MICA, Ahmedabad - A Review

"The School of Ideas" - as the motto of MICA goes, this college is perhaps the only business school in India that is dedicated to merging creativity with entrepreneurship. The college solely focuses on marketing and its students stand out among other B-school graduates in roles of Strategic Marketing and Communication. For admissions at MICA, a candidate must give two exams - CAT/XAT and MICAT. No specific cut-offs for either exam are revealed by the institute but a 90 percentile in CAT/XAT along with a 42+ score in MICAT is considered a good score to get a call for GE -PI. MICA's niche in marketing and communication is felt across industries through its notable alumni network. Its curriculum has also upgraded offers subjects in other areas of management like HR and finance etc, however, it is not nearly at par with other b-schools. Therefore, MICA is a good option for all those who have not been able to crack top B-schools and are willing to make a career solely in marketing.

Apart from the general courses in marketing like principles of marketing, product management, and sales, etc. MICA has some really innovative and disruptive courses to offer, like semiotics and media studies. The faculty also is top-notch, especially in media and communication areas. Since the number of students is low, and apart from the usual faculty a number of industry experts are also guest lecturers at MICA, students are able to get the personalized attention they seek. Classrooms are always interactive, with live case study discussions and problem-solving. A typical marketing management class (in the online mode) would comprise 75 minutes which would cover 30 minutes of theory (in recorded class) followed by 45 minutes (live class) of case study discussion. There are some subjects related to other business areas as well but the number of hours taught is less. The evaluations are fairly technical and are a mix of both quizzes and assignments to make the learning more wholesome.

Top brands like Google, Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gambel, Sony Entertainment, etc. offer internships at MICA. the highest stipend on offer was 3.2 lacks for 2 months. The average stood at around 85-90 thousand. Although, top internships are given to only the top 10% of the batch. Rest have to settle for lower stipend amounts. Although the job roles in most internships are very niche, they are limited mostly to niche areas of marketing only.

The college placements are certainly a drawback. Although some students have secured top packages with the highest at 52.8 lakhs, in 2020, in some of the top companies in India, the average stood at 13.9 lakhs which is really less compared to the B-Schools in its league. The low placements can be attributed to the high number of low-paying agencies hiring from the college. However, most top brands of the country open their competitions to MICA, which becomes a decent way for its students to achieve good placements. Overall the college always receives 100% placements, barring a few students who opt out of the process. This is true for both summer and final placements. The number of PPO and PPI holders at MICA also stood at 25% which is a very encouraging number.

The fees which include, the campus boarding and lodging and other costs, are fairly expensive (21 lakhs). But, the campus and infrastructure provided make up for it. Scholarship and financial assistance are available, although hardly anyone applies for it since student loans are so readily available. In the lockdown scenario when college campuses were closed, the college also lowered its fees to the extent of 2.5 lakhs for its students. Therefore, although the fees are little expensive college facilities definitely make up for it.

Life at MICA (even in online mode) is very happening. There is no time to breathe with the number of assignments hovering over the head. There are at least 15 student-driven committees engaging in diverse activities like sports, theatre, events, fests, etc. Committees form a large part of the campus experience. Apart from the committees the college infrastructure and culture give people an opportunity to participate in a host of activities like sports, poetry reading, plays, and so on. The MICA library, known as KEIC is huge in terms of both expanse and volume of books. Even online the importance of e-resources it shared cannot be overstated. Although, I had attended Zoom classes mostly, the brief period for which I saw the classrooms, were big, with all the resources to teach and learn to range from computers to projectors. But the real stand out for MICA was the MI-Cafe which was the hub of peer-to-peer learning and discussions.

The hostels of MICA are the most creative and thoughtful place one can be. The hostel's walls are lined with graffiti. They can also be found in the hostel rooms of the students. It is a mark of the sort of open culture it preaches. In the first year, students stay in twin sharing rooms, while in the second year it's single occupancy. Some hostels are co-ed and some are not. Usually, hostel rooms are small and don't have attached washrooms, but there are few rooms with these facilities too. The mess menu is incredible and decided by one of the student-run committees. But apart from the mess, there is the canteen of MICA which is also very famous. There is hardly any student living in PG since the college is situated in the outskirts of Ahmedabad with hardly any PGs available.

Instead of having a GD like other colleges we had a GE (Group Exercise) round with two people in the panel, later they along with a third also took my interview. In the GE we had been given a case study on how consumers can be made confident to travel in a post-pandemic era. This was a particularly difficult topic because corona was yet to hit the country at that time. We had to present our ideas as innovatively as possible, so we were given chart papers, color pens, etc. for our presentation. All in all, we had 12 minutes for discussion and 3 minutes for presentation. We decided to do a live skit but since the time at hand was so little the implementation suffered. Next, we moved to the interview round which was very pressurizing. The questions were not all technical but behavioral which were based likes and dislikes section of the form they had asked all of us to fill in prior to the process. Overall, the interview was very grilling and tougher than my other B-school interviews.