Anna University MBA Review By Sriya Bhagawati

Anna University is one of the oldest and the best universities in Chennai for studies and everything. However, doing engineering from here is better than doing MBA from here. Admissions to the university are through TANCET or CAT scores. TANCET higher ranked students join Anna University Chennai as it is one of the highest ranked universities. However, it’s the B. Tech program of the university that has garnered more ground than any PG program from the university. I am not saying a Fat No to Anna University for MBA but there are better choices than Anna University if one wants to pursue MBA. I can list out some reasons that pissed me off like the staff and the faculties were a little partial. After the second semester when we had to choose our specialization, the staff and faculty of other departments will go against you. Students who are a part of Students Association (SA) gets the award most of the times even if they haven’t done anything significant. So, if not anything one will certainly learn politics here.

The course included outings, workshops, and compulsory projects. However, what I hate was the assignments given in the name of practicals. The best part of the assignment though was that whether you do on your own or copy from your friends, you both will end up getting the same marks. The studies were made the toughest in the second semester as third semester was about internship and placements training and the final same just 20-30 lectures happened as rest of the time the faculties would ask us to study on own and come to them if one has doubts. Well, self-study though was good as we understood the subjects by the final semester because not many drastic additions were made as just the subjects name were changed and the mater inside that remained the same.

Faculties here can charm anyone as they all had two decorated degrees and their management anecdotes were such that one would always feel like having more of them. However, they kept them occupied with other stuffs and though they would always say come to us but when one goes, they will always find an excuse to avoid the students. The professors were helpful during the placements though as their recommendation were taken into account by the companies that visited. So, glass half full is my take away about the faculties.

Though there were around 40 odd companies came the mass recruiters were two companies and they were IDBI and ICICI Insurance. It didn’t matter where you have done marketing or finance, you will get the desired role in these two brand names. Anna University Placements were around 60% and 60% of those who were placed through campus were placed in either of these companies. So those who had the required skill sets were placed and those who hadn’t couldn’t. One can say sour grapes but honestly speaking not much work was done on our skill-set as an internship alone was never going to be enough for placements.

Anna University has women hostel inside the campus and at a fee lower than other private hostels one can get the best of boarding and lodging facilities at the Anna University. I was never a part of the hostel but around 8000 students of the university including boys and girls stays at the hostel and so I am sure that the university wouldn’t have compromised in providing the best of facilities. Out of 8000 students that stay at the hostels, 5000 are the engineering students, so it is destined that if one opts for Anna University hostel, he is more likely to have a roomie in an engineer.

Anna University campus is extensive as it is spread in around 200 acres. The university location has to be described finely as on the one side of the university there’s the Raj Bhawan and the other side has the beautiful Adya River. The university has quite a few libraries but the central library remains the zenith of all. There were six to seven canteens at the campus and one of them was a pure North Indian canteen as students could enjoy Chole Bhature and Rajma Chawal at just 60-90 bucks at that canteen. Sporting facilities were immense but again the show stopper was the swimming pool. The only issue was that students had to 100rs an hour to use the university swimming pool. The infrastructure of the university is quite modern and looks like a set from Karan Johar films.

Life at Anna University was stressed as from four hours, I had to mentally prepare myself to study at the classes for eight hours. Just 10 minutes break is all what we were provided during the lectures and trust me it wasn’t enough. The event planner was huge but it was meant for engineering students as apart from the management fest, I have never been a part of any single event or fests of the university.