IIMU - Definitely worth the expense

Pros: 1. Excellent Pedagogy. The college has always focussed upon being an academic-driven institution and no expense is spared to provide the best learning and teaching resources. 2. International exposure with good tie-ups with premium European B-schools for student exchange and 15-day international project opportunity. Also, international firms come for campus placements noticeably companies located in the middle east. 3. Audited, non-inflated placement reports. All placement reports of IIMU are audited according to the Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS) and are audited by an external agency. Cons: 1. Fees at 17.6 lacs for 2 years including hostel and mess fees are at a premium side. 2. Limited sporting facilities at present. Admission is granted on basis of CAT marks, CAP interview score, and profile score. Robust admin ensures a hassle-free admission process. I personally choose IIM Udaipur overall its rival New IIMs and NMIMS. I used quora, Linkedin, collegedunia for review.

I choose MBA 2 year programme because I wanted to augment my marketing and strategic knowledge and work in a bigger, more influential role in a corporate setting. There are 58 teaching members for a batch of size 282 students in the MBA 19-21 course (Ratio 1:5). All of the faculty members are very highly qualified with degrees from IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, ISB, and other international institutions. Director and institution grant complete freedom to professors to teach in their own way and this makes learning fruitful. Exams are conducted in the trimester pattern every year ie 3 main exams, each one after 3 months. The academic rigor is tough but nobody fails in the 2 year MBA programme as such. It does get a bit hectic during placement season with a load of assignments and interview preparation with surprise quizzes in between.

100% of the students are offered a summer internship. Reputed companies like Unilever, Titan, Puma, TATA Steel, Goldman Sachs, Gartner, Accenture Strategy come for campus hiring. The average stipend for the 19-21 batch was around Rs.70,000. The projects and roles offered are of substantial weight which has an impact on the real world of business. Exposure to the corporate environment helps students get that professional touch and goes a long way in building their profile.

Campus placements are conducted and are of very good quality with transparency and honesty as their core pillars. Campus placements begin from the 4th term-end onwards and last until the last student gets placed. For our batch of MBA 2019-21, over 100 companies have visited so far with 270 students placed to date out of 283. Companies like Goldman Sachs, Flipkart, Amazon, PayTM, Hero, Capgemini are a constant. The highest package offered this year was 34 LPA for a domestic job offering with an expected average package within the range of 13-15 LPA. The placement report is prepared according to IPRS and audited by an external agency. I have been placed in the BFSI sector and plan to venture deep into this field on the basis of the knowledge and skills acquired during my stay at IIMU.

The total fees for 2 years MBA programme including mess and hostel charges are 16.71 lacs. This is among the highest fees for any new IIM comparing the fees for IIM Ranchi, IIM Raipur & IIM Trichy. There is a financial assistance program in place for students with weak financial backgrounds. Students whose family income is less than 4.50 lacs per annum get sponsorship for 2 out of 6 semesters during the course of the programme. Also, there are 5 scholarship programmes on campus, all government-backed. The admin office helps students with the formalities as such. The college also awards the top 5% of students of the batch academically with a cash prize of Rs.1 lac after the end of the 1st year with another Rs.60,000 for term-wise and section-wise toppers in the batch. I personally did not seek or obtain any scholarship. I interned with TATA Steel for my summer internship. College provides help with the summer placement preparation and trains you good enough to get that PPO.

IIMU conducts 3 major fests namely Solaris (Flagship leaders' summit) in November, Audacity (Cultural fest) in February, and Utkrisht (Sports fest) in January. Other fests include Literature Fest, Supply chain fest, and other functional clubs' fest in association with Solaris. All of the fests are student-driven with plenty of opportunity for management and decision making. The library is fully stocked with free subscriptions to in-house Bloomberg lab, Pressreader, Grammarly, and other research tools. The classrooms have a high ceiling, ACs, 2 projectors, comfortable U-shaped seating, and mic support. Sports facilities are a work in progress. Basketball court, badminton court, volleyball court with football & cricket grounds are completed. TT rooms, chess room, and carrom facilities are available. The campus life in IIMU is vibrant with 35 student-run organizations and 5 food facilities operating on campus. With 300 acres of campus, there is always something to do or explore.

The MBA programme has mandatory on-campus hostel accommodation. We are provided single AC room accommodation with a common fridge, washing machine, induction plate, and microwave facilities for the floor. The rooms have a supreme view of the Aravali hill ranges and are well kept with regular cleaning and maintenance. The mess is outsourced to a third party (Sarovar Hospitality) and is handled professionally. The food is tasty and is prepared in a hygienic way with a clear glass partition between the dining and kitchen area to enable students to view their food getting prepared. The hostel registration process is simple and barely takes any time. The staff is very supportive of any complaints with 24/7 helpline availability.

IIMU conducts its interview process in association with 8 other IIMs. This combined process is called as Common Admission Process or CAP in short. To be eligible for CAP, you need to get an overall CAT percentile above 95 with an 80 percentile minimum in all 3 sections individually. Cap Process: First, there is a written assessment test (WAT) round conducted. The topic was 'Will India be a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2025'. Sufficient time is provided to write on a single piece of paper. Post the WAT, a personal interview (PI) is conducted by a panel of 2-3 interviewers. The PI is centered around your work experience or graduation stream. Questions like 'Why MBA', 'Which college would you give preference to', and general knowledge questions are to be expected. Also, an impromptu speech round of 2min on a given topic is conducted. Preparation: I had joined a coaching class for interview preparation where they trained me for all rounds of the CAP interview process. Reading news helped as well.