Indian Institute of Foreign Trade MBA Review By Vikas Chachra

Never ever in my life, I thought, that I will be introducing IIFT to anyone. The college simply needs no introduction as 250 from 80k exam takers to come to this college. Thus, IIFT is not an ordinary B-School as the college motto is simple, work hard and party that harder. There are many such stress buster events organized that you will leave all your tensions aside and live a dream life inside the beautiful campus. Remembering the days, gave me Goosebumps as I had around 200 sleepless nights finishing the assignments. As soon as the 1st year ended, we had to prepare for a summer internship in some of the best corporate houses. I did my summer internship with HUL as nearly half of my batch did with them. I never minded sharing my rooms with other hostellers as I knew they are some of the best young brains in the country. I am still wondering how special all my batch mates were as most of them today are working in abroad.

Academics at IIFT can also be called tripping because 3 times in two years, we were taken to Kasol. Now imagine studying at a beautiful resort on a hill station. IIFT made it possible but of course with fees that were a tad too high. Then there was a customary international visit called the port visit to the port city of Dubai. Classes went on and on as the number of subjects at IIFT was higher than that of IIMS. Most classes lasted two hours and by the end of the day when we thought finally, we are done, that is when the self-study part came in. I couldn’t even give myself more than 30 minutes for dinner as I knew I won’t be able to complete the assignments if I take a longer break. Such is the reality of academics at IIFT.

Even after sleepless nights, we attended the classes because of the lovely professors. One good thing about IIFT is classes are not that mandatory as IIFT itself promotes peer learning. So, my roommate and I decided to attend the alternate classes as what I missed, he taught me and what he missed, I taught him. The faculty thus gave us the freedom and license to express and for that, I want to thank them a million because some of the professors were intolerable.

The placement percentage is a little low at IIFT but the quality of placements are at par with IIMs. Even from a single batch of IIM, I don’t think over 10% of students get international placements. At IIFT though the ratio of international placement is the highest in the country. However, Dubai is the favored destination but even if one works in Kathmandu, they can say we are working abroad. I mentioned Kathmandu as Dabur Nepal hired a lot of students from our batch. The figures from our batch have increased so no point discussing the 5 years old figures because it has only been bettered.

Hostels were amazing as I was a part of the Co-Ed hostel that had the first two floors for the ladies and the rest all for boys. They were guarded so heavily that even if we stopped the lift at the girl’s floors, first the guard would come and ask a thousand questions. The hostel building had a common dining hall and the food served was ethnic delicacies. From Monday to Saturday, we were served ethnic dishes from each part of India. From Kashmiri Dum Aloo to Dal Baati of North to Uttapam and Dosas of South to Luchi Puri of the east, our dining mess provided us with over 100 delicacies in two years. On Sunday the mess remained closed as students were told to go out and have a ball. The irony was that I was from Delhi and my Sundays were spent eating homemade food cooked by my mom.

The campus can be small as there were limited high-rise buildings and a garden to make evenings a little better with friends. In the name of games, there were 8-10 chess boards as the college considered that a mind-sharpening sport. I thought I was brilliant at chess until I played with my batch mates who could give even the top chess players a run for their money. The auditorium was smaller as I have seen larger auditoriums than this but was still better to have a nice sleep during the guest lectures. The resource center or the library of the campus had two to three laser printers so we could take as many printouts as we wanted if the edition of the book was less and demand was high.

One will forget jamming even at the best clubs of Delhi as the jam sessions of IIFT were bigger and better than that of any disc or pubs of Delhi. If you have prepared and studied hard, you were welcome at all the jam sessions that happened on campus. The annual fest Quo Vadis was a hardcore party thing that will put any rave party to shame. In a nutshell, life was cruel and charming at the same time at IIFT.