A Day at IBS – Sneak Preview

IBS CAMPUS

“This is the beginning of a new day. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. I want to gain, not lose; want good not evil; success not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it”.

If you are an MBA aspirant often thinking on the same lines almost every morning about your day, then you must surely be wondering of how your day would be at a B-School. Let us take a sneak preview of a day at IBS, one of the prestigious B-Schools of the country.  Being an alumnus of IBS Hyderabad, I will take you through what was my typical day at the campus.

6:45 AM: “Good Morning”!!

I usually used to get up at 6:45 AM which was quite a task considering the time at which I went to bed each night.  You will find out the reason for the late nights as you go on reading this article.

7:00 AM: “Wake up and be awesome”!!

There is nothing better than early morning workouts.  There are many fitness regimes that one can follow at IBS, such as a morning walk, jogging round the vast campus, playing any kind of sport, swimming or working out in the gym. I personally preferred hitting the gym for about 45 minutes to an hour.

8:00 AM: “Breakfast time”!!

“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper”.  After a rigorous workout I used to go to the mess and enjoy a healthy breakfast. At IBS the menu keeps changing every day for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner and it is usually fixed as per the day of the week, so that one can enjoy a variety of food.

8:30 AM: “Get set go”!!

After a healthy breakfast I went back to the hostel to get ready for the classes. They used to start at 9.10 AM and 10.20 AM on alternate days from Monday to Friday, and end by 4:20 PM and 5:30 PM respectively.

9:10 AM: “Its study time”!!

Since it was the first classroom session of the day, everyone used to be fully charged including me and reached the classroom early to catch up with friends for sometime before the session began. The classroom session at IBS is a case study model. The case based teaching method is a unique way of learning things, by applying the theoretical concepts to various scenarios and business problems faced by giant corporations in reality.

To know more about IBS case studies use the following link

http://www.ibscdc.org/1

10:20 AM: “Reading Room”!!

Typically the duration of a classroom session spanned over 70 minutes which was followed by a 70 minutes break in between each session. This time was utilized by going to reading rooms.  In IBS small study groups are formed comprising of 4-5 students each to utilize the time between the sessions. All the students of the group gather in a special place meant for group study called the reading room.

11:30 AM: “Back to the class”!!

After the group study session, it used to be the time for the second classroom session of the day.

12:40 PM: “Lunch Hour”!!

By this time I used to get very hungry. Studying continuously is not an easy task after all. The next class was scheduled at 1.50 PM so we grabbed a quick bite and recharged ourselves for the rest of the day. The lunch usually was a quick one, as I usually needed sometime to go through the case for the next class once again.

1:50 PM: “Session after lunch”!!

I’m sure you might be wondering what it must be like to be in a classroom straight after lunch and  how can one possibly be awake in the class? But as I said, IBS has got a very interesting pedagogy “Case study Methodology”, and not the boring traditional lecture based teaching, hence students are always active irrespective of which hour of the day the session is conducted.

3:10 PM: “Phew…last classroom session of the day”!!

The session after lunch used to get over at 3:00 PM. We used to have a 10 minutes break before the next session, which used to begin at 3:10 PM and end at 4:20 PM.

4:20 PM: “Tea Time”!!

This was the time of the day when I used to feel very relaxed, as all the sessions were done for the day. It was the time to go to the mess, have tea along with freshly prepared snacks, and have fun with friends.

5:00 PM: “Power Nap”!!

I used to come back to my room in the hostel and take a nap for about an hour, begin the second half of the day feeling refreshed.

6:00 PM: “Splash in the pool”!!

I love swimming, and thanks to IBS I could swim daily. Its campus has a very well maintained Olympic sized swimming pool.

IBS has got excellent sports facilities, and hence one has many options in terms of which sport he/she would like to play. There is a separate block called as sports complex, where facilities for many indoor games like Badminton, Squash, Table Tennis, Chess, and Caroms etc. are available.  There are also separate fields and grounds for outdoor games like Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Basket Ball, Lawn Tennis etc.

