My eventful journey at KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai

The weightage of different parameters in admission process is following-CMAT/ GMAT /CAT/ XAT -35%, case-based group discussion- 17%, personal interview- 25%, past academic record-10%, work experience -5% and outstanding achievements- 8%. Outstanding achievements consist of International level sports, additional qualifications, and extra-curricular activities. The program commences in the middle-end of June and the first week of August. The pros of the institute are its 50 acres 'state of art infrastructure, wi-fi-enabled campus, excellent visiting faculty, guest lectures, and location. There are many dream corporate houses in the very city-Mumbai. The cons include its liberal exam patterns. I preferred KJ over other colleges due to its prime location advantage and fair enough placements. I referred to the institutes' website as well as collegedunia to evaluate my options.

The faculty-student ratio is 1:22. I chose the course as I was highly inclined towards international business studies and business expansions in foreign countries. The teachers here are excellent and 89 % of faculty are into research and 93% of faculty has industry expertise of more than 5 years. The visiting faculty and guest lectures are brilliant and worth mentioning. The exams are held on a trimester basis. There are 6 terms in the two-year course.

110% of students get placed in summer placements. 156 companies participated in summer recruitments. I was offered a marketing intern profile by an FMCG company wherein I was expected to draft a digital marketing budget plan for 3 weeks, STP, 2 weeks of field project and for the rest of the time, I was appointed into the marketing team of one of the headquarters. It was a fun learning experience. The average stipend offered was Rs15000 per month and the highest stipend offered was Rs1.3 lakhs per month.

The average placement is around Rs10.56 lakhs. 99% of students get placed. The sector where students are placed includes manufacturing, IT, ITES, Analytics, Consulting, FMCG, MNCD, Insurance, and Bank. 170+ recruiters participated in the process. The prominent recruiters include GEP, Infosys, KPMG, BlackRock, food panda, zomato, HDFC, Vistara, ITC, VLCC, Amazon, etc.

The fee is around Rs16.36 lakhs. There are many scholarships- need-based, merit-based, and merit cum means-based. The eligibility criteria to apply to these scholarships is that the family income must be less than Rs3 lakhs. 100% of students achieve paid summer internships. Loans can be obtained by applying to various banks on the VidyaLakshmi portal.

The campus life here was amazing. The peer group you have here is rich of diversity and knowledge. The student committees are very active and always in a 'work' mode. To mention few committees - PR & Branding committee, Pathfinder, Acumen, Quantinnum, FORSE, Aspire, Mauj club, Photography club, Interface, and FinStreet. There are several events stretched all over the course- SPRIHA, SAMAVESH, SGMC, CONFLUENCE, MILEAGE, PANGEA, etc.

There was a case-based group discussion. There was a total of 10 batches, each consisting of 8 students. The duration of the GD was 15 minutes. Post that each candidate was offered 1 minute to conclude. The rules were made clear in the beginning. The topic of my GD was aging gracefully. We had to put forward our opinions of various perspectives relate to it- confidence, health, beauty, etc. The personal interview included questions related to cricket, various cricket terminologies as I mentioned my liking towards it, my opinion of women empowerment and feminism, do I check IMDB ratings before watching movies, to mention few sections of Company law, etc. Brush your basics well and stay vigilant of what is happening in the world-Read newspaper.