Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies BBA Review By Ankit Gupta

'SCMS' has pushed various other Institutes of the country to get better as BBA is one of the best courses for students of commerce background. Yet, science students also joined BBA as they felt BBA is better than pursuing engineering. So, today there may be a few Institutes better than SCMS; but the Institute that has pushed them to do better is none other than SCMS. The impact that SCMS has on students is greater than anything else. If there's ever an exit door on the future of commerce students who don't wish to pursue CA, SCMS has pushed all those doors and shut them because not quality education but SCMS also provides quality placements. Many Institutes change their pace in the middle as they go slow, but for SCMS the change of pace means cranking students up with more and more assignments. Many Institutes tend to go fast during the beginning and at the fag end but SCMS exclusivity is they go hard during the middle of the semester as we are done with the semester syllabus at least a month before. However, students here will never have any respite from studies because SCMS will never let that happen.

The academics at SCMS have made it so successful and one of the best among its peers. Academics here was about making us smarter as the management studies required instinctive decisions. We were taught all such skills so that we can perform and learn optimally. We used to get some pizzas somewhere in the middle, but all we were taught was that there are no free lunches. No free marks and no getaway on lesser attendance as SCMS was quite strict with the attendance. However, for lazy people like us, the only problem was the timings because the classes started at 7:15 in the morning. Even during winters which aren't as strong as it is in the North, still, 8 am classes mean we have to start our day at 6:30.

For BBA which Colleges hire IIM passed out. Well, SCMS does and not just IIMs, but SCMHRD, SIBM, XLRI and name all the top schools of the country and you will see professors holding degrees from there. They taught us well and of course, a course like BBA does need some strictness which they implemented. Attendance was one part of it, and there were other things, too, which ensured that students always had to be on their toes. It was good to see them coming of age, because more than the books they taught us beyond it. They also helped us with their connections for internships; as though it wasn't mandatory, the faculty pushed us to join an internship for a couple of months.

Placements may be low in terms of percentage, but those who got it can boast it all their life. Average was around 3 LPA, but students did manage to get placements worth 8 to 10 Lakhs CTC. Companies like Kotak Bank, Bajaj Auto, Hero Moto Corp, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, and Lupin were some of the big names that showed their presence for the placements. In all, there were over 50-odd companies and all blue-chip names that had a market cap of 1 billion or more.

The College is in Viman Nagar and hostels are a little far from the campus. There are many properties available in Viman Nagar and they all are student-friendly. The hostel fees were a bit high and therefore, I managed my accommodation in an apartment close to the campus. For those who avail hostel facilities, the College manages their transport while for students staying independently; they have to manage their transport themselves. There were some extra pros of staying at the hostels than staying independently, but I still chose the second option as the curfew time of the hostels were strict.

There are five other Institutes of Symbiosis at the campus along with SCMS. I will start with the campus amphitheatre where many Bollywood films shooting has taken place. It was small, but one of the most attractive points of the campus. The amphitheatre may be small, but the auditorium was one of the largest, as close to 800 students can be easily seated in the auditorium of the campus. It was common for all six Institutes. The sports ground was good enough to play football and apart from that, there were volleyball and basketball courts too. Every department of the campus had their library along with a central library. There were enough food options at the campus that we hardly had to rush out for food because on most occasions, I had my food at the campus itself.

Campus Life was great here as never in my life; I thought I would befriend students coming from states and UTs which were beyond my reach. We had students from Andaman and Kerala. It was great to know different cultures, not by talking with them but also by watching their performance at the annual fest Sympulse, which urged students to show the world from which culture they come from.