To know more about the campus use the following link

http://www.ibsindia.org/ibs_hyderabad/

7:00 PM: “Fun n Frolic”!!

After swimming for about an hour, I used to go to canteen with friends and have lots of fun there sitting at leisure having long conversations over juice or pastry or any delicacy for that matter.

8:00 PM: “Project meeting”!!

At IBS, projects are one important part of the academics. We used to have different project groups for different subjects, where each group comprised of 4-6 students; and have meetings at any place in the campus almost daily, based on the priority of the projects as per the submission deadlines.

8:30 PM: “Club meeting”!!

There are numerous clubs at IBS, which are very active and organize events. Clubs are a great way to pursue hobbies or take up activities of personal interest. Just to name a few, there are clubs for acting, movies, sports, adventures, photography, fitness, languages, social activities and entrepreneurship etc.

9:00 PM: “What’s on the menu?? Its dinner time”!!

After winding up all the meetings I used to go to the mess for the dinner along with my friends, and we all took a walk till the main gate after dinner to have ice cream.

10:00 PM: “Study Time”!!

After dinner I used to come back to the hostel and study. Sometimes I studied alone, other times with friends. The study involved preparing for the cases to be discussed the next day.

12:00 AM: “Birthday Celebrations”!!

At IBS there is a custom of celebrating birthday at 12:00 AM, where all the friends gather at a place in the campus to celebrate the birthday by cutting cake and giving birthday bumps to the lucky one.

12:30 AM: “Some more studies”!!

With so many projects, cases and tests going on it is very important to devote time to studies. I usually studied till 2:00 AM.

2:00 AM: “Time to sleep?? Not, yet”!!

Studying continuously is not an easy task after all. The study stretches were interrupted by some sandwiches and maggi, with lemon tea at the hostel canteen called Bingers, which stays open till 3:00AM.

2:30 AM: “Now you know”!!

Yes, finally it was time to sleep. Now you know, why getting up at 6:45 AM in the morning was quite a task!

This is how a typical day at IBS looks like, am sure you must be thinking that it’s very hectic and how is it possible to take time out for so many activities in a single day. But, believe me; one the most important things that you learn at IBS is “Time Management”.


Contributed By : Rohan Jain, Class of 2009-2011IBS Hyderabad

Linkedin Profile of Rohan Jain: http://in.linkedin.com/in/rohanjain88/

“MBA Institute Ratings – IBS: Touching New Skies Everyday”

IBS Hyderabad CampusIn today’s fast moving world, one education course which is making its way very strongly to the youngsters in India is MBA…

There are more than 2500 business schools in India to cater the demand for MBA but not every business school impart quality education and churn out leaders.

After the completion of the graduation course, most of the students got confused when the critical question of short listing of the top B-Schools comes their way, it becomes much more complicated, given that the definition of ‘top’ varies between people and across years.

Most of the students choose the route of going thru the website of the B-Schools read out the brochure or consult to their seniors or faculties…but that does not provide the right and correct answers to their much awaited query!

 Every other B-school make exaggerated claims just to stay relevant. It therefore becomes crucial for aspirants to see through the clutter and identify these ‘top’ B-Schools.

There are many independent research agencies in India which conduct the survey among all the business schools in order to filter out the best from the lot.

We have taken a close look on all the published ratings and we strongly believe that IBS has been able to stand out from the rest in many ways…

In this section, we provides you all the relevant information and details on the rating part pertains to IBS…we are providing this information based on the ratings published by two rating agencies, which are today the most reliable and most informative.

One of the very critical and most reliable rating agencies is CRISIL India.

CRISIL Business School Grading is India’s first independent and rigorous grading service for the education sector. Through this service, CRISIL aims to recognise and nurture quality management education, while helping employers and aspiring management graduates find business schools that best match their needs.

Business schools provide India’s rapidly growing industry with management professionals: the CRISIL Business School Grading aims to help business schools achieve higher degrees of academic excellence, establish the right profile of institutes and showcase an institute’s quality to students, faculty and employers across India.

