VES Business School’s PGDM is rated as equivalent to MBA which made me choose this over other institutes, says Rheemaa

I have always been inclined towards the idea of running a huge business empire which is the major reason why I opted for Commerce during Class 11 and 12. This decision was further facilitated when our school conducted an aptitude test for all the passing students which also suggested that I pursue a career in the Corporate World. Later on, it only seemed helpful to go on for Management Studies for my under-graduation wherein my choice of specialisation was Marketing. I chose this field of study because it seems to me like it provides a greater scope for creativity and a sense of personalisation as compared to the other fields which are more rigid in terms of their operations. I’ve always strived to be individualistic and hence I believe such a free-bounded field would add up to my abilities. During the graduation term, I gained interest in Mathematics and Statistics and hence worked on a few research papers of my own. My paper was also published in the state journal amongst all the other PhD and Engineering laureates. I then decided to choose a career option that is inclusive of subjectivity and has Mathematical foundation. This is why I chose the field of Analytics for my postgraduation. It allows me to have freedom of peculiarity while basing major of its work on Mathematical and Statistical concepts.

During the graduation term, I gained interest in Mathematics and Statistics and hence worked on a few research papers of my own. My paper was also published in the state journal amongst all the other PhD and Engineering laureates.

It was during the last seven or eight months of my graduation that I came to know about the various entrance tests and aptitude exams that are required to get into MBA colleges. After a lot of deliberations, I shortlisted a few entrance examinations that seemed doable in terms of the syllabus and time constraint that I had. I had considered the number of colleges accepting the shortlisted entrance tests as well which is when I came across an institution in Bangalore, Christ University. I started working to get into it. Many of my faculties advised me to go for a coaching class for the preparations and so I joined in one of the batches of Endeavor Groups in Thane city. I prepared for CMAT, MAT and GRE. However, CMAT was done way before the others and I had also received the results for it. My CMAT results were 89.5 percentile which made me qualify for the application in Christ University. Just when all of the things were going right, during my admission interview with Christ University, I got to know that the entire term of two years would happen online because of the pandemic. This put me in dilemma and so I dropped that option and looked for a college in Mumbai. There were very few colleges accepting CMAT for MBA, Vivekanand Business School is one of them. They did not provide for an MBA degree however their PGDM programme was rated as equivalent to MBA which made me choose this over the others. My CMAT scores and graduation percentage fulfilled their criteria and post-interview, I received admission for the PGDM programme for the year 2020-2022.

There were very few colleges accepting CMAT for MBA, VES Business School being one of them. They did not provide for an MBA degree however their PGDM programme was rated as equivalent to MBA which made me choose this over the others.

Due to the pandemic, my college experience is restricted to google classroom and email notices. Initially, there seemed hope for colleges to resume back to normal however now all of us have made our peace with online teaching. Based on the college timings, I spend about eight hours solely in lectures. My specialisation is Business Analytics under which I attend various classes like SQL, Hadoop, MongoDB, Multivariate Analysis and Optimisation Models. Amongst all my, the most favourite classes would be Hadoop and Optimisation Models. The reason for it is primarily the nature of the subjects. Both of them are very interesting and relevant to the field of Data Science. The second reason is the classroom experience. These subjects are very applicative and are taught directly onto the software which gives a great practical and hands-on experience. I’ve been a part of one of the college’s clubs, Business Incubation Cell wherein I was quite active in organising and managing a few events based on start-ups and business legalities. I myself have taken part in a few competitive events within and outside my current college including but not restricted to the Analytics competitions organised by IIMs. I, along with my team, won a Sports Analytics competition organised by IIM Calcutta and have also won a few competitions within my college. Making my post-graduation span even more memorable was the Academic Scholarship of Rs 1,05,000 which I received from the VES Business School which was a great boost for my confidence. If given a chance, I am keen to visit a Data Technology based company to have a close look at the operations and work they adapt to, probably as a part of college field visits. For all the pandemic-stricken college students, including me, the major change in personality has been adaptivity to different forms and resistance from uncertainty. I have become more prepared to handle the dynamicity of curriculum, job hunt and life in general. College keeps on adapting to the new changes via many alternatives accelerating stress management techniques within me. There definitely are many prospects however a lot of self-training and extra-curricular knowledge is expected out of the online-graduating students like me, so I’m striving for the best future.

I plan onto doing PhD in the field of marketing with the help of real-world information and data.

About the author

Rheemaa Gangwani is a BMS graduate in Marketing.  She embarked on the journey of Business Analytics through the post-graduation programme offered by the Vivekanand Business School Mumbai. She has a research paper on Financial Literacy amongst Women published in her name in the Maharashtra State Journal. 

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha