Intake 420?

The management wants to increase the intake to more than 400, likely to be 420. The number is not fixed - It would vary depending on the number of applications. The fee is not likely to be raised.

I would have said that the number will be 420 and fee will not be raised but this one and half month course has taught me to use the words such as "likely" and "probably".

Personally, I don't feel ISB is ready to increase the intake at this dramatic rate. Infrastructure wise, yes, ISB can handle far more than 400. Faculty - they can hire more visiting faculty. But the issue is quality placements. Just because the intake is 420, Mckinsey or Goldman is not going to hire in bunch of 20 or 30. Most of the extra intake would be going to companies such as Infosys or TCS, who do bulk recruiting. I am not saying that these companies are inferior, but the ISB should first prove itself by increasing the average salary, international placements etc before increasing the intake.

The management had to increase either fee or intake and it has decided to increase the latter. But management has made sure that if the number of applications is not as high as expected, the intake would be reduced. The happy part is that probably there would be no fee hike.

My worry is that the ISB should not become a haven for all those with 700+ GMAT. ISB has rejected many applications with 750+ GMAT and that privilege should not be sacrificed for increased intake.

The good news for us is that there will be more effort towards placements as they have to prove that the school can guarantee 400+ placements. I hope this year there would be more international placements as they have assigned a separate manager for International Placements. I am not interested in international placements but it is necessary to build the brand name.

MBA aspirants who read my blog can give their thoughts whether the increase in intake would have any negative effect on ISB brand.

The link not working..

The blog whose link is not working was supposedly found to contain some harmful information about the ISB girls and the anonymous author has deleted the blog owing to threats from the ISB patriots.

Vinoo Urs Leaves the ISB

Vinoo Urs, the Director of Admissions, is leaving the ISB. He would be looking after his family business. I can understand that his family members would be missing him as he has to keep travelling all the time starting from October till April. I admire his commitment and dedication. He makes sure that each and every student entering the ISB is diverse, capable and mature. Lets wish him good luck for his new ventures.

With Vinoo leaving and with the responsibility of hiring 420 students next year, Admissions department would have a tough time.

What is the strength of ISB?

Many of my friends ask me this question. There are good answers such as Visiting Faculty from premier Bschools, Diverse students but the best answer would be "System". In ISB, there is a system in place for everything.

CAS, Library, Admission, House keeping, IT - every department has a well-built system. You go to a library staff and ask about a book at 2:00 AM in the night, he will search for the book, explain the key features of the book and recommend other books in that area. CAS team initiates discussions with you, help you in identifying the career path suitable for you and helps you in achieving that. There is a system for inviting visiting faculty.

This system ensures that the ISB is not dependent on any individual. Even if Vinoo leaves, this system gives hope that his leaving would not affect next year’s admissions.

There is a professional touch in everything and every staff behaves professionally. But the students here don't match the professionalism that staffs have. Students coming late, murmuring in the class, forgetting to switch off cell phones etc do happen in the ISB. Many have realized that these activities could spoil the student image and have sent mails asking the students to maintain the professionalism. Lets see how the next term goes.

Other Blogs from ISB
http://soulcurree.blogspot.com/
http://thebigeyedfish.blogspot.com/
http://isbgossip.blogspot.com/
http://isbpgp.blogspot.com/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/rangarajan/

There is no particular profile that HSBC was interested in while short listing for scholarships. The short listed candidates are from diverse backgrounds ranging from IT to Finance.

A Fine Morning ...

I went for a walk and didn't return that day. I went to a friend's room and was seeing some movies. Suddenly, there was a heavy downpour and I couldn't return to my room. There was a party amidst the rain. Guys and Gals were drenching in the rain, shouting and enjoying. A lot of booze was keeping the energy up.

Yesterday, HSBC shortlisted 16 students for their scholarship interview. Two of 16 students will be offerred full scholarship. They have to sign a three year bond with them. The job will be on commercial banking side.

I am watching a lot of movies. Yesterday I watched "A few Dollars More" and "Vertigo". Today I have got "Lion King". Our Library has a good collection of DVDs.

I got up early today. Sitting near the window just staring at the birds with nothing to do was a dream for me. It has come true today.

There are some five or six blogs from ISB students. One of the blogs had some harmful content about the ISB girls and it was creating a turmoil last weekend.

Thats it for now. Let me enjoy this morning.

< Good Bye Term 1>

Finally, the first term comes to an end. The next term starts from Monday. Most of the students are leaving for their home town but I have preferred to stay.

One line about today's exams - Today's stat exam was very easy. Marketing was a bouncer.

I have to mention about the stats professor, Rakesh Vohra, from Kellogg. I admire his teaching style very much. When I am in his class, I feel what it means to be at the ISB. I never studied for the exam and it was not required. Thanks Rakesh !

I will go for a walk around the campus, relax and will continue the blog after coming back.

A disaster and a Relaxed day

Today evening was pretty relaxed. I and my friends were roaming around the campus and were chatting amidst the rocks. Now time is 10:15 PM and I am yet to start studying for Tomorrow's exams.

What about today's exams ? I did economics pretty well than expected. Accounting was a bouncer. Two of four questions were so tough. It was an open book exam and I spent most of the time reading the chapters which I haven't read before. I felt bad to write answers which I was sure to be wrong. But I didn't have anyother way to kill time and fill sheets. These questions were supposed to be in the MIT end-term exam and were removed at the last minute as the prof thought it was too difficult. Poor ISBians had to solve them in the test.

I personally prefer tough exams than easier ones, though I suffer a lot in the exam hall.

I wanted to blog once before I start my exam preparation. There are four subjects to study and three days left. On my engineering days, i used to hate the exam days. Here, it doesn't make much difference. In fact, I am more relaxed now than on other days.

I had a meeting yesterday with the admissions committee as an IT focus group member. I cannot disclose the subjects discussed but one news is that the ISB intake next year would be 420. Its a good news for next year aspirants as the number of seats have increased. I think there will not be any fee hike for next year. Again all these are unofficial.

In the meeting and also in many other situations, the question of comparison with IIM arises. I have my own reasons for favouring the ISB but elaborating about that could add bias to my blog. But I want to clarify about the high fee charged here. For those earning a fairly good salary, opportunity cost at IIM would be more than in ISB. In addition, the ISB gives one year additional experience when compared with two year MBAs.

Is one year sufficient for MBA ? We had a debate over these in Leadership Development class. I will write about that discussion, more about LDP class, and about "Seven Samurai", a movie screened in the LDP class etc after my exams.

I gotta run ...

Note: I know that I make hell a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes in my blog. From the next time, I will make sure to read once before posting.

Term 1 is over by Tomorrow

I am planing to bunk the class today. I have an assignment to be completed before today afternoon. I could have done it yesterday but I was in a relaxed mood then and so were my friends. We spent the entire day roaming around the campus, speaking about the childhood days, girls we came across etc etc. The exams are on Monday and Tuesday and still I don't know how I am going to make through it !!