CRISIL’s criteria for grading business schools have been developed after carrying out extensive research, and taking feedback from several stakeholders. We use quantitative and qualitative assessment parameters, to ensure that our evaluation framework is both robust and comprehensive.

 In its latest rating report published on 11th Oct’2014, CRISIL India has rated IBS as A** under its National Grading and A*** under State Grading which just goes to show that in the Andhra Pradesh state, IBS is the Best and in the Nation too, IBS is not far behind to become the Best B-School.

You can access the whole scorecard of IBS published by CRISIL India at http://www.crisil.com/pdf/ratings/icfai-mba-2014.pdf

IBS Business SchoolAnother upcoming and most comprehensive source for reliable and genuine ratings is “Careers 360” – The education Hub.

A nation-wide survey was conducted to find 100 top B-schools in India. The outcome is a list of top 30 public MBA institutes and top 70 private MBA institutes.

On the basis of ranking survey data, Careers 360 has also created list of top rated B-schools in different states and union territory.

Sometimes it gets tough to choose between two or more equally good and reputed institutes. For example, how would you choose between an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) or Department of Management Studies of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)? This is where the significance of ranking comes into play.

With the objective of helping the students to make the right decision without going through this complex process, Career-360 releases a list of India’s top B-Schools annually.

This list segregates B-Schools into various categories, thereby aiding the students in choosing the set of B-Schools to apply to. This list is made using a methodology that has a proven track record of over a decade, after months of extensive research by experts who have over two decades of experience in guiding students on Indian MBA admissions.

For the benefit of all we shall disclose that IBS is being categorized in the Private Business Schools category.

It is the young schools that surge ahead in the list of Top Private Business School List.

While the top 20 in the list of public B-Schools is dominated by older schools, it is the relatively younger ones that are gaining ground in the private sector. And IBS is one of them..IBS has been placed at 12th position, and in the list IBS is much ahead of some of the most popular and reputed colleges like KJ Somaiya, Xavier, Amity, Jaipuria and Symbiosis etc..

You can access the full report at:

http://www.bschool.careers360.com/top-100-b-schools-in-india-2014

IBS Hyderabad CampusICFAI Business School (IBS)-Hyderabad is a constituent of the ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), a Deemed University as per the UGC Act 1956. Established in 1985, IBS-Hyderabad is one of the top business schools in India. It has been ranked at #12 in the nation by Hindustan Times in a 2012 survey. The school has been re-accredited by SAQS (South Asian Quality Standards), rated A** by CRISIL, EB2 IN by ICRA and as an Excellent Business School by Eduniversal.

The major programs offered at IBS-Hyderabad are MBA being the flagship program, PhD and BBA. Ours is one of the largest MBA programs in Asia with a student intake of around 1100 this year.

The academic units of IBS-Hyderabad are organized around five departments: finance and accounting, marketing and strategy, economics, operations and IT, and human resources and soft skills.

The faculty pool at IBS-Hyderabad is a good blend of people from the industry and academia with majority having PhDs.

There are 170 faculty members in the business school currently. The faculty members have published in the last three years around 300 articles in International and National journals.

The Case Research Centre of the school develops business cases on an average of over 100 cases per year, which are being used around the world for teaching, in textbooks, and industry.

The Center for Management Development of the school provides opportunities for faculty members in interfacing with industry. IBS-Hyderabad emphasizes student-centric learning supported by continuous evaluation and feedback.

It offers a largely case study based pedagogy for the MBA program. Case studies allow students to step into the shoes of the decision makers and deal with issues faced by managers.

The students go through around 500 national and international case studies including those from Harvard Business School.

While going thru these reports at the respective sites, it becomes very clear that IBS is one of the top B-school in India which is gaining momentum at rapid pace and is beating every other competitive college thick and fast.

Sources:

IBSHyderabad.org/WelcomeNew.htm

bschool.careers360.com

crisil.com/ratings


Contributed by Himanshu Chaudhary ( Class of 2003-05IBS HYDERABAD )