D.G. Ruparel College of Arts Science and Commerce BMS Review By Trupti Patel

I joined Ruparel from FYJC and sticked to it till my graduation. Living in Matunga, this was always my first choice, but it’s also the first-choice college for people living in western suburbs. The crowd from all suburbs of Mumbai can be seen here, and that made college life quite happening. One thing that college lacks in comparison to other colleges of Mumbai is extracurricular activities. Attendance was not so compulsory during junior college, but once I joined for BMS, things changed. BMS is perhaps the only course in the college for which the attendance is strict. Otherwise, students come chill and go as attendance is never an issue at Ruparel. For BMS, the common entrance test is compulsory, and the cut-off too is quite high. For already existing students, the cut-off is lesser than the actual cut-off, which helped me have admissions here. BMS is just like BBA that other universities offer. It was a mini version of higher management studies and was therefore not much of a burden. Events and activities were less, so studying and chilling at the campus was all that I did.

There are 2 sides to Ruparel. Attendance is the last thing to worry about during junior college or if you are doing B.Com or B.A. If you join BMS, then it’s exactly the reverse of that. You need to take care of your attendance like anything. A lesser attendance was not accepted, and students had to beg on their knees to allow them to appear for exams. One can appeal and get allowed to appear in one semester, but students might lose a year if the consistent lesser attendance is witnessed. One warning was enough for me to get serious, and daily 6 hours lecture became a new normal for me at the campus where I bunked and had fun during the junior college years.

Excellent faculty here at Ruparel as most of them have 2 decades of teaching experience. BMS started in 2004, and most of my faculty have been teaching the same subjects since then. The course keeps changing, and this is why some seriousness requires to clear the BMS. Faculty were chilled out and entertained excuses for not attending lectures once in a while. Practicals defined team building tasks as most of them were done in tandems with other class students.

Placement cells gave preference to BMS students over the others, and the college maintains a placement rate of 70%. Companies like JLL, Kotak Securities, Kumar Builders, and Lodha Developers & JP Morgan have been the front runners. Students had multiple offers to choose from as the realty sector witnessed some upswing, and all of us were seen working in rival companies after passing out. Placements were good as BMS students often go for higher studies, but I wished to have some experience before, and Ruparel helped me gain some by getting me placed in one of the best real estate developers in Mumbai.

There’s just a boy's hostel building with 20 rooms. Double and triple sharing options were made available to the students. The hostel was inside the college campus, and a private girl’s hostel is there in Matunga central. Flats and Paying Guests are not that expensive in Matunga and are available in abundance. Students from many other states made their presence felt as Ruparel is one of the most famous colleges in Mumbai.

The college area is 10 acres, and one may not find it fancy if they are not from Mumbai. In Mumbai, having a college spread in 10 acres is a dream as there are just a handful of colleges that have this much space. There’s an Arts and Science building on the campus as the Arts building is where lectures of Commerce students are taken. The college buildings are old, and even though they are renovated every while, it’s time that the management should start developing new buildings. There’s a library building with a reading hall. There’s another building that has canteen on its ground floor and a gymnasium on the second. The gymnasium was newly constructed and one can find all the machines that they see in fitness chains gym. The college boasts a huge playground, and students play football, cricket, and volleyball on the ground. There’s a basketball court which again needs reconstruction as the flooring has become not suitable for playing.

Ruparel College has a life within the campus. I hardly remember bunking the classes and going out for fun. Inside the college campus, we had so much of fun as poking at each other and pulling legs gave more comfort. The canteen was sufficient as it offered variety and mostly students had their cravings eliminated at the college canteen itself. The college has produced some sportsmen and Bollywood stars who are called upon for giving lectures on how Ruparel College helped them pursue their dreams. I would differ on this as apart from the annual event Kshitij is held every December and apart from that there are hardly any events hosted by the college.