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/curricul
um.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 IIMA) 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 IIMA & 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