Well I attended the Financial Engineering class at ISB taught by Wharton professor Dr. Ramaswamy, and it was certainly interesting! If there is one thing I learnt very well, it is that Finance is TOUGH!!! :-) The class lasted for about 2 hours (with a 10 minute break in between), after which I spent some time talking to current students. Here are my thoughts -
Campus & Facilities - Excellent campus!!! It isnt the first time I am visiting ISB, yet this place never ceases to amaze me. They have a world class campus, and every inch the top B-school it deserves to be. I havent seen any IIM campuses, nor any US school campus, but I am pretty sure ISB wouldnt be far behind. The school is lush green, airy and wonderful facilities. Personally, i loved the squash courts and the swimming pool!!! Too bad, they were all deserted (as expected). I also spent a good 2 hours in the library reading the latest books they have on display, and no security guard troubled me. They even let you use computing facilities (packed with an amazing DVD collection). I ate in the Indian cafeteria, and food was decent.
Class - Nice and bright classrooms, average acoustics, average video-transmission. The professor had a tablet PC which I felt is far superior to using powerpoint presentations. Class participation was frankly below my expectation. But then I learnt this is probably the toughest course in ISB, and it was heavy duty mathematics etc, so takes some getting used to. The ethnic diversity in the class can be improved.
People - A great institution is only as good as its people. Students, faculty, non-faculty, librarians etc. Students came up to me to introduce themselves and ask about my background etc. They gave me their frank feedback about the school, the faculty, the placement process and the genral prospects post-MBA. Overall, I like the people here - I wouldnt say people went out of their way to make me like ISB, but they showed me the reality the way it is and thats what I really appreciate. I am not a sucker for over-marketing - this was just perfect. In fact, I remember thats one thing that impressed me most about ISB when I attended their admissions session presided by Mr. Menon. Extremely frank and candid.
Overall, I'm glad I got this chance. It was something I wanted to do since starting this process, and better late then never. Speaking with the students, I realised that the job-scene is certainly grim and it will not be easy finding dream-jobs this year. But the good thing is that whoever I spoke with is positive of landing a job. The career services will certainly have to get its act together big-time this year and hopefully they will do a good job.
ISB is certainly a good school with nice students and highly placed professors with huge networks. It needs to pack in more diversity though. Given the 1 year time, it is quite tough to encapsulate all the course material over just 6 weeks. The class I attended is a 1 semester course at Wharton, but here ts 1/3rd the time. One thing is for sure, if you get into ISB, there is no time for fun. But then, thats the whole fun, innit! :-)
4 comments:
Hey looks like you enjoyed every bit of it! I did visit the ISB Campus (for my interview) and it is good I must say.
I won't praise the "excellent/vast/lush green" bit, because my UG college is the same - huge (230 acres), lush green, with each Dept having at least 2-3 buildings (I suppose most RECs/NITs are like that).
But yes, the facilities at the ISB are great. It would have been good to study there :)
Well its all relative. I mean, if you stay in Hyderabad of 2008, thats the most greenest patch you can get pretty much.
Did you talk about the placements scene they are expecting?
Yes I did, it isnt the most encouraging frankly. But then, thats the state of the entire industry. Overall they were expecting ~200 companies to come to campus and recruit, but the number of offers may be much lesser than usual. I think Google didnt pick anybody if Im not mistaken...
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