Want to shape up your career with a management degree / diploma : Things to consider before taking admission in a Business School

Pursuing a course in management has become one of the most common goals for Indian students after their graduation. Moreover, some working people even quit their jobs and make preparations to study in one of their dream Business Schools (B-School) in order to develop their career and with a hope to occupy top positions in reputed companies in future. With most employers prefering to hire people who have passed Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM), therefore, the demand of pursuing management courses have become higher with time.

As per reports, MBAs are sought after for their ability to think critically, deal with ambiguity and solve complex problems. Most of the courses on management follows a case-study approach which requires students to find out problems and think critically to arrive at a feasible solution. Management students are given to work on various tasks in groups so that they can coordinate with each other and find out some innovative answers. Moreover, management students are also required to give presentation on various topics either individually or in a group, which, in turn gives them a chance to interact and speak before various groups of people. Internships and industrial visits are also a part of management courses. Therefore, it can be said that pursuing a management course helps a student to hone their soft skills and get a fair idea of how an organization works.

With the demand for studying management courses growing higher, many B-schools are now springing up in India. However, one must note the following points while choosing a B-school :

Types of management courses being offered :

If you decide to pursue a management course in an autonomous B-school in India, the first thing you should look out for is whether the degrees / diplomas being offered have been approved by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). Rankings and accreditations are other criterias to determine the quality of the courses that are offered by a B-school. It is always beneficial to study in a B-school that has occupied top spots in national and international rankings conducted by independent agencies or has been  accredited by AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. You should also find whether the management course being offered by a B-school is industry relevant or not. Management programmes are generally classified into two groups- General Management Programme  and Specialisation-based Programme.  General Management Programme  consists of disciplines such as marketing, finance and human resources. Meanwhile, Specialisation-based Programme offers management courses in a specific area ( eg. retail, insurance, IT etc.).A General Management Programme gives a student the flexibility to join any sector and thus affords maximum diversification and placement opportunities as opposed to a specialisation-based programme.

Faculty and types of students enrolled :

The quality of education being offered in an educational institute depends on the type of faculty members working there. If a B-school comprises of higher number of faculty members with sufficient academic as well as industrial work experience, there are higher chances that the students studying there may get a better idea of the way an industry functions besides gaining academic knowledge on the subjects. While searching for a B-school, you should look at the educational institutions from which the faculty members got their academic qualifications and their work experience in academics and industries.

Before taking admission in a B-school, you should look out for the type of students that it enrolls. Most B-schools in India uses case studies and gives assignments /presentation/ projects to students for their learning, which in turn depends greatly on the quality of interaction among the students. Therefore,  it is necessary to get an idea of the kind of students that join a B-school. The chances of learning and gaining more knowledge increases when you get to interact with good students during projects at a B-school. If the number of students who wish to join an institute increases, the selection process naturally becomes more difficult. As a rule of thumb, the quality of a B-school  depends mostly on the type of  the selection process it follows to admit students.

Location & image of the institute :

While choosing a B-school to pursue a course in management, you should also pay importance to the place in which it is located. You should look to study management in cities that has a good industry interface because the opportunities of getting good internships are higher there. When you are able to gain good knowledge and experience from your stint as an intern, the chances of getting hired in good companies in both on-campus and off-campus placements increases.

The image of a reputed B-school is always high and students passing from elite management institutes in the country have a higher chance of occupying  key positions in the corporate world. Moreover, the chances of getting recruited in top companies with good salary packages during on-campus placements are much higher in reputed B-schools. If a B-school which has an excellent image in industrial circles invites companies for its on-campus recruitment drive, the companies gladly accepts their offers. For this reason, a reputed B-school with a good image is able to place almost all of its students in good companies during  its on-campus recruitment drive.

ROI

As B-schools charge a huge amount of fees for educating students, it is necessary that you to pay attention to the Return on Investment ( ROI) factor. We need to consider how much money (in salary terms) we can expect to make post an MBA from a given institute and how much money will be spent in acquiring the degree.