I have been thinking about it for quite a while now and what I am going to write is nothing new. However the reason why I am still writing this is cus I can relate to the topic and want to sum up my ideas here in this blog.
MBA has become a much coveted degree these days and in India the degree is synonymous with IIMs thanks to the hype created by media about the same and the brand created by the IIMs themselves.The talk shows dedicated to exam taking strategies and expert opinions before the D -day (for millions of aspirants) have given CAT (Common Aptitude Test)the status of something more than an exam.Such extraordinary attention to an exam causes jitters to even the best prepared.But then CAT is not about preparation . It is about the ability to think on the spot and take decisions in the most stressful situations in minimum possible time.
In the past few years the number of students taking the exam has risen drastically and along with it has changed the difficulty level of the exam which continues to get tougher year after year .Unpredictabilty is the core aspect of the exam which test setters have tried to maintain always.Increasing the toughness probably is one way of achieving that objective. I believe that these institutes are aiming at people who have certain basic qualities like managing time and making decisions that can fetch maximum benefit while keeping a cool head.
Not being able to crack the exam should in no way deter a person from doing MBA. Whereas there could be many reasons for the same which I would not like to touch the best and the most motivating could be ,"A person not fitting in the pool of people that these institues want". Their curriculum is designed keeping in mind certain pre-requisites which one could or could not have.
There is one set of people who year after year toil trying to get basic quant fundamentals correct, cramming word-meanings , improving english comprehension, interpreting statistics and working both at improving speed and ability to handle complexity.For some it becomes an obsession .
There is another set who compromise on the standard set by themselves and look for other options.
And there are some who are diverted to taking GMAT.
Most of the junta in India has a lot of misconceptions about GMAT .Whenever I used to talk about it with my friends , the first thing which I used to be told was "It is very expensive.Period".
I feel the cost of taking this exam along with applying to few chosen universities comes equivalent to taking a dozen entrance exams in India and then applying to umpteen number of schools(which is what majority of the people do).
During the past few months I have seen a lot of people in the age group 23-25 opting for the above mentioned third option.Issues like reservation of seats in colleges in India clubbed with the increasing difficulty level of the exam and urgency to go for higher studies look like a convincing reason for this which many a times are sugar coated and brought forth in the name of "Better international exposure, better curriculum, world class infrastructure etc etc". These factors are undoubted USPs of an international MBA but then I would not believe if someone in the age-group 22-25 would tell me that he/she not even once try taking CAT.I am not saying this because I believe that Indian schools are the best but I am trying to bring forth the common thought process and actions of aspirants. The education that one gets here is up to the mark if not best according to international standards(this I can say because IIM-A has only been recently added to top 100 b-schools list) and is very inexpensive.
GMAT unlike CAT tests proficiency in Critical Reasoning , Sentence Correction,Essay writing and like CAT it too has Reading comprehension and Quant.
I would not go into more details of these exams but obtaining a good GMAT score I would say is an achievable target with a not so unpredictable result after one has put in decent amount of hardwork.
Incase of GMAT , selecting foreign universities which would suit one's budget and aspirations is not an easy task.It involves a lot of networking and exploring unknown horizons.Personally for me going to a foreign land for studying with a loan burden on head would not be an easy thing to do and would definitely pull me out of my comfort zone.
Many people after securing admission to good and reputed universities abroad , tend to compare the placement scenarios outside to that prevalent in India , without the knowledge that market forces and economy have a lot to contribute in this. Abroad , even colleges like Harvard donot claim, 100% placement after 3 months of graduation.However , because economy in India has been so buoyant for the past few years , such statistics could come as a shock to knaive MBA aspirants.
Placements and salaries offered are not just an outcome of the school's reputation and a student's profile but they have a lot to do with the size of the market in which the job is being searched or looked for and availabilty of talent .
And hence , comparisions between two things which are not similar can turn out to be a bit misleading and demotivating if a person is not really clear about what he wants from his/her higher education.
PS : For anyone who has gone through the above article , the following blog would be an eye opener http://mediocrenarrogant.blogspot.com/.
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5 comments:
"Not being able to crack the exam should in no way deter a person from doing MBA" - makes a lot of sense... the "purely" exam based selection process is totally flawed...I guess the institutes find themselves crippled when they think about selecting the right candidates from this huge indian talent pool...but then, they are expected to be more innovative and shud come up with better ways of handling these...imagine, foreign BSchools have international applications too which we don't...
