Campus to Corporate.

The college management is a bit old fashioned which frustrated me but now that I.m out of college I think that was not sobad after all. Placements are decent. Faculty is good. The alumni are well connected.

I took the CAT examination and got a 80 percentile on it.My score being average and my decision to stay in Pune led me to shortlist few colleges in Pune which had BIMM in the list. I am so glad that it featured in my list and was one of the best decisions i took. I think all colleges of Sri Balaji Society have a common placement platform. The training the college gives is extensive and I enjoyed my overall experience with Balaji.

The first two months was the induction period which was the fun part of the curriculum. It was focused more on breaking the ice between students and helping students lose their stage fear. We had to make presentations in front of the entire auditorium on current affairs, marketing topics, etc. We were then asked to chose our streams and i chose marketing. We had industry experts flying down from various cities for lectures and focus was more on solving case studies which shaped my interest and increased my appetite for making my career in the sales and marketing field.

Yes, we have a separate team which is the training and placement cell. I was a part of the team and had the chance to interact with a variety of senior management guys from the corporate. Companies like Bajaj Allianz, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, ICICI prudential, Honda Motors, TCS, Infosys, Reliance, Wipro , Ceat tyres, with an stipends ranging from 5k to 20 k per month.

Infosys with 7,00,000 per annum, Bajaj Allianz LIC- 6.5 Lpa, Bajaj Allianz GIC- 6.5 LPA, ICICI Prudential- 6.5 lpa, CBRE- 5.5 Lpa, Vedanta- 12 Lpa The entire marketing batch was placed of all the four colleges of Sri Balaji Society. HR batch was 85% placed.Operations and Systems batch was placed 100%.

The entire tenure with Balaji was filled with events. During the induction phase we were divided into set of 30 students and an intra college events were held. It covered sports right from football, cricket, chess, etc to cultural competitions which included western dance, singing, dramatics, etc.

The entire education with BIMM costed me 6,50,000 which did not include the hostel fees. Over 2 years it was divided as 3,25,000 per year which included the cost of books and stationary which is all inclusive. There were no extra charges taken from us during the entire tenure. There were optional SAP course which were taught at extra cost of 20,000.

I took an education loan from SBI. The college also had tie ups with HDFC or some other bank but since the interest rates were lower in SBI i preferred to avail loan facilities from them. The fees were to be paid on an yearly basis but I knew of some exceptions and not much action was taken against late payment of fees.

So Balaji had a mandatory 50:50 girl to boy ratio which is not there anywhere else. It was a cultural mix of students from all over the country which led to exposure to various traditions and in short enriched every student unlike any other college of Pune where most of the students were locals.

I was a localite and stayed at home during the entire course. However the feedback from my friends was that their entire stay was very comfortable. There were 3 students sharing one large room which was in a cluster of 4 rooms . So every 4 rooms as in the cluster had a sitting area attached to it for discussions etc. The food was 5 star quality. With options of both veg and non- veg. The hostel was limited to only 1st year students and as seniors we had to look for our own space.

The alumni network of Balaji is extremely active both on social media as well as on personal levels. In fact Balaji conducts alumni meet every year which keeps the alumni together and nurtures the college with networking of all kinds. The alumni meets are conducted abroad as well for alumni settled outside of India and our dean Dr Col A Balasubramanyam personally attends all of the meets.

There were constant surprise tests which kept happening and regular semester exams. There was more emphasis on presentation skills which was more useful to all of us. Also we had a hectic schedule as there were no holidays given. No sundays off and no holidays on any major festivals.

The weightage here to written examination is 30%. The rest of the evaluation includes various activities and it is a day long process. Once you apply for the college you receive a call from them where they give you a slot to attend the admission process. It begins with a Group discussion followed by a group activity like a marketing activity. Then there is extempore and lastly they ask you to write an essay. Once shortlisted there is one final round of personal interview where they ask really basic question to assess your personality.

We had two sets of faculties. One was the visiting faculty and the other being a permanent staff. The visiting faculties were the ones who were industry experts and taught core marketing subjects. The permanent staff taught us Finance and accounts. I think Balaji is more suited for students who want marketing as their area of expertise as the faculty is stronger and better.