Doon Business School MBA Review By Mahesh Yadav

I have always believed that expecting all from college is not correct. Talking negative about our alma maters is not the right way to thank the school or colleges that have made people. DBS too have produced many stalwarts but many have remained jobless at least from the campus but without putting in effort one can’t expect everything from the college. Quaint city Dehradun has one of the best B-Schools in DBS that offers PGDM and MBA degree with different specializations. I applied for many colleges and Universities but my score and my love for mountains made sure that I stay in the valley and complete my studies before I leave this state for a better future. DBS has one of the best environment for studies and DBS also arranged some industrial and sojourn tours for us. It was a great fun to learn and explore the wonderful opportunities that DBS provided us with.

DBS is not so kind when it comes to academics as industrial tours, assignments, and regular classes kept us packed for the entire year. Academic schedule was so busy that we had just a week before the exams to prepare. Practical learning was done through group assignments and group tasks. Even the group debates happened for some practical exams and it was as good as the top B-Schools of the country. English was the main language used to communicate as we couldn’t speak to pour professors in Hindi. Some had language issues but by the end of the course everyone became confident because as a management student we will be representing our respective companies globally. Thus, English being the common language was the main focus in our talks and debates.

All of them were PhD or MBA degree holders from IIMs. All of them had at least 10-15 years of experience and their experience mattered as they have seen how the times have changed. Improvisation and taking risks were the main skills that are needed in management students as we were given situations during the tasks in which we had to hone both these skills. Higher the risk, higher the return was one of the lines used by our professor which I haven’t forgotten and while investing today, I always keep this thing in mind.

Placements were good if not the best. Banking and private investment firms like ICICI Securities, Kotak Securities were the ones that needed people to expand their territories in financially uneducated areas like UP, Uttarakhand, and MP. They were the ones who offered the highest packages with 7-8 LPA per annum. Along with Finance, HR students were also hired by the same set of companies. PGDM students and MBA students had almost the same placements with average of MBA students a little higher. Rather than doing PGDM, one should do MBA as PGDM fees is also higher than MBA and placements of MBA were a shade better than that of PGDM students.

There were 2 boys and 1 girl’s hostel at the campus. The boys' hostel was 4 storied building with 8 rooms on each floor. Ground and 1st two floors had rooms with double sharing and the top 2 floors had triple sharing rooms. Graduation and undergraduate students shared the hostel. The mess area was close to the hostel buildings. There was a basketball court right next to the boys hostel building. The boys hostel building also had a gymnasium and a common room that had table tennis, carom, and snooker tables.

Digitized library with a seating capacity of 200 students was available at the campus. The activity hall which was also the auditorium of the college was huge and had all the facilities to make an event successful. Campus was big and to make sure the college use every inch of it they have developed some world class sporting facilities. There were 6 badminton courts, along with 2 playgrounds. Football and cricket were the main sports played at the campus and cricket ground was so big that 2 matches can be played simultaneously. Mess served meals and college’s cafeteria served some of the best snacks. It was always decorated and was opened till 7 pm daily.

Life at DBS was precisely engaged with studies. Even our talks were related to studies because that is all we could discuss after a hectic schedule. Girls and boys had a common area and students were allowed there till 10 pm before returning to their respective hostels. Chilling out at café and playing sports on holidays was how I spent my days at DBS.