And then, post entrance exams, there is hardly anything guys learn from these Indian BSchools, say IIMs...or any premier Indian Educational Institute for that matter...leave alone the rest...perhaps it's only the entrance exam that ensures their quality...i.e., the quality of the students in there...it's funny that most of these colleges are barely managing with half the required number in the faculty, and that too of a very poor quality...these placement figures and the sucess stories of alums are not true reflections of the education that they receive in these BSchools...it's just that they have really smart students which the entrance exam ensures...a lot of data adds up to put an institute in the top 100...but our institutes surely fail in generating thinking spirit and a maturity that is essential for a person to make the right use of his decision making and managerial abilities...most learn it in the work place...some have it in them...some never learn, nor aquire...
Internation Exposure, bla bla bla, are definitely sugarcoated phrases...people do try CAT...and may be don't even know things like international exposure to start with after graduation...perhaps the fact that we do MBAs soon after graduation goes a long way in explaining our mindsets and the way we see these "degrees"...it's deep rooted...not much has changed in the way we look at ourselves and our environment...
comparisons do demotivate some people...no one can see all faces of a die at the same time unless he goes ahead and turns the die to check for himself...it needs effort...the one who put it enjoys the clarity of vision...
Ya u r right in pointing out that the salary figure that the B-school boasts about is highly misleading. 5-6 lks in india is equivalent to 13-14 lks in singpore/hongkon or 20-22 lks in UK/US. So the martet, economy and living standard in that country should be taken into account while comparing the salary fig. Ya it looks nice at first glance but the reality is an eye opener. I m an engineer working in singapore for the past two yrs. Based on my exp, I advice all those ppl being baboozled by the 7 digit sal to be more pragmatic and careful.
Agreed...Schools doesn't matter at all if the person has it in him/her.
John Wooden says, "Success is not about acheiving things, its about being 100% of what you can be, and if you acheive success you are not left with anything else, but trust me acheivements are easy, success is tough"
Success is about being consistent day after day, not about a single acheivement on a single day. Its about consistency and intensity. And if you have that, "Who cares for any school/degree". Our generation is too passionate about degrees, without even having a long term vision for that goal. May be its one way of keeping oneself safe, but trust me when the tough time will come, the people who thinks safe will never be able to survive.
If someone knows what he wants to acheive with a particular degree(except money, degree and social prestige), then this question of indian and foreign college will never arise. He/she knows what they are doing. But if someone is trying to win the RAT race then yes...its a tough decision to make.
Good Observations...Actually all the enterence exams are more of "elimination criteria" than "selection criterias" coz u cannot select 4000 ppl from 2lac ppl...rather u can easily eliminate 2lacs - 4000 ppl...The day ppl 2 lac ppl start applying to Foreign Unis., u will see the same scenario here(but hopefully they won't be introducing 40% reservation).
But i somehow feel that MBA is a over rated degree. I have seen a lot of firms(especially s/w firms) and i found a strange co-incidence that most of the top maangement ppl are Phd. that in technical fields rather than MBAs!!! Also take example of Japan...Japan don't have too many good B-Schools but still they have produced more,successful and better enterpreneurs than India have.I feel MBA has nothing to do with being a successfull enterpreneur(for which u must have common sense,Experience,Guts and luck).Strangely, this is one main reason why ppl do MBA.
Also,most of the time MBA is viewed from "compensation" prespective rather than a learning experience. And once u get out of compensation "ILLUSION" and start taking your degree as a learning experience, you stop getting demotivated based on factors like compensation.
Last not Least, one must have clear expectation from MBA program.It depends on your long-term plan and what(and how much) you intend to learn...Wharton may not be best for me....but may be best for a finance "pro"....
Most of the ppl i met had only one short/long term goal...do MBA from a well reputed institute...it's actually a strange goal...it's like having a gas station as destination with your home as one of the stopage,when it should have been, home as destination and gas station as a stopage...
I agree to you in the sense that " Things could be misleading". I feel you should have mentioned " How to play safe in such condition?" and "what are the various options one has while choosing an internationally acclaimed Universities." Life is not an easy road to move on. Pebbles will be here and there, but i feel a focussed individual always comes out as a winner.
Regards
APJ
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