Hi All,

[Disclaimers:
1. I being an IIM-B student myself cannot state that the following analysis/ collection
of opinions is completely objective. Hence I am not making any effort in this regard.
2. I am sure many of my batch mates as well many from the prospective batch (i.e.
the intended audience of this thread) would have also heard and learnt about
these pieces of information (reliable or otherwise, its for you to decide). What I
intend to do is just put them together in a coherent format so that they aid in logical
decision making.
But as always in spite of millions of years of civilization and resulting evolution of
logic, every human decision involves a bit of gut feeling and that much lee way is
allowed for achievers of your calibre. Hence do not take this decision as the end of
the world and in the end commit to whatever you finally decide with all your heart.
Hence I wont provide any recommendations but would like to help you in your
decision.]
Following are some of the parameters you should consider while making your
decision. The relative priority may vary from person to person.
1. Academics:
A: Pedagogy is completely case based. Even subjects like accounting are taught
through cases. An immediate resultant is the importance of student involvement
which is measured through Class Participation (CP). All courses have heavy
components dedicated to CP. Courses have as much as 40% of the final grade
decided by grade in CP. This can be a nightmare for some people who are introverts
and find it difficult to voice their ideas unless specifically asked to.
Another resultant is heavy preparation required before each class. Not only does
one need to get through the case thoroughly but also do the necessary readings
(from textbooks etc.) to understand the concepts and thereby come up with
meaningful talking points to earn the CP grade. And all this is before even the class
begins. Though the idea behind such pedagogy is self learning, it becomes
increasingly difficult with accompanying quizzes, assignments, projects and other
activities that a b-school life is filled with. The pedagogy itself is one of the primary
reasons why IIM A is considered acad-heavy. But yes the learning out of such a
system (if followed diligently throughout the 2 years) is immense and worth it.
Moving on to relative distribution between the 2 years. IIM-A has 25.5 credits in the
1st year. Each credit consists of 20 classes each of 75 minutes. That constitutes 637.5
hours of classroom teaching in the first year. And in b schools a thumb rule is (for
perfect learning) 3 hours should be spent outside the class for each hour spent in the
class preparing for the future lessons and assimilating and contemplating on the past
lessons. This drastically changes to 17 credits in the 2nd year. Thus only 425 hours of

classroom teaching.

The first year consists of all compulsory courses whereas the second only has
electives. The exact courses can be viewed on the
website: http://iimahd.ernet.in/programmes/pgp/programme/curriculum.html.
Some of the courses on excel and office (under Managerial Computing) are
extremely beneficial and are compulsory for all students. The second year has
foreign languages as credit courses.

B: Pedagogy is a mixture of lecture, case studies and seminars. The faculty has full
freedom to design his/her own pedagogy to ensure maximum learning. And most
importantly in my first year, I did not face any course which had more than 20%
component dedicated to CP. This leads to better knowledge transfer from the
professor to the student. On the negative side it also leads to lethargy and
unpreparedness on the part of students in comparison to IIM-As pedagogy. But it
gives students the opportunity to indulge in activities external to academics without
having to sacrifice grades. But other than the basic difference in pedagogy, rest of
the things are very much there. Each course has significant components dedicated to
surprise and announced quizzes, assignments, projects and presentations. Life is
hectic but not choking.
IIM B has 50 credits (dont panic the calculation is different from IIM-A) in the first
year and minimum of 45 credits in the second year. This alone shows how evenly the
workload is distributed. A typical course has 3 credits (subjects with lower credits
also exist, but other calculations are pro rata) and consists of 20-22 classes of 90
minutes each. This leads to total 550 hours of classroom teaching in first year and
495 hours of classroom teaching in the second year. (There are means to reduce
2ndyear credit requirement further but you will learn about them when you get in).
As you can see that total teaching hours vary very little between IIM-A (1062.5
hours) and IIM-B (1045 hours) . But distribution is 60% and 40% for IIM-A between
the 2 years whereas it is 53% and 47% for IIM-B.
IIM-B has a unique feature of providing 3 elective courses in the first year itself to
better equip students for their summer internships. This model is seen nowhere else
in India. Courses on basics such as excel are offered as electives and better designed
to suit direct application. Though no official courses on foreign languages exist,
student bodies arrange for such classes with proper certifications. Courses can be
accessed here: http://www.iimb.ernet.in/pgp/courses. Amount and variety of
electives offered is the most comprehensive which is apparent in the link and some
recent news articles. This is largely due to another point of difference i.e. faculty
which I will deal with separately.

C: Mixture of lectures, case studies and seminars. But courses are more intense
quantitatively. Even courses on HR and Organization behaviour require quantitative
approach (Some faculties in IIM-B also followed such methods). Students need to
clear a basic exam (Qualifying Mathematics) on quantitative abilities but the term
basic there is an oxymoron. In words of IIM-C alumni himself, at the end of 2 years
you feel like having earned a degree in M.Sc. Mathematics as opposed to a degree in
business administration. Hence people with fear of Calculus and higher mathematics
should strictly stay out of here as it would lead to depression and anxiety. But people
in love with extensive numerical analyses and love for mathematics would find it
easy to stay ahead of others here. This is one of the reasons why IIM-C (once?) used
to be known as theFinance campus. It should have been apparent in your
interviews as well that the faculty here like to indulge quantitatively.

I am not aware of the exact credit requirements at IIM-C. But having a look at their
courses (http://programslive.iimcal.ac.in/pgp/academics/curriculum), it doesnt
seem too different from IIM-B. But most courses have huge components dedicated
to Mid term and End term exams leading to very little left for assignments, quizzes
and projects. But the exams are one of a kind and again in words of their alumni,
the professor meets the student in the exam. This is why it is considered chill in
common lingo which should not be misunderstood as easy to get through.

