Posted this in Yahoo groups…So, placing it my blog for reference…
Let me type my long-winded answer (Thanks to the term-break that I am enjoying in my home).
Seeing these kind of ‘attack’ mails brings back my memories of Application days. Even I was at times sarcastic/skeptical about few things while I was applying for ISB (but not to the level of MBAAspirant 
). Believe me, we (admits of ISB’06) had so much of heated debate with our previous batch (Class of ‘05) on various topics like Increased fees, revised meal plans, hidden costs, lack of visibility on placement news etc., etc., Some of the applicants even accused the then students for not showing the negative aspects of ISB and defending ISB at all costs. Exactly the same tempo that you guys are displaying now!
Fast forward 4 months…All those tongues, all those cribs have ceased to exist. After witnessing the ISB experience first hand, everyone is convinced on all the aspects that they complained before. To be honest, I wanted to write about the shortcomings in ISB, as I perceive it. But somehow didn’t materialize. Here are some of the shortcomings (Most of the things are hinted in the blog). This is strictly my opinion. I have zillion positive things to write about ISB. But one should get an idea of the short-comings too…Here goes the list.
1. One year is extremely short and intense than what you could perceive or imagine. At some point of time, I was longing to learn more about a subject, but the time constraint didn’t allow me to do so. In the end, I have marked many things in my ‘TO-DO list after ISB’.
2. Not all faculty are great. Some were excellent (some real superstars too). Some were above average. But there were few, who were just average. In the end, Law of averages puts the faculty rating well above average.
3. Beyond a point, I couldn’t handle assignments in the encouraging spirit. Due to the time constraint, I prepared half-hearted solutions. This is not a problem unique to one-year MBA, it’s common across all educational institutes. Only it is marginally severe in one-year MBAs.
4. Almost 80-90% of the faculty are visiting faculty. This mechanism doesn’t help us to build good relationship with professors. Professors are always reachable through emails. But this can’t substitute the one-on-one in true sense. [Advantages: You get best possible professors from various institutes through this model]. Another concern is the number of permanent faculty in ISB. ISB is making efforts on this front vigorously.
5. Competition. Even though ISB operates on a global model, the competition and academic experience is truly Indianish! This is not the case with other global B-schools. (IIM’s operate on a different model, so the academic competition is expected there). The rat-race is definitely on. Experienced candidates would not be prepared for the rat-race. Mostly, candidates who are relatively fresh from college (1-3 years away from college) and who are from top institutes like IIT tend to perform better. Raw competition sometimes gets on your nerve. Be prepared for this. If you want the positive side of the picture, take this: “If you can perform well in ISB you can perform well anywhere. Just by staying amidst this competition, you will raise your bar.”
6. Diversity. Diversity is brought in only by 30% of candidates. 70% of candidates are from IT background. There is diversity within IT industry, but that’s at micro-level. At the macro-level, diversity is still improving. International representation is what ISB is aspiring and still working hard for.
7. Accredition: ISB is still not accredited. As far as what I have heard, an institute has to complete 5 years before applying for accredition. So, I am expecting ISB to go for accreditions after this year. This is an external factor.
But one important topic stills remains a puzzle. Placements. For most of us (sparing few entrepreneurs), placements is the ultimate thing in a B-school.
Think about the following points:
- ISB has been increasing the batch strength every year by around 20%. Every year it has also managed to increase the batch average salary (by around 10%). This isn’t a simple coincidence.
- The average and median salary figures should be taken as average and median in the true statistical sense. The ‘most-experienced candidates’ and ‘brilliant-for-consulting’ candidates fall in the right side of bell curve. The ‘lesser-experienced-candidates’ fall on the left side of bell curve. Ofcourse, there might be few exceptions or ‘outliers’.
- Leaving aside 30% of diversity candidates, around 70% of the class is from IT industry. Naturally, the kind of companies that visit the campus for recruitments are also skewed towards IT.
- ISB and it’s career assistance wing CAS can only serve as a bridge between Recruiters and students. It’s up to the students to convince the recruiters on their calibre and convert the interview to offers. CAS and Place committee(Student body bridging the students and CAS) works closely with each other to bring the correct kind of recruiters matching the student needs. Rest depends on YOU.
As Ram rightly said, the onus of increasing the batch size is on ISB. It has to work that much extra harder to place the students. As you rightly guessed, ISB does lot of planning before deciding on the student intake. But what surprised me when I joined ISB is the acceptance ratio. Against the 320 estimated intake, 350 joined! While this represents the positive image that ISB has in the minds of applicants, it also throws a fear of extra load during the placements. This has been my concern so far in ISB.
If ISB has been able to attract more recruiters every year, and able to place all the students every year, then one thing is clear. The ISB alums are really doing a good job. One of the strong points of ISB is it’s alumnus. They are working hard not only for their personal glory but also for the brand ISB. I can personally vouch for this. Each and every alum that I have interacted with displays a strong passion for ISB and are making efforts to bring back their employers to the campus to recruit more. Something is really special in this aspect.
We are still in our core-terms, where learning the concepts is important. More career related activities will happen in the later part of the course. By then, we will have more insights to offer. The placement committee is still under formation. We don’t have the details on Placement cap yet. It’s currently worked upon. The general feedback from employers so far is very good.
One suggestion. For very real specific concerns, there is no substitute to one-on-one interactions. Come to ISB. Talk to the students. Talk to the management. Get your queries clarified. From what I have observed the more closer you get to the subject, the more truer the picture you will get. Forums will help you in getting answers for less controversial topics [Admission & application related queries, faculty, infrastructure etc.,]. Amidst this busy schedule, the last thing that students would want to involve in, is a debate with prospective applicants on a topic which can be discussed on and on..
Order of free information flow:
* Friends who graduated from ISB > Campus Visit & student interaction > Personal mails > Groups & blogs.
If I have to say one aspect, which I strongly admire about ISB, it is the willingness of ISB Management to accomodate the feedback. All these faculty list, subject list, infrastructure enhancements, curriculum specific changes are driven by constant feedback.
