How To Select a B-School
The task of selecting a management institute has only become more difficult from students' point of view because there are no standard or universally acceptable parameters or criteria in our country for ranking management institutes. Although, of late, a number of surveys have been carried out ranking management institutes, students by and large have only been confused by these rankings as they vary widely in terms of the rankings they arrive at.
Given the very-wide choice available, students would need to consider carefully their criteria while deciding on which management institutes to apply to. We give below the most important factors that should be looked at while selecting a management institute:
a. Placements
b. Quality of Faculty members
c. Quality of Students
d. Quality of Infrastructure
e. Image of the Institute
Placements
One of the most important reasons for doing post-graduate studies in management is that it is known to offer excellent placement opportunities. Graduates of the top management institutes in the country are known to get excellent job placements on successful completion of their course. It goes without saying, therefore, that the placement track record of a management institute is one of the most important factors to be considered while choosing a management institute.
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While a large number of management institutes claim to have achieved a 100% placement record for their students, some of these claims would need to be scrutinized more closely. The best way of finding out the reality is to talk to some of the students already studying at these institutes. A word of caution would not be out of place. Students are known to grossly exaggerate the placement performance of their own institutes!
The best institutes in the country have near-100% placement records. It is possible that a weak student at a top-notch institute
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sometimes faces difficulties in getting placed, but this would be very much the exception at all the top institutes. An institute cannot really be regarded as top-notch if it is not able to place most if not all of its students.
Another factor to be considered in placement is the level of salaries on offer to the graduating students. The IIMs and other "Ivy League" institutes claim an average placement salary of about Rs.6 to 7 lakhs per annum. The highest salary on offer for domestic placements can be as high as Rs.12 to 15 lakhs per annum! The lowest salary on offer at these management institutes is about Rs.3 lakhs.
These institutes are also successful in getting a number of their students placed in organisations that offer international postings. In fact, of late, it is a matter of great prestige to be able to place students in the "Big 5" consulting firms and in some of the top investment banking companies in the world. The dollar salaries for these international placements range between US$ 60,000 per annum and US$ 1, 30,000 per annum.
The average salary in the next level of management institutes is about Rs.3 to 4 lakhs per annum and ranges between a low of Rs.2 lakhs and a high of Rs.5 to 6 lakhs.
An odd company or two could,
of course, offer salaries outside the ranges specified above.
And at the next level of management institutes the average salary on offer
is around Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh per annum.
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