Diary 31st March 2005
For the past 1 week, I am receiving many calls from my relatives and old friends. I conveyed to each of them about my plans to pursue MBA education in ISB. Unfortunately none of them knew about ISB, which is quite understandable because of its relatively new entry into the market. To make matters worse many of them didn’t know about IIM’s too!!
I have left the efforts to make them understand the calibre of ISB. I am just telling them that I am going for higher studies and that it will be over in one-year.
One of my neighbour’s son is doing distance MBA from IGNOU. The total cost of education is 12,000 Rs. The total cost of my education is 15 lacs. Why so much price difference for same degree? This is another question that I receive. In spite of my best efforts to make them realize the quailty of student body, opportunity to network with some brilliant minds in business, lifelong bonding, faculty quality etc., I am unable to convince them on the cost of education. I have started facing the pressure now…In case something goes wrong (can’t rule out this option completely), no.1 response will be around the 15 lacs!
With all due respect to ISB, 15 lacs is a huge sum of money in Indian context. Only very few appreciate the intention to spend such a sum on education in India. I am happy that my parents are in the very few. That’s enough for me..
I have decided to follow the silent saint philosophy..I will get on with my pursuit without getting disturbed by responses and ignorances of others. When I get the results, world (my environment) will take a notice on me..Until then, BE HUMBLE, BE SILENT..
When I was in Belgium, I was determined not to worry unduly about the cost and to enjoy the one-year ride whilst being focused. But now after one week’s of stay in good-old home conditions, the cost factor has increased the pressure on me.
I symphathize with you and can understand what u are going thru , Also I agree that people are unaware abt the IIM’s also what to talk about ISB. That is the Indian Paradox !! Don’t worry I’m N the same boat as you things will work out just fine…. ( hopefully) Enjoy!
Comment by thought leader — March 31, 2005, Thursday @ 9:06 am
Hmm..Interesting. The brand ISB is well know among NRIs than with resident Indians ?. Can you imagine the plight of someone going for an education abroad. Investment of > 20 Lacs. No guarantee of jobs.Ppl have told my dad that I have gone insane after interacting with the firangs..He he…Stay cool bro. You are going into a premier institute and u’ll get the best.
Comment by Indianblogger — March 31, 2005, Thursday @ 9:26 am
Thought Thanks pal, Yeah I am positive about ISB..but these sort of things are daily nuisances that I am facing now, which I haven’t faced when I was in belgium…
Comment by Administrator — March 31, 2005, Thursday @ 4:39 pm
MIB, the problem is they are able to digest the fact of spending lacs in foreign institutes, but not in Indian institutes. So there are ignorant people around, we cannot worry about them, it’s because of their environment…
BTW, what is firangs?
Comment by Administrator — March 31, 2005, Thursday @ 4:41 pm
in the Same boat ,
i am forced to reinforce the ISB dream every now an then. It can get pretty challenging when you try to explain the concept and price to even colleagues ( forget relatives and family - they fall into a different league ). I have been honing my selling skills by selling ISB to my collegues ( s/w pros ) but havent had too much luck. The first question that i face , if you are ready to spend so much for a dumb MBA , you might as well do it in some phoren location. At last count i had 3 converts as against 8 people who were sure that i am nuts.
anyway .. reassuring to see that lots of folks in the peer group is getting the same goose bumps . ( nothing sadistic in this
)
Comment by Chandra — April 1, 2005, Friday @ 6:58 am
Can’t help it Bharani… 15L is a big money in India and a life savings for money.. to put that for a degree wd be too much for many… just focus on your studies for the next 1 yr and everything wd fall in place. Good luck to you again.
Comment by Chakra Sampath — April 1, 2005, Friday @ 1:06 pm
Bharani,
I empathize with you. But staying at ISB for 2 days and attending the classes, I am sure that your 15 lacs will be worth.
btw, firangs = whites
N
Comment by Neeraj — April 1, 2005, Friday @ 4:18 pm
bharani,
Its nice to see your blog . Yeah it is creul that they r charging 15 lacs + 8 lacs(unearned income on average) = 23 lacs for a course . I agree that faculty and all that BS but the ROI is not justifiable. If you get a job of say 10 lacs which is 2 lacs hike from ur previous job ,it takes you all of 12 years to justify it . I am not even going into complications like present value of money and sh*t like that . Remember there is no precedence of to where you will get after an MBA from ISB after 12 years so lets not even talk about it . Lets not shoot in the dark.
Rock.
Comment by Just me — April 1, 2005, Friday @ 5:21 pm
Thanks all for your views. Good to see that I am not alone among ISB admits to have such feeling. I am heading to ISB with same amount of enthusiasm and dedication as before. Only thing is the relaxed mindset that I had while I was in Belgium is gone. I am more anxious now…I don’t know if it’s good or bad..
Comment by Bharani — April 2, 2005, Saturday @ 3:53 pm
Thank god you didnt said that you are going for PGP….. One of my friend who passed out from IIMA did that mistake. He got the response that he must not been able to get into MBA thats why he was going for PGP (a lesser degree)… and that person was very sympathetic towards my friend
Comment by Ketan — April 3, 2005, Sunday @ 4:06 pm