SOIL Institute of Management Review By Harsh Aggarwal

Engineering students are often criticized for doing an MBA after engineering. Technical students who can help a business grow with both the acumen. I feel I can contribute better and that was the reason, I joined SOIL as placements here are great and secondly the course here is a rapid one. At a point in life, one doesn’t have a choice but to think of placements over anything else and even though my friends warned me for joining SOIL, as they make life hell in the process of doing everything in a year that actually needs at least 18 months. Well, I took it on my chin as one has to challenge themselves; be it studies or work. I am ready for debate if one says that SOIL doesn’t teach all the acumen of business studies, as they do random things and award the degree. SOIL has been accused of the same in many surveys, but I have my strong views against any such review or survey.

Education at SOIL is a completely different cup of tea, as the whole question of playing yourself after paying 12 lakhs as fees cannot go wrong. Many students from my class even took education loans, because all their family money was already exhausted doing B. Tech or other courses. Now another myth is that it requires 6 trimesters to complete management studies, then, how can SOIL do it in half of that. Well, I forgot to mention that even in those 12 months, we had 15 days break and a 45-60 days mandatory internship. More than internship, it was the workshops at the campus, as our discussion room had virtual board meetings, where we sat along with the top brass of many companies and saw how they computer themselves to find answers for any problem that a corporation can face. So, the learning experience here was amazing, as I can safely say that I learned all the acumen of management studies that students who learn after doing the same sort of course in 2 years.

The concept where faculty would come; open up the slides and discuss a topic is gone now. There was a lot of talk about the faculties, as many faculties here were doing jobs and used to take a break in between to take classes at SOIL. Now to me, this worked as an advantage because those who have left the corporate 5-10 years back and have joined the teaching business may not know what new normal is is. However, the ones who were indulged with jobs gave us more in-depth knowledge, than the ones with some extra teaching experience.

Maruti, I don’t know if that’s a partner of College but every year they are the ones who take maximum students from SOIL. Ashok Leyland and Mahindra too have joined the pact with SOIL, as they also started coming as soon as they learned that maximum projects that we did were for the same sector. The placements average was no less than 8 lakhs and students were by and large placed through the campus itself. Some students didn’t take the placements on will but the ones who have worked hard and impressed the interviewers were easily placed with some attractive packages.

This portion is not applicable as SOIL Gurugram campus doesn’t have any hostel. The Manesar campus, I think, has the hostel facilities but not the Gurugram campus. The ratio of outsiders and students from Delhi/NCR was 50-50, but the outsiders had no problem in finding accommodation off-campus.

One can get an idea of this College's capabilities after they see the infrastructure. The College circumference is minimal and yet the College has made the best use out of it. The building is right in the center and has two wings from inside. One is an entirely admin department with a library on the top-floor and auditorium on the first-floor. The discussion and the conference rooms were used as much as the classrooms, because all the interactive sessions and skill development classes happened there. The workshop was small and the students were sent in batches. The canteen was also the tiniest of things but ‘Huda City Center’ being close to the campus and having too many food options around the College, we used to spend our 1-hour lunch break outside the campus.

As they say, hate has been sent, so let’s lose to the talk of hate and live with each other with love. Hence, be it juniors or faculties, everyone showered love on each other at SOIL’s campus, as life was too hectic for a year. Students literally had no time to even say hi to their friends and we used to have an off-day like 2nd and 4th Saturday in banks. So, the campus life was tough but as they say, the tough gets going when the going gets tough.