Again all 1st year courses are compulsory like IIM-A and they also have a compulsory
course on Excel etc. No credit courses on foreign languages. (These may seem
insignificant points. But given very little differences, I am trying to point out
whatever I have perceived as differences.)

2. Placements:
This is the criteria where the differences actually become extremely minimal. IIM-A
and C have slight head start in terms of alumni base (given the 10 year gap in points
of inception). But IIM-B compensates through its convenient location and industry
exposure. Each of the A/B/C campuses has a few unique recruiters every year. But
that does not swing the balance in favour of any particular campus significantly. A
separate thread would be created with respect to placements very soon. There you
can learn about such unique firms.
But greatest difference with respect to placements arises in the 3 campuses not out
of availability of opportunity but relative competition among the batch. IIM-B due to
its admission criteria usually consists of people with already exceptional resumes at
the time of admission. Mavericks are few and rare (though not significantly
insignificant). Hence companies get the chance to indulge in actual profile matching
for summer and final placements. Having said that, everyone has immense

opportunities to build resume after admission as final placements depend equally on

career in B School as much as before it. In this regard also, IIM-A and IIM-C are
gradually migrating towards the B formula of admissions (of considering overall
profile rather than just CAT scores) and how much difference will exist in future is
hard to predict.
Batch sizes also create differences. IIM-A and IIM-C both have twin programmes for
PGP (ABM for A and PGDCM for C) who are placed along with PGP batches (IIM-B
also has many programs; but their placements are carried out separately) and hence
greater batch sizes in comparison to IIM-B. Again this does not cause any difference
to top half of the batch (if you are confident enough to belong there consistently).

3. Faculty:
This in my view is the greatest differentiator among the 3 campuses. How much
relative importance is given to this, depends on the individual.
The number of full time faculty is almost equivalent in all 3 campuses (hovering
around the 100 mark). But a glance through the academic and experience profiles is
enough to point out the stark difference. This is not believable. But just visit the
following links and take time to go through the details:

http://iimahd.ernet.in/faculty-and-research/faculty-profile.html: IIM-A

http://www.iimb.ernet.in/faculty-profiles: IIM-B

http://facultylive.iimcal.ac.in/facultydirectory: IIM-C

The no. of Ivy League PhDs and IIT/NIT/DU under graduation is not only maximum
but significantly more in IIM-B when compared to IIM-A & IIM-C. IIM-C as expected
has exceptional faculty in Quantitative and Information Systems area. Academic
background is not an exact indicator of teaching ability. But on paper at least IIM-B is
way ahead of the other two. And this is not a chest beating exercise. I could have
easily pointed out the numbers but that would be disregard to other faculty
members who are indeed much beyond me in terms of intellect and experience.
Hence I just guided you to proper path and wish you to draw a relative comparison.
[Disclaimer: This is a slightly dated article, about 3-4 years old to be precise. Hence,
please do due diligence around this point yourself and take a call]

4. Location:
Though it may seem very insignificant in comparison to other factors, the climate
does play a very important role in the learning process. And I do not think I need to
elaborate more on this with respect to comparison. Besides in terms of importance
to industry and accessibility to foreign MNCs Bengaluru outranks Ahmadabad and
Kolkata by quite some distance.
This also affects the faculty because for students it just would be a matter of 2 years.
But for the faculty its a choice of lifetime. Hence as pointed out by Rajamayoor,
many IIM-A and IIM-C alumni and faculties have relocated to IIM-B.

5. Alumni Base:
IIM-A and IIM-C have had head start of nearly 10 years before IIM-Bs inception. And
besides in the initial years, IIM-B only focussed on the public sector. But as the
distance increases, the relative differences become insignificant (distance between 0
and infinity = distance between 10 and infinity). Same can be extended to the
dimension of time. 40 years now there is little difference between 50 and 40 and as
time goes it will keep getting smaller. But having said that this does have a slight
effect and I agree to it as my classmates already have.

6. Culture:
Extremely difficult to compare. Culture as such is very difficult to put in words. But
not having experienced a culture, its near to impossible to draw a comparison.
If any campus is trying to differentiate on basis of culture, kindly use your intellect to
evaluate the amount of truth in their statements. As I said, culture is very difficult to
compare unless experienced. Hence at their position it is improper of them to issue
such generalisations. Hence I leave it to you to experience and then learn.

7. Peer Group:
Quality of students is quite exceptional at all of these 3 campuses. This is due to
demand supply inequality. But there too due to its admission criteria, you get
wholesome profiles more at IIM-B than at IIM-A and IIM-C. This is a reason why A &
C are gradually migrating towards Bs admission criteria. And diversity is best seen at
B within the top league. Since this forms a part of culture, I would not elaborate on it
much and leave it for you to experience.

Though there are many other criteria, these are among the most important. But I
can understand how hard a decision it is for all of you. As beautifully said in Fanaa:

Sahi aur galat ke beech faisla karna aasaan hain,

Lekin do sahi raasto mein se behtar chun na, Aur Do galat raasto mein munasib,
Yahi Hamari zindagi ke faisle karte hain

But believe me no matter whatever your decision, you will experience wow
moments no matter where you are. And unless you have super human powers and
emotional control, you will confront moments of self pity because these institutes
have the capability to humble even the best (thats why the tip on humility by one of
my batch mates was widely appreciated on the FB page). But at the end of it you will
feel good about yourself not because you had made the right decision, but just
because you would not know what the other two campuses had to offer.

Written By:
Ashish Kumar
PGP 2011-2013
IIM Bangalore