs like MBA (Master of Business Administration), PGDM (Post Graduate diploma in management) etc. in AICTE approved institutions.
XAT -
XAT (Xavier Aptitude Test) is a national-level postgraduate management entrance exam, organized by XLRI (Xavier Labour Relation Institute), Jamshedpur. It is conducted to facilitate the admission process to business schools like XIM Bhubaneswar, XLRI Jamshedpur and various other b-schools. It is a pen-paper based test and divided into two sections i.e. Aptitude test and Essay & General Knowledge. To apply, candidates must have a bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a recognized institution. It contains objective based type question as well as subjective type questions covering decision making, verbal & logical ability, Quantitative ability and data interpretation. It is conducted in 47 cities across India and 2 International cities (Dubai, Kathmandu) outside India.
GMAT -
GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) was formulated in the year 1953 with a purpose to facilitate the admission in Graduate management programs of business schools. It is a computer based standardized test consisting of four sections namely, analytical writing assessment, integrated reasoning, quantitative and verbal. The duration of the test is 3.5 hours. It was developed and administrated by GMAC (Graduate Management Admission Council). It is conduced multiple times in a year. Many business schools in India use the test as a criterion for admission into a wide range of graduate management programs, including MBA (Master of Business Administration), Master of Accountancy, and Master of Finance programs.
MAT -
MAT (Management Aptitude Test) is a national level entrance test conducted by AIMATS (All India Management Aptitude Testing Service). It was formulated in the year 1988 with an objective to facilitate admission to MBA and equivalent programmes in the various top institutions. It provides option to students to choose paper based test or computer based test. The duration of the test is 2 hours & 30 minutes. The question covered in the test are related to the sections such as Quantitative ability, Data Interpretation, Data Sufficiency, verbal ability, reading comprehension, General Awareness, Analytical and logical reasoning.
SNAP -
SNAP (Symbiosis National Aptitude Test) is a common written test conducted by the Symbiosis International University to facilitate admission to the postgraduate programs in the affiliated institutes under the University such as SIBM (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management), SICSR (Symbiosis institute of computer science & research), SIIB (Symbiosis institute of International business), SITM (Symbiosis institute of Telecom management), SIMS (Symbiosis institute of management studies), SIHS (Symbiosis institute of health sciences), SIBM (Symbiosis institute of business management) and many more. It is a paper & pen based test covering questions of Quantitative, Data interpretation, Data sufficiency, Analytical & Logical reasoning, General awareness, Current Affairs, General English, Reading Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning and Verbal Ability.
NMAT -
NMAT (Narsee Monjee Management Aptitude Test) is a national online computer based standardized test, conducted by NMIMS (Narsee Monnjee Institute of Management Studies). It is objective based type questions consists three sections namely, Quantitative ability, Language skills and Logical reasoning. It is conducted once in a year in the month of December in over 20 centres across the country. It was formulated in with an objective to facilitate admission to MBA and equivalent programmes. The duration of the test is 120 minutes or 2 hours.
ATMA -
ATMA (AIMS Test for Management Admission) is an online computer based test conducted by the Association of Indian Management Schools to check the analytical reasoning skills, verbal skills and quantitative skills of candidates. It was established with a purpose to facilitate admission for various postgraduate management programs such as MBA (Master of Business Administration) and PGDM (Post Graduate diploma in Management). It is approved by AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education). The duration of the test is 3 hours. The total of 180 questions will be divided into 3 sections.
IIFT -
IIFT is a national level common entrance test conducted by the Indian Institute of foreign Trade to facilitate admission to its MBA (International Business) program in Kolkata and New Delhi campuses. It is an objective based type test covering questions of Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation, Analytical & Logical reasoning, General Awareness, General English, Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability. Candidates must have a bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a recognized institution. The duration of the test is 2 hours.
MICAT -
MICAT (MICA admission Test) is an MBA entrance exam for admission to the PGDM-C (Post Graduate Diploma in Management in Communication) in Mica, Ahmedabad. It is conducted by the MICA (Mudra Institute of communication, Ahmedabad). The duration of the test is 2 hours. The paper is divided into 2 parts - Section 1 & Section 2. Section 1 contains descriptive based type questions covering writing arguments, essay and story. Section 2 is designed to test the Verbal Ability, Reasoning and General knowledge. The candidates must have a bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a recognized institution.
TISS NET -
TISS NET is a national level post-graduate entrance exams conducted by the TATA Institute of Social Sciences. It is a computer based entrance test which is divided into three sections such as Verbal ability, Quantitative ability, English Proficiency and General Awareness. It is conducted for admissions to Masters in Social Work and related programs offered by the institute. The questions paper contains 100 objective based type questions. The duration of the test is 100 minutes or 1 hour & 40 minutes. Candidates must have a bachelor‘s degree with at least 50% marks from any recognized institutions.
