Calcutta Business School PGDM Review By Skimmy Gupta

One needs a healthy CMAT score to get here, so make no mistake that CBS will give you an entry like that. Before joining Calcutta Business School, I made coherent questions on which all companies do come here for placements, does the College offer core profile jobs, and lastly the facilities that the College provides. IIM was always a dream and unfortunately, I couldn’t have admissions there but I got admissions at CBS, which was a few miles away from CBS. It was an exciting time at CBS as students from various places have come here to study and it wasn’t like that only the Kolkata crowd filled the College. Yes, they were in majority but outsiders too were no less. Well, from Bhopal though, I was the only one and many used to laugh at me, as I chose this College while I was getting some Colleges of Indore. I had a friend who said let’s join here, as staying away teaches many things. Having said that, I have learned the art of staying alone. Today, my job makes me travel a lot and for that CBS was the one who prepared me.

The academics here were like we should know everything from which school an African went to which school a Barbadian went to. There’s no choice but to keep ourselves occupied because if we don’t answer a syllabus question in class, the professors won't mind. However, if we failed to answer a general question which a management studies student should know, we would be shamed in front of the class. The standard of education here was tough, as IIM was close by and students of both the Colleges were made to do many workshops together. We also had combined seminars and some guest lectures. Also, we had access to their library and notes; because I made few friends over there, I also got some case studies which they used to solve.

The faculties mute themselves because even if they were not happy with us, they would hardly say anything. We were allowed to leave the class in-between or sit in the class with our coffee mugs in front. I don’t know how many of you have seen IIMs, but this is the pattern that is followed over there. The professors would go so fast and then say did you guys hear me or shall we go again. Well, asking them to repeat means spending double the time on learning those topics. The professors though would not stop because like schools, a surprise event was planned and mostly academic, as faculty would hardly give a shit on things other than academics.

I always wanted to see myself as a banker and luckily, there were enough banks for placements that I interviewed for most of them. It was after joining CBS, did I know that finance students are not meant to work in banks. Well, after knowing, I got stuck with banking because I wanted to work for one of the established banks. After interviewing for almost 6 banks, it was the Federal Bank that awarded me the job but in the Kochi branch. My parents sent me to Kolkata after putting a lot of thought and to convince them that I will be back in Bhopal after a year of job in Kochi was the toughest time I had with my parents. Well, the salary offered was good enough to convince them as most of us were offered salaries in the range of 5-6 lakhs per annum.

I couldn’t dare to tell my parents that the same hostel building had boys rooms from the third-floor. It was something new for me, as I have never heard of any such hostels where boy’s and girl’s stay in the same building. Of course, there were guards and nobody could enter the opposite gender's room without permission but still, it was a new thing for me. Luckily, all the rooms were single-rooms and one had complete control on who could come inside their rooms. However, the facilities were mostly common as the hostel library, mess, and recreational room was shared by both boy’s and girl’s.

The interior of the College was beautiful and mind you for a College that offers a couple of courses the facilities were extra. The library with a reading hall of 300 students would hardly see half full. The canteen with a capacity of around 150 students was hardly seen full and even the auditorium which was something unique, got full only during annual events, otherwise, that too was never full. So, everything here is in access, as I was in awe of the beautiful infrastructure of CBS right from the word go.

Well, I learned one Bengali phrase in two years, and for the campus life that I had there. Everyone used to talk in English at the campus and it looked as if we were studying somewhere in the UK, as people’s accents changed after joining CBS. Well, I never thought I could survive outside home but all thanks to CBS for taking care of me that I hardly missed my home.