Manipal Institute of Management MBA Review By Ankit Gahlot

MIM college of Manipal University is one of the best colleges for MBA. After spending a fair bit of time in Bangalore, I headed 400 kilometers north of Bangalore to come to a place which is renowned all across the country for its education. Manipal University offers a lot of courses and even MBA had 3 specializations. The choice couldn’t be made by me as I was the late entrant to the college and they just had a few seats left in MBA Health Care. My choice otherwise would have been MBA (Global Business) offered by the college. MBA Health Care was the study of hospital management and health system of India. The university has tie-up with many foreign universities and University of South Florida is where we were sent in the 2nd semester for 2 months. Likewise for MBA (Global Business) students were sent to university’s Dubai campus in the second semester. After the 3rd semester, we were sent for training at KMC Hospitals and for 2 years, I have no idea what I will be doing the next day. I have never seen such a unique way of study elsewhere and my friends who did MBA from other universities envied me all the time.

Most of the colleges had trimester system while Manipal Institute of Management still has 4 semester course. Each semester was different as 1st semester we were at the Manipal campus and for the next some of us were sent to the US. For third again back to Manipal and internship again in Bangalore. The classroom interaction and the case discussion in the classes were simply amazing. Eminent academicians from various global universities would come all year round to give a guest lecture on the subjects we studied. A lot of management games were played every month to make sure students live in a healthy state as the mental pressure was always high.

The faculties were world-class as having 20+ faculties among a batch of 120 was great. Guest faculty numbers were again astonishing because we had guest faculty almost every week. We were taught through cutting technology and it were the faculty whose efforts gave us exposure towards the industry we will be working in future. One can’t be mouth fed in front of them as they were helpful towards the one who didn’t shy away. For those who did, missed out on a lot because one should understand that success in MBA lies in our hands.

Placements for Health Care were not so good as the Global Business ones but still a decent one. 8 out of 10 had the placements in some of the best groups like KMC Hospitals, Shalby Hospitals, Apollo Hospitals, and others. Some students left the core companies and were happy to assist in Infosys and Mphasis. The placement packages were nearly 8-10 lakhs for all. The numbers are good as even colleges of Bangalore don’t offer such jobs.

There are separate hostels year wise for students. In first year, there were 7 blocks of hostels and all were differentiated with rooms size and capacity. In the second year there were just options as Block 10 & 11 and 10 had the single rooms while 11 had double sharing rooms. The fees difference between both of them was minimal and thereby I chose the single room. The hostels were great and had a swimming pool shared between 4 to 5 blocks. There were 4 pools in all and also 8 Indoor badminton courts. The food again was a problem but the Chinese restaurant near the campus made me a huge fan of Chinese food. If I divide my life, the amount of Chinese food that I had in the first 21 years of my life was probably lesser than what I had 2 years post that.

I know the campus was huge but when I checked the actual size it is 600 acres. I don’t know any other university that is as vast as MAHE. MIM was nearly a kilometer from the hostels. Everything is there inside the campus from world class hospital to innovation center. I was amazed with one auditorium in my previous college while Manipal University has 5-6. There are 6-7 canteens at the campus and because North East students favoured this university the most, proper momos stall is there at the campus. Even a north Indian restaurant was there and still I was so obsessed with Chinese stall that I mostly had my dinner there only. Apart from that, I hardly stepped out of the campus as campus had a medical shop, ATM machine, grocery shop that also sells fruits, and a proper general store selling everything. Sporting facilities are needless to mention as some of the facilities are built under the observation of people from Sports Authority of India.

I would say life at Manipal was very short but the sweetest that I have had. Never ever in my life, I have made friends with people from North East. If it wasn’t for Manipal University, I would have never known that they are the sweetest people on earth. Love and laugh were the theme at the university and I mostly saw students smiling at the campus. This means that campus takes care of the students really well and trust me I just went home for 20 days or so during the course of 2 years and still it was the campus I missed more than I missed home while I was at the campus.