SPJAT -
SPJAT is conducted by the S P Jain School of Global Management to facilitate admission in their Masters Course programs, i.e. Master of Global Business (MGB) and Global MBA (GMBA). The main objective behind the test is to check the Students’ IQ, mathematical ability, Logic & Reasoning capacity, General knowledge, English reading and Comprehension Ability. It is a paper-pen based entrance test which consists of around 40-45 questions. The duration of the test is 1 hour. It is conducted across major cities within the Indian state viz, Ahmadabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Indore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.
SALARY PACKAGES
Salary packages offered to MBA graduates are pretty attractive. On an average, fresh MBA graduates from top B-Schools are offered very high packages and can range anything between INR 10 lakhs and INR 1 crore.
The list of expected salary packages that eligible students may get after the successful completion of the MBA programme from the top MBA colleges in India are mentioned below:
| Top Business Schools |
Minimum Salary |
Maximum Salary |
Average Salary |
| IIM –Calcutta |
10.32 Lakhs |
75 Lakhs |
15.32 Lakhs |
| S.P Jain Institute of Management and Research |
9.25 Lakhs |
40 Lakhs |
16.71 Lakh |
| IIM –Ahmedabad |
8.50 Lakhs |
39.81 Lakhs |
15.88 Lakhs |
| Fore School of Management |
7.20 Lakhs |
39.6 Lakhs |
26.8 Lakhs |
| IIM –Indore |
- |
34 Lakhs |
12.10 Lakhs |
| XLRI |
8.53 Lakhs |
25 Lakhs |
15.4 Lakhs |
| Indian Institute of foreign Trade |
6.42 Lakhs |
22.2 Lakhs |
12.40 Lakhs |
| IIM- Lucknow |
7.8 Lakhs |
22 Lakhs |
15 Lakhs |
| Management Development Institute (MDI) |
7.8 Lakhs |
22 Lakhs |
15 Lakhs |
JOB PROFILES/ROLES AFTER AN MBA
MBA is becoming a booming field for many graduates in today’s world. The demand of top MBA graduates in various leading companies is increasing day by day. Some best job profiles which students can adopt after the successful completion of the MBA programs are mentioned below-
Marketing manager
Project manager
Business executive
Entrepreneur
Accountant
Data Analyst
Management consultant
Chief executive officer
and many more…
TYPES OF MBA
There are lots of different kinds of MBA programs which are offered by top MBA colleges and universities in India. It differs according to the duration and the mode through which it is taught.
Two-year full-time MBA Program – Most B-schools offer this type of program. It requires full- time attendance, which means it is not easy to work while attending school.
Accelerated MBA Program – The duration of this type of programme is shorter than the regular programme. The duration of the programme is usually 18 months and is almost similar to the full time program, but with less down time between semesters. There are no summer and winter breaks between the programme.
Part Time or Weekend MBA Program - This program is popular among working professionals, because it allows them to attend classes on the weekends or weekday evenings. It takes longer time to complete as the duration of the programme is 3 years.
Distance Learning MBA Program - This program allows working professionals to take classes through online or offline modes.
Students must not confuse the types of MBA with its specializations. Some top specialization in MBA programme are mentioned below-
MBA in Healthcare Management- For managerial roles in middle to upper level management in healthcare sector, preference is given to graduates holding MBA in Healthcare Management. One should keep in mind that many of these positions may require some sort of medical credential in addition to an MBA.
MBA in Information Technology- Students are moulded to prepare the needs in the field of programming, software development, CIS, database administration or IT to take on greater responsibilities managing a team.
MBA in Marketing – It open doors to the field of media and tasks purchasing, working with a creative team, or writing ad copy for an advertising agency or PR firm.
MBA in Finance –It prepares students in Accounting, Financial planning, Banking and Corporate finance, investment strategy, local & global economics, corporate risk & insurance and financial theory.
MBA in Human Resources - Opportunities to work as head of the HR department, and perform tasks like advertising for recruiting, hiring, training, evaluating and firing employees.
MBA in Project Management – Students are trained to take up roles essential in the fields of construction, technology, software development, architecture, and R&D firms.
MBA in Communication – It prepares students for jobs in the field of journalism, PR, media and advertising.
MBA in Operation Management – It focuses training students to effectively manage processes like manufacturing and production, including process flow, vendor communications, and optimal business operations.
MBA in Strategy – MBA in strategy includes competitive advantage, organizational structure, industry & environmental analysis, internal analysis design and alignment, market evolution and dynamics etc.
MBA in International Business - It is a postgraduate programme which provides students the sufficient knowledge and training for the all needed basic knowledge of International Business.
