Oakbrook Business School MBA Review By Hardik Sorathiya

OBS requires a high score in CMAT only then you will be eligible to enter the college. The college is one the prestigious B School in Gujarat and students from various states of India are a regular in this college. The college is located at the SG Highway and 80% of the students are chosen via merit. The college has enough management quota seats and that is how I entered the college. The academic calendar of the college is very tight as the semester starts in June and ends in December. Just after a 15 days break we are again back in the classes. OAKCOM which is a national conference program where industrialists like Gautam Adani and Dilip Sanghvi came and gave us an insight on how the working culture in India is and what they expect from the management students. All these and various other opportunities that the college provided was just too good and as a past student of Oakbrook B-School I feel so blessed.

In MBA there are 2 specializations available in the college. 1 is FM (Financial Management) and HRM (Human Resource Management). I was a student of Financial Management and the college academic part was out of the blue. Never expected the kind of infrastructure the research labs, and the helpful faculty that were up for any challenges thrown to them. All the students who have find their way in this college are intelligent and to groom them into a finished material was the challenge thrown to the institute. I will have to say that college did it part really well as the college is affiliated to Gujarat Technological University and every time you will see the University’s merit list you will find names of students studying in Oakbrook.

The college is new but the faculty that was at the college held a minimum experience of 2 decades. One can count on them as their teaching style and the way they handled the students was too good. All the professors were PhD and MBA is all about practical participation and therefore the faculty encouraged students to engage in maximum projects and never shy away from the projects thrown to them. The importance that Insurance sector will hold in the future was a vision of our professor Riddhi Ambavale. One can have a look at it today as the insurance sector’s market cap has rose over 400% in last 3 years. The faculty vision made them the best and I would highly recommend students to come and join this college as the learning that this college will provide is something that is hard to witness.

The placement rate is great as nearly 80% of the students had jobs in hand even before the final exams were over. Also got the opportunity to work as an intern for 2 months at Iffco-Tokio. The best part was that we were placed as intern in Mumbai and the college paid all the expenses for those 2 months. Banks are the one who hires the management students and I was lucky to get direct placement to a bank of my choice. The placement package obviously was not as lucrative as the average placement was in the range of Rs. 5-6 lakhs. In addition to banks many MNCs such as Bata India and Coca-Cola also took some of the students to their privileged organizations.

The college doesn't have a hostel facility in the premises but the college has themselves taken an entire residential facility where they have provided accommodation to the students. There are 2 wings, where 1 wing is Co-Ed while the other one is for boys. The residential facility provided is nearby college and therefore travelling to college never mattered from the hostel. The residential facility actually helped us do group assignments with ease and the facility also has a mess. Not just the Gujarati food but we had varieties all days of the week.

The total area of the OBS campus is 2 acres. The infra of the college is well equipped with all the modern interiors that braces learning, professional, and overall development of the students. The classrooms have LED Screens and overhead projectors that made classroom look interesting. The computer lab was huge and has around 100 PCs. The college enjoys Wi-Fi connectivity in all corners of the college. OBS library has a broad base collection of journals, magazines, and books. The library has books not just of Indian authors but foreign authors as well. The college campus also has a sports club and not just outdoor sports but the college has in-door sports facilities like Carom, Chess, and Table-Tennis.

The group study that we did at the campus is unforgettable. The college has enhanced the program where students have to work in tandem. This made me realize the value of team work as no corporate is run by single person. The college gave us so many memories and hosted events on almost all the occasions from Republic Day to cultural events. The student’s skill set of other than studies was at display. The only thing where college should try and improve as better the gender ratio as in a batch of 300 students there were only 20 girls if I am not wrong.