It's bitter-sweet memories

As I mentioned earlier, it?s a bitter-sweet experience. Bitter because they are not the most open minded set of people, and show signs of favouritism, however in all the money I spent there, I did learn a lot of things, mostly because I?ve been a good student so far, I like doing things well. Also colleges don?t make the individual, the individual has to learn on their own, and their college can just facilitate the process. Ecole Hoteliere is a college for the rich, if you have the money and want a comfortable college life with some good things in the curriculum, but no real results, then you can go there or you can go to any decent college in India, pick up your books and study them well and you will pretty much have the same opportunities in front of you.

I gave an entrance, in which I scored well because I had studied hard for it. I had an interview later, which was a very pleasant experience for me as I met two dynamic individuals in the field of hospitality, one of whom was Mr.Sudhir Andrews himself. They asked me relevant, knowledge-oriented questions and by the end of the interview they gave me the confidence that I was a great fit for the hospitality Industry. However, this process is NOT what all my peers went through, they had express interviews in many cities of India, solely for the purpose of taking in as many students as they can, since it was a new college and had been in operation only for 4 years. The only reason I had a long interview was because I gave it much much before the actual admission process had even started.

Internships are easy to get through this college but that?s not very different from any other hotel management college in India, as the industry always needs interns during peak season and is more than willing to have workforce for the cost of peanuts(or less).

No fixed structure is stated for the events held in this college.However some days do end up being celebrated, for the 2 years I stayed- here are the details1. Republic Day2. Garba night3. Gala dinners -2 (for the convocation ceremonies)4. Recruitment or open house days being celebrated the most, because we used to prepare the most delightful looking food for prospective students and their parents.

No I didn?t, college didn?t offer any scholarships. It was very disorganised, if somebody told them that they should have a scholarship programme for good marketing results, they would?ve launched one.

Gender ratio was 1:3( one being women and 3 being men)Student life was fun because it used to be one small valley with limited number of things to do and everybody used to find their favourite eating joint and have a talking good session in the evening, dorms were clean, housekeeping was provided.Most students were from India, Dubai or Oman. Everybody belonged to an upper middle class family or were from the richer classes.Sexual Orientation was mostly straight as per my knowledge.Discrimination on the basis of which state you belonged to was there, students from Delhi were looked down upon for being over smart and cunning. Students from Maharashtra had an unfair advantage since most teachers could communicate in Marathi to them, Students from smaller towns weren?t exactly targeted.

There is not much of a choice to pay or to not pay for the hostel especially since it used to be located in Lavasa. Costs for twin sharing room annually used to reach about 3 lacs. Apartments costed about 30,000 per month for 2-3 room. Now it?s located in Mumbai, so that could change.

Everybody has their own story. Sure, some of them may remain connected and help each other in their businesses or one friend might employ the other, however no real or official network exists.

I chose this college due to its affiliation to Ecole hoteliere Lausanne,Switzerland. It promised a solid curriculum, faculty trained by facilitators at Ecole Hoteliere Lausanne and quality education in India. I was looking for a good hospitality college and this seemed like the best emerging college in India for hospitality management. The college also boasted of Mr.Sudhir Andrews as there dean of academics, which was impressive since he has been known for his role in establishing the OCLD programme at the Oberoi school of hotel in India.

Faculty at an institute can be divided on the basis of two main characteristics i.e. effective teaching methods and the second being their overall attitude and demeanour. However, in this college another characteristic can be added i.e. teacher/employee turnover, which was ridiculously high. On my joining, Mr. Andrews had already left the institute, followed by the Dean of Administration and finally many teachers who left sooner or later. The teachers were a mixed bunch, some were good at delivering knowledge, some just weren?t. However, being based out of Maharashtra, they criticised students from Delhi for being over smart etc etc. and that after one point could only be seen as favouritism for students who were from cities other than Delhi. Some teachers were not on a pay-roll and only came in as visiting faculty, they used to put these names as permanent faculty in their brochures.