I have become more open-minded and tolerant, says Anand Kumar Chaudhari

By: Anand Kumar Chaudhari

Most of the good Indian B-Schools use group discussion and personal interview (GD-PI) as an integral selection tool for admissions. The entrance test, academic scores and work experience enlist the criteria to get qualified for the interview call. The final selection largely depends on your performance in the final rounds of GD-PI.

I completed my 12th standard with PCM. I was good at Mathematics and Physics so I decided to select Science as my stream. Then I decided to prepare for engineering entrance exams and joined a coaching institute for preparation. I completed my undergraduate degree with good marks. I always wanted to join a management college with some good technical knowledge. So I decided to go to a management college and started preparing for CAT from a coaching institute. Finally, I selected IMI, Bhubaneshwar for my PGDM. Now, I am pursuing PGDM in marketing and operations from IMI, Bhubaneshwar.

While choosing a college several factors are taken into account such as:

• Alumni Network
• Academic Performance
• Location
• Reputation and Rankings
• Financial Aid

Keeping all the factors in mind. I decided to opt IMI, Bhubaneshwar for my postgraduate degree. I chose IMI, Bhubaneswar because of the following reasons:

• Good placement record.
• 16 acres of green campus
• World-class infrastructure
• A big library and a huge playground

For getting admission in IMI-B, I had to crack competitive exams like CAT, CMAT. I appeared for both CAT as well as CMAT. I was eligible to get admission in a few colleges and I appeared in GD-PI of those colleges. For getting enrolled in IMI-B, I had to get more than 75 percentile in CAT. There are also other selection processes to get admission in college. Most of the good Indian B-Schools use group discussion and personal interview (GD-PI) as an integral selection tool for admissions. The entrance test, academic scores and work experience enlist the criteria to get qualified for the interview call. The final selection largely depends on your performance in the final rounds of GD-PI.

There were group discussion and personal interview rounds conducted by IMI-B during admission. I had to qualify both and fortunately, I managed to crack both. In the group discussion, we were given a few topics on which we had to present our opinion. Some relevant topics for group discussion were:

• Bitcoin Future
• Bullet Train in India: Boon or Ban
• Reduction in oil prices-Imperatives for Indian Economy
• Whatsapp is killing minds
• Indian Economy and Banking News

In the personal interview, the interviewers ask some basic questions only. They ask you about your strengths and weaknesses, your goals and your reason for choosing MBA in their college. During this process, they only see your confidence level, communication skills and attitude. I got calls from other colleges also for admission but I chose IMI-B. I gave CAT, CMAT, MAT. I did my preparation from a private coaching institute and that helped me to get enrolled in IMI-B. I also tried to get admission in colleges like IIMs, MDI, SPJIMR, XLRI but due to average marks, I was not able to get a call from these colleges.