All my classes and exams are over. I am just enjoying the final week. We have parties daily and the grand finale will be at Kakhatiya (hope the spelling is correct).

So what else … I have to start packing things … I will not be staying for the orientation as I have to join work before that. Finally it looks like I will become an MBA.

Well… I have my last exam tomorrow. I am not in the mood to study so I am just browsing. I browsed through some ISB blogs today and am pleasantly surprised to see the increase in the number of ISB bloggers. Some blogs were simply superb. I felt that I didn’t do my job properly as a blogger reporting on ISB life. I have been lazy and my posts have been infrequent. Hope the next batch bloggers will be frequent and will keep the momentum going …

I was also going through the placement reports of other Bschools … Booming economy has spread positive energy across all the schools, even the second tier ones … I am happy about that … Being with mature students has given me the maturity to overcome the barriers of bschool brands and be happy for a student placed whatever may be the school he is from … Whether he is from top rung school or a third tier school … Pain of being jobless is the same for everyone … I know that feeling … though I was not in such a situation in any part of my life, I have seen my friends and relatives suffering …

Today I had the last class at ISB. Tomorrow I have a presentation and one exam on Saturday. With that, the academic life at ISB comes to an end. We have a week off and the graduation ceremony is on next Saturday.

I thought of answering two questions in the comments section in this blog.

Sujayath - do you think, at the end of it, the 15 lac investment was worth it?Sahil

I would say, definitely.

I wonder why this question is never asked to any IIM guy. I think ISB guys face this question just because the fee is high. Think like this – An average ISB guy gets around 10 L salary and if this is excluded from the fee to effectively compare with the IIMs, the course fee will be just 2 L and other amenities like laptop, hostel etc adding to 3 more lakh. So, the fee is out of question.

I don’t have to talk about faculty. If they are not the best, ISB has no reason to get them to campus.

Personally, for a person like me who has just around 2 -3 years of work ex, this is a huge leap, in terms of learning, designation, salary etc. Apart from that, ISB has refined my intuition process and I can take any work assignment confidently. I have learnt a lot from the experienced peer group, I mean it.

It doesn’t mean though, that every ISB student has been moulded into a great piece … You might find some guys not that promising … As I said already, ISB is a Gym, but not everybody works out.

On : 3/24/2005 4:24:37 AM Truthringer (www) said:
I agree about ISB being pathetic when it comes to media-saviness. MBA is nothing but a perception game. Never mind if half the class get 5 L salaries. If u r able to successfully broadcast the one or two guys who got the big ticket jobs, that has the public flocking. Last yr, ISB had a grad picked up by GS for 150 K. But, hardly anyone knew about it. This time same thing happened in IIMA and the whole world knows... Sujayath, maybe ur bschool administration will do well to attend a few mktg classes from all those profs u get from Wharton....hahahaha

I would say the other way – ISB handles media more effectively than any other institutions.

The common question is why ISB is not making a lot of news (noise??) like other B schools. The reply from me would be that doing so will make ISB look like IIPM which dares to think beyond IIMs. Media is a dangerous weapon and I am totally convinced that ISB communications department is handling it in the best possible way.

Yes, last year GS picked up a guy for 150k. And publishing that news created a lot of problems to the ISB from recruiters’ side. I think they don’t want ISB to publish the figures as other institutions might demand more the next year. I don’t know exactly what the highest offer at ISB is but soon it will be published, if the recruiters agree. You should also note that this year 152k paid in IIMA was for a lateral, which is reasonable. The guy with good experience should be able to get good offers whether he is at ISB or at the top IIMs.

And again as correctly pointed out, MBA is a perception game. Don’t get carried away by the highest salary. What does it mean to us if we are not the ones who are getting it?

Go through this article which makes a lot of sense:

http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2005/mar/23rashmi.htm

Yesterday I had my International Finance exam and it was pathetic. Well, lets blame the prof for not having the courtesy of asking easy questions for us poor chaps in the last term :)

I am going to be busy till Friday – I have three presentations to make within Friday and an exam on Monday. Well, after then I can relax till Graduation day. Mmm … I am eagerly awaiting the demise of the Assignments era …

Just now returned from the section reunion. It was a great fun. We went to Dhola-ri-Dhani. They have actually created a Rajasthan Village setting. I had hookah for the first time (flavored) !! It was fun with rajasthani dance, boating, camel ride etc!!

Regarding placement report, as I said already, it will be published only in April first week. There are official reasons behind it and we cannot push the school to publish it earlier. It has been like this even in the previous years.

Assignments have started strangling me. I have to complete three projects with presentations and two assignments within next week. To worsen the situation, there is an exam this Friday and another one on Monday.

And at this situation, what will I say if someone asks about the life at ISB. Here I go for a yearbook survey “Life at ISB”.

Life? At ISB ??? Life at ISB ranges from small micro organisms to Dinosaurs. There are a lot of parasites who thrive on others for group assignments. There are cockroaches who survived amidst a lot of evolutionary changes. There are few butterflies but still in the cocoon stage. There are buffaloes that don’t care about anything. There are giraffes who stick their neck out to look at others' window. Lions are little different at this jungle. Usually lionesses hunt food for lions and here that’s exactly opposite. ISB is the Noah’s ark where you can find a pair of ALL the species. In modern terminology, we call it diversity.

And guys, take it lightly. Don't shoot questions asking me whether it is true that people override in group assignments at ISB:(

ISB is getting ready to send us out. We have been instructed on exit procedures. The first activity is submitting the “Student Offer Form” to CAS which should be done before March 18th. This exit procedure mail has sent alarm inside my body on the hell lot of pending assignments and projects to be done. Today for the first time, I didn’t watch TV from the morning (which starts at 11:00 AM for me) and am sitting before the laptop full day. Assignments are the most boring part of the ISB life.

Today I thought of writing about Negotiation Analysis class. I was not able to enrol in it in the sixth term and was regretting it. The same course was offered in the last term by a Permanent Faculty (Dishan Kamdar). I attended it without much expectation. Usually permanent faculty in the ISB lose their shine infront of the dazzling superstar faculties from Top universities. But Dishan is too good and I am happy that the quality of permanent faculty is building up year by year inspite of the initial staggering. The new professors who joined this year are really good both in research and teaching. Dishan was mentioning that he had very good offers from other schools and he joined the ISB only because of the environment that fosters research. He said that Ajith has promised him data from all top companies for his research.

Just 19 days for Graduation ...