Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research PGDM Review By Pawan Saboo

WeSchool has travelled miles to be at the position it was in 2017. It was ranked outside 100 in the 2000s but is now among the top 25 B-Schools in India. Welingkar Institute of Management has been branded in WeSchool, and many campaigns were run across the country to invite students from all corners of the country. A domicile of Mumbai helps to get admission at a little lesser percentile than the outsiders, but the GD & PI have the same criteria. PGDM from WeSchool offers various specializations like healthcare management, retail & rural management, media & entertainment, business research, etc. The college preaches moral principles and good work ethics for life is what I learned at WeSchool. I was never a morning person, but WeSchool made me one. The college acted as a platform to acquire skills required to become entrepreneurs and increase general awareness knowledge. The brand overhaul has worked in favour of the college, and I felt privileged to be a part of an innovative campus that WeSchool has.

For a while, to be a part of such innovative classrooms felt surreal. Not just the classrooms but many labs that were also many innovative labs like innowe, agri lab, brainstorm room were beyond anyone’s imagination. The OHP used for presentations made the classes even more enjoyable. MBA classes need such innovation as taking back-to-back lectures without an interactive atmosphere is just not possible. Just a tiny flaw here that classes sometimes would get cancelled, and we would be asked to wait till 9 pm to wait for the lecture. I have taken the local back as late as 11 pm to reach home. The MDP classrooms for GD and workshops were again an innovative idea to get new ideas and understand others point of view.

The core faculty were better, but it was the visiting faculty that grab more attention. For practicals, we had many leaders and guest faculty that turned the tables upside down. It made us do things that we never thought of and allowed us to express ourselves that we can’t in front of regular faculty. The faculty were strict if anybody is caught bullying or misbehaving with others. Every year 3-4 international faculty were also invited to understand the global business demands.

More than the figures, it was the quality of the placements that one should bother about. At WeSchool, jobs of important roles like credit risk manager, territory sales manager, celebrity’s media manager, and business analyst were among the ones that were offered. The placement percent was 90+. The highest domestic package then was 14 LPA, and the lowest was around 5. The average was thus somewhere in-between 8-9. Some students got themselves international placements with companies like Citi Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Amazon. Placements were satisfactory, but the student in-take in 4 figures, including all the variety they have in courses, has significantly reduced the average. Thus, the competition for a better job is quite fierce. It took 3-4 rounds of interviews and negotiations before the final placements were announced.

Welingkar has their hostel not on the campus but at some distance from the college. The hostel rooms are small and are available on sharing basis. The boy’s hostel does have the option of choosing between AC and Non-Ac rooms while girls hostel only has non-AC rooms. The capacity is shallow, and therefore one has to apply early to get accommodations in the hostel.

The college is at a walkable distance from Matunga railway station. Thus, one can find conveyance at any point in time. From inside the college is absolutely new as the entire infrastructure and facilities were built recently. Starting with the classrooms, they are air-conditioned and have projectors and OHP presentation systems. 8-10 labs for developing different skill sets. WeLibrary is small but resourceful, and then there’s a corporate library. For case studies, the corporate library was the one from where we scored the matter. The auditorium is small as they have increased the in-take, but auditorium size has remained the same. The guest lectures are therefore organized batch-wise. The college canteen was good, but Café Gulshan and the Dumpling Delight (Food Truck) were preferred for snacks than the canteen. The infrastructure was relatively modern, and the facilities were excellent to make students addicted to campus life.

Students from various parts of India come to study at WeSchool. WeSchool thus has a lot of variety in terms of cultures and financial backgrounds from where the students come in. The campus staircases saw students running up and down to collect notes or sip a tea cup. If Mumbai never stops, then WeSchool is an example of that. I never saw someone idle at the campus as we had so many assignments and weekly practice material in hand. The campus hosted various all India level competitions and even sent their students for the same. All I can say, I was addicted to the WeSchool campus as it had something toxic about it.