Its result time and many of you must be going through the same dilemma, which college I should go for, which one should I leave. Below here I will try to answer few of those questions
1) IIMs (excluding A, B & C) vs XLRI -> I see many of the post where people say IIM K, L better than XLRI BM or vice versa. There is no hard & fast answer to this, however it depends on a lot of factors
· Placement: Since XLRI has small batch size as compared to IIMs, they have an edge in overall placements. However, one should note that all companies that visits XLRI do visit IIM L, I & K as well. Even there are some companies that visits only IIM L & K but doesn’t visit XLRI. The batch size of ~400 odd students does impact the overall placement for IIMs. However, one should note that the competition is much more in XLRI as compared to IIM, since XLRI doesn’t have reservation and also the fact that it gives less weightage to percentile for selection so one is competing with the best minds of the country. One can confirm the same with the current XL students about the cut throat competition they have.
· Faculty: The faculty of IIMs and XLRI doesn’t have big difference. Each institute has some of the great professors of the country. However, the number of visiting faculties at IIMs are more as compare to XLRI. Note: If one is interested in HR, then there is no comparison for XLRI. It is on par with all the IIMs when it comes to HR
· Industry Reputation: When it comes to brand, be it XL or IIM K, L, I each have their own brand name. However, IIMs do get an edge because of the IIM tag and trust me it matters a lot. However, it doesn’t mean that XL doesn’t have a brand name, it’s just an IIM tag fetches you more opportunities
· Campus: IIM K has the best campus out of these 4 colleges. After that it will be IIM L and then XLRI & IIM Indore
· Fees: IIMs get the advantage here over XLRI. IIM K, L, I fees is in the range of 16-17. However, the fees for XL is ~25 lacs
· Academically the course curriculum at XLRI, IIM L is way more rigorous as compare to IIM K and I.
· As far as specialization is concern, for Finance go for IIM L, for marketing IIM K or L, for HR & operations go for XLRI, for consulting IIM L or XLRI
So consider all these points while making your decision
2) IIMs vs MDI -> Since I have already laid down the points for IIMs, I will only write about MDI for each of those criteria
· Placements: Since MDI has small batch size (~240) the placements are there more or less equal to IIMs and XLRI. In the past few years most of the companies which were only coming to IIMs or were having pool campus placements have started to come to MDI as well.
· Faculty: Again, there is no big difference in the faculty of MDI & IIMs and MDI has some very good professors of the country
· Industry Reputation: As far as brand name is considered IIMs clearly have an edge over MDI (cuz of the IIM tag), however one should also note that it is one of the college which has always been in the top 10 ranking of the B schools of the country. In fact many companies offers same profile to the MDI as well as IIM C students. When it comes to marketing, MDI way ahead of IIM K, I
· Campus: Being located in the corporate hub of the country, you cannot ask for anything better (Only campus with a golf course :p)
· Fees: Fees is same as IIMs (more than L ) but less than XLRI
· As far as specialization is considered for marketing MDI is the best after FMS
So make an informed decision after considering the above points. Also, you will not find anyone studying in the above colleges who will say that the other college is better than his/her college (except for A, B & C)
PS : Since I have friends from each of these colleges so I had a good idea about each of them. Also, in my organization I have many people from these colleges and once you are out of your college, your college name (brand) becomes secondary to how you perform at your workplace. Few people in my organization who are at the top are not even from the top 10 B school of the country, yet they are there because of their exemplary performance.
PPS: I have not included IIM A, B, C and FMS in the above comparison for obvious reasons :p
One more thing, no matter which college you choose from the above, you will never regret your decision!!
All the best!!