Life @ SPJ Dubai

[kanishkaagiwal]

Calling all SPJ Dubai guys...here is our thread on PG. Potential SPJ Dubai aspirnats can take a look at this post http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/showth...186#post254186

Will keep you guys posted on the happenings here at SPJ Dubai (SPJCM).

[666]

SPJAIN DUBAI rocks..

Myself 666 .. specialising in retail.

Hope this thread helps a lot of MBA aspirants back in india to get some insight into the life at SPJCM.

[DesiGuru]

Whats the cost of the entire program? How exactly is Dubai to live in?
Isnt the Arab factor a major pain in the ass?

K

[666]

The entire cost is 12 lakhs (khana, peena, rehna , padhna )
We are a batch of 126. Everybody got loans worth 8 lakhs facilitated by spjain mumbai.

Dubai is exactly like mumbai. In fact everyhting around us reminds us of india. 1 out of 8 in Dubai is an Indian. In fact the arab factor which you allude to is entirely missing.

[nilmitr]

Hi all,

I am doing PGDM (IT specialization) at SPJCM Dubai.

I think many MBA aspirants want to know about SPJCM but they do not have any source to know about it. To throw some light on it....

As mentioned by 666, the entire cost of the program comes out to be 12 Lacs. You can get a loan upto 7 to 8 lacs, which is facilitated by Institute. Most of us have availed of this facility.

Good thing about it is that it is a One year course. So it saves a year of your life. It puts you on a fast track. You do not have to forgo one year's extra salary which you have to forgo when you go for a two year course. So less opportunity cost!!!

Despite this I will still say that there are some poistive points about two year MBA which a one year MBA lacks. Over here everything moves at FASTER THAN LIGHT pace.

If you think that you are not ready for this fast a life, then this is not a place for you. But, in that case even MBA is not the course for you!!!

The best part about SPJCM, Dubai is the incredible faculty that these people are able to bring here. We share most of the faculty with our parent institute SPJIMR,Mumbai which is truly world class. We also have some extraordinary faculty from XLRI, XIM B.

Dubai is a very fastly developing city. This place nurtures a culture where people from almost 170 nationalities live together in harmony. Specifically speaking about India, you will find a lot of Indians moving around in the city. You might mistake this place with a 'better and developed' Mumbai with some of the foreigners moving around. Exception NO HEAVY RAINFALLS here.... Rather no rains at all...

The infrastructure provided by the institute is world class. The hostel that they have provided is an absolute luxury.

The placements last year reaped very high ROI for the first batch students.
We wish we take it above the heights that our seniors benchmarked for us.

Despite all these things there always are some flipsides to the coin. Like very costly communication in Dubai. Telephonic conversation to India may cause a huge dent in your pockets. Specifically if you have a Girlfriend/Boyfriend back home.....!!!

Good thing is that you get nice Indian food (Although very costly!!!) for lunch and dinner here....Punjabi, South Indian, Gujarati all types of food you can get here......
That's a luxury you will never get if you are studying in western countries....

This place rocks. It has already made a status as A GLOBAL BUSINESS SCHOOL in the industry in Mid East and also in India. The best thing is the huge no. of work ex people over here. That improves the quality of classroom discussion and makes it well conversant with the practical experiences of participants from different industries.

That's it for now. If anyone has specifically any queries about SPJCM, please feel free to write, we will surely cater to them.

[kanishkaagiwal]

Hi junta,

This is a small FAQ that I had posted in another thread. Reproduced below for this thread viewers.

I am a student currently doing my MBA from SPJain Dubai. Was called for SPJIMR twice and rejected both the times and finally SPJ Dubai (SPJCM) happened. I was apprehensive about it myself so I can very well understand your concern. Let me answer your queries:

1. SPJCM is quite good. Of course not better than SPJIMR but just a notch lower. We get all the SPJ faculty, some IIM profs, ISB profs, XIMB and a few international faculty to teach us. So faculty and teaching is really not an issue. It is top notch. It beats almost all Indian B schools as far as infrastructure is concerned save for ISB, which is better than us. Wi-Fi, video conferencing, recorded classroom sessions etc etc. We do not have a huge exclusive campus liek most b-schools but a campus within the huge Dubai Knowledge village where we share space with other universities. Something like FMS.

2. The peer groups is the most diverse you can find. Most Indian B schools have a huge percentage of engineers but here it is a fair balance of all. 35% engg, 5% CAs, Bcoms and BAs. So the learning from the peer grp is immense. I am an engineer who had a 99%ile in CAT and yet I am at the middle of the class in Finance simply because the CAs and BComs are better and hence the bar is raised for all of us. Similarly for Engg subjects where we have an edge and we raise the bar for them.

3. The degree is exactly the same as given to SPJIMR students. In addition it has a SPJ Dubai seal too. So no worries there. Next year there will be a campus in Singapore too so a SPJ student market value is bound to go up.

4. And now the most important, placements. SPJ Dubai has almost a IIMA kinda look in UAE/Dubai. Primarily because there is no other B school here and hence it enjoys a near monopoly. We are located right next to Dubai Internet city that houses HP, Microsoft, IBM Oracle etc etc and media companies like CNN, Reuter etc. Last year was our first year of placements and the salary figures offered were really good as per Dubai standards. You can view them at www.spjaindubai.org. This year it will only become better and hopefully we should be on par with SPJIMR salaries as far as Indian placements are concerned. However if you want to work in Dubai, then the salary levels are already very good.

5. We have spec in Fin/Marketing/IT with supre spec in Investment Banking, Wealth Mgmt, retail Marketing and Hospitality Mgmt.

[bokia_disconnecting_ppl]

nice to hear abt another home away from home ........ guys what was the average percentiles of ppl who have made it to this course .....

[prashi_mystic]

guys can u enlighten me mroe on the EMBA prog of spjcm.... i have a freind in dubai who has 2.5 yrs of work ex.... so can anybody in the colelge pls get me info abt the quality of faculty for emba and the placements they offer.. tis a 2 year part-time course and costs 6lacs..... and it woudl eb grt if u can also gimme a list of companies which had taken placements form EMBA students last year... would really be greatful.....


cheerio

[DesiGuru]

SPJ Dubai sounds like a great deal... Esp if getting a job in Dubai is almost a certainty... With such a heavy cost i am sure most would prefer to get a job there...
Also Dubai is getting bigger and bigger... Probably all the head quarters of top companies for the middle east might be shifted or already located there...
Can one of you describe the class profile as in Age, male-female ratio, backgrounds etc in little more detail and also the lowest CAT score etc acceptable... Is GMAT required?

Also how many resident UAE folks and any junta from other countries?

would love to know more...

K

[assignus]

thx spjd guys for the info
i have some queries ...hope some one will answer them

1) the site still says 91% placed....what happened to the rest
2) a rough figure on how many are placed in dubai/middle east ....and how many in india?
3) what field are they placed in?
4) the salaries mentioned on the website are CTC? in that case the avg salary is too meagre to live in dubai
5) does the placement facilitate career shift?


sorry that all my queries are revolving around money/placements..... unfortunately thats my main concern.

ps to DG: i donot quite agree that arab factor is null (or even close to) .....indians are employed to cut costs..... thats what i can say after my 2 yr stay here.....