ISB MBA: Things I'd do differently

It's been nearly a couple of months since I donned the convocation hat and received my degree certificate with a photogenic smile from Mr. Kapil Sibal. With this time lag in between, here's taking a look at what could have helped shape my ISB experience better.

Student exchange-The biggest "if only..." feeling I have is about the student exchange program. I wanted to go for student exchange from the time I was researching MBA schools. I remember meticulously researching each of the schools my target colleges had tie ups with. At ISB the problem was the timing. I was only interested in the very best global B-Schools for exchange namely Wharton, Lbs and Kellogg. I had somehow formed the idea that each of them had an exchange timeline that clashed with the placement season. However, after the first round exchange deadline was over, I realized that Kellogg exchange actually started in Apr! A golden opportunity to get access to the Alumni portal was missed this way. In fact, I could have also (and should have) gone to colleges like HKUST or CEIBS which would be big in Asia. Apart from the travel aspect, exchange really helps in long term professional (and personal networking).

Asia study trek-There were talks of a European trek which I was interested in. Later that fizzled out (only London tour with only 1 person attending) and I decided to skip the Asia trek. While professional networking wouldn't have been a huge gain here, the camaraderie developed with fellow ISB travelers and the personal experience of visiting so many countries and corporates would definitely have compensated for the cost.

More involvement in clubs-Apart from serving the ISB Toastmasters Club as President, I never got involved with any other social or professional clubs. Organizing some of the major events would have definitely helped to know more people and form better bonds at and outside ISB. The toss up here was time. That said, given a choice I guess I'll still settle for my ISB rank.

Choice of subjectsThis is very pero=sonal but for the sake of completeness, let me list the specific papers that didn't work for me and I wish I had chosen otherwise. I didn't find any value in Capital raising for corporations. The profs were fantastic but the paper itself didn't give me a high. I should have taken the course Advertising taught by a stellar prof Jaidip Sengupta. Same goes for "Investing in Private Equity" by prof Vinay Nair and "Advanced Transaction Analysis and Modeling" by prof Ashish Kohli. Both are super profs and the subjects are tremendous value ads. The last course I would mention is LSCM-"Logistics and Supply Chain Management" by prof Milind Sohni -one of the star profs at ISB. Advertizing and LSCM are not something that I may use too often in my professional life but they were good to know subjects taught by people who made the classes interesting. Same goes for the 2 Fin profs above. Disclaimer for future ISB students: Please note that these are my personal opinions, other batch mates may and probably will come up with totally opposite views.

Other-Someone asked me if I would have changed my choice of colleges if I retook GMAT. Well, it didn't matter to me as I only apped to ISB. I would always urge anyone considering MBA to go for the best colleges. I abhor the concept of categorization of colleges into reach and dream and what not. I wanted to get into the best college I could afford. Else I wouldn't have joined an MBA program.