St. Joseph's Institute of Management PGDM Review By Bhavana Shekhawat

For the first time in my life, I went to co-ed college. My schooling happened in all-girls school and graduation too at all-girls Banasthali University. St. Joseph group mostly has boys colleges and schools till undergrad but fortunately for PG they have a co-ed system. 50% of the students were Mallus and that united the other students because voting played a huge role in getting important positions in the college. Holistic growth is given importance here and therefore not just academic and sports but cultural activities too were huge fun there. Girls ratio was quite less but the guys were quite supportive and so was the management. Everything here was laced with latest technologies like the library the college gate and mainly the classrooms. Coming from a background where English was hardly spoken, I shied away from my fellow mates but sooner developed the skills to be confident enough to face the challenge of getting engaged with my classmates.

It takes some doing or should I say extra doing because one has to have 550+ in MAT as the cut-off is always close to that. In my previous college the four walls are what we saw and here more often than not we were taken for outing. Here exposure was the main substance as we would go out not just on industrial tours but were taken out to take some break from the studies. Sometimes lectures took place in the gardens of the college. Group discussions and doubt solving programs were the best that I saw. You will be entirely prepared before the exams and one has to thank the college management for that.

World-class would be an understatement because they would never mock students and would rather help them become confident. As a student our other activities too were keenly followed by the faculty. If we don’t engage in other activities, it was taken seriously as it was almost mandatory to get engaged with any sport, fitness program or join any club which to me was one of the best. The debate club always had students from different departments debating and the faculties would become judge. They were always fair and square and always awarded winner to the ones who were deserving.

Placements were awesome as I guess it were better than many. A weekly training program gave us the code to crack the campus placements. While most of the students were picked through internship, I had to wait till the last round but I finally did it and so did most of the students who were handed a package that would have been boasted by their families back home for sure. Placements were superb and 9 out of 10 for sure had placements through campus.

Hostel was not inside the campus but still it was strict. Warden would make sure that they see each girl in person by 9 pm. Sometimes we were allowed to hang out till 11 but warden has to be informed. Birthdays, parties and all happened as creating noise was not considered as havoc. Food to me was not that great because I loved it the first few weeks and then I mostly went out for my meals. With no offence to the hostel mess but I consumed rice once in a week and here rice is the staple food. Almost all the south Indian dishes are made of rice and thank God there were some students from Rajasthan and we made a group and tried various restaurants of Bangalore city. Security and all was quite good at the hostel and there were no restrictions on what we wear and therefore I loved my stay at the SJIM girls’ hostel.

Bangalore is called Garden city of India for a reason as almost all college campuses are lush green. The campus was big obviously in terms of my previous university quite small but still big enough in right sense. Digitization was the key as classrooms had ACs and even the library was air-conditioned. Library was accessed through a chip enabled card and every book that we took the entry was done in the system immediately. Time is the key and to make sure that time is saved the college had taken the transportation department in their own hands and had nearly 50 buses to drop students to respective locations. Sports ground was beautiful and an indoor basketball court with wooden flooring was the first time I played in such a court. The court also had an audience area and guys cheered us during our matches. It was fun and yes, the college canteen’s coffee was mind blowing. There was hardly any grey area in terms of infrastructure as I was thinking of some demerit but I am sorry, I can’t find any.

Every year we used to have a 2-week break and in that time sports week, cultural event and all took place. Nothing was rushed here as sports were organized Olympic style where students were distributed in groups and it was the group that won. Support from students and faculties was terrific as so far from my place and yet missing them hardly became possible just because of such warm facilities and people at SJIM.