I have become more open-minded and tolerant, says Anand Kumar Chaudhari

By: Anand Kumar Chaudhari

Most of the good Indian B-Schools use group discussion and personal interview (GD-PI) as an integral selection tool for admissions. The entrance test, academic scores and work experience enlist the criteria to get qualified for the interview call. The final selection largely depends on your performance in the final rounds of GD-PI.

I completed my 12th standard with PCM. I was good at Mathematics and Physics so I decided to select Science as my stream. Then I decided to prepare for engineering entrance exams and joined a coaching institute for preparation. I completed my undergraduate degree with good marks. I always wanted to join a management college with some good technical knowledge. So I decided to go to a management college and started preparing for CAT from a coaching institute. Finally, I selected IMI, Bhubaneshwar for my PGDM. Now, I am pursuing PGDM in marketing and operations from IMI, Bhubaneshwar.

While choosing a college several factors are taken into account such as:

• Alumni Network
• Academic Performance
• Location
• Reputation and Rankings
• Financial Aid

Keeping all the factors in mind. I decided to opt IMI, Bhubaneshwar for my postgraduate degree. I chose IMI, Bhubaneswar because of the following reasons:

• Good placement record.
• 16 acres of green campus
• World-class infrastructure
• A big library and a huge playground

For getting admission in IMI-B, I had to crack competitive exams like CAT, CMAT. I appeared for both CAT as well as CMAT. I was eligible to get admission in a few colleges and I appeared in GD-PI of those colleges. For getting enrolled in IMI-B, I had to get more than 75 percentile in CAT. There are also other selection processes to get admission in college. Most of the good Indian B-Schools use group discussion and personal interview (GD-PI) as an integral selection tool for admissions. The entrance test, academic scores and work experience enlist the criteria to get qualified for the interview call. The final selection largely depends on your performance in the final rounds of GD-PI.

There were group discussion and personal interview rounds conducted by IMI-B during admission. I had to qualify both and fortunately, I managed to crack both. In the group discussion, we were given a few topics on which we had to present our opinion. Some relevant topics for group discussion were:

• Bitcoin Future
• Bullet Train in India: Boon or Ban
• Reduction in oil prices-Imperatives for Indian Economy
• Whatsapp is killing minds
• Indian Economy and Banking News

In the personal interview, the interviewers ask some basic questions only. They ask you about your strengths and weaknesses, your goals and your reason for choosing MBA in their college. During this process, they only see your confidence level, communication skills and attitude. I got calls from other colleges also for admission but I chose IMI-B. I gave CAT, CMAT, MAT. I did my preparation from a private coaching institute and that helped me to get enrolled in IMI-B. I also tried to get admission in colleges like IIMs, MDI, SPJIMR, XLRI but due to average marks, I was not able to get a call from these colleges.

I love my college campus. It is one of the best B-schools in India. Since our hostel is within the campus so, I spend all my time on the campus only. I spend my leisure time playing or in the library. I also dedicate my time working on the projects given by our professors. My college is fully student-driven.

Our college has many clubs like operations club, marketing club, finance club and HR club that organize various extra-curricular activities. There is a CSR Club which is responsible for all the social activities in the college. I love attending all the classes as the methodology and teaching style of our professors are very good. I love attending marketing classes. Apart from marketing classes, I also love attending the operations classes where we learn how to control the inventory and other management-related works in an organization. The college also has many committees like:

• Media and Public Relations Committee - It handles all the work related to media and social networking.
• Sports Committee - It organizes various kind of games within the campus. Some of the events organized by the sports committee are Khel-e-IMI, Racathon, Jazbaa. Jazbaa is the flagship event organized by sports committee in which students from other colleges come and participate.
• Cultural Committee - It is responsible for organizing the cultural events in our college.
• Placement Committee - It is one of the most important committees in the college as it is responsible for the placement and internship of students in various companies.

Apart from these, there are other committees also like IMI- Bites, Mess Committee and Welfare Committee also.

If given a chance I would like to organize more international events in the college. IMI-B has changed me personally. It has taught me management and teamwork. It has enhanced my communication and leadership skills. Our college life is not only about the knowledge that we get here, but it is also about the friends and the life lessons we gain along our journey. I can now handle criticism better as compared to earlier. I have become more open-minded and tolerant. It has given me never-ending memories. 

About the Author:

Anand Kumar Chaudhari is from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He is pursuing PGDM from IMI-Bhubaneshwar. He has done his Mechanical Engineering from BIST, Bhopal. He likes organising events and playing outdoor games like cricket, football, badminton, volleyball etc. Apart from this, he likes to do adventurous things. He also likes cooking and loves to collect old currencies (Numismatics).