How to Enter MBA@India Contest

Go to StudyinIndia website hosted by GMAC. You will find MBA@India contest’s Participate Now button at the bottom of the page with the information that the top three responses will win free round trip tickets to explore any three Indian B-school of their choice.

Pressing the button will take you to another page for filling up personal information including the full name, email address, mobile number, country, years of work experience with a drop-down box giving various options including nil experience to 1-3 years, 3-7 years, more than 7 years.

The next is the Intended study program that lists Undergraduate/equivalent, MBA/equivalent, PhD/equivalent and Executive MBA/equivalent. Next is the intended year of commencing the program with the options of 2020, 2021, 2022 and undecided.

GMAC says the number of people participating in the competition has been going up. This year, 3200 plus MBA aspirants belonging to 28 nationalities had taken part and four emerged the final winners.

B-Schools Participating in ‘Study in India’

Since the year 2017, GMAC has been organising the ‘Study in India’ initiative in partnership with business schools.  At present, 14 Indian business schools are part of the initiative in allowing MBA aspirants across the world to visit their campuses, get a feel of the facilities and decide on pursuing management education in the country.

The B-schools are the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, Indian School of Business (ISB), Institute of Management Technology (IMT), International Management Institute (IMI), SPJIMR, Xavier University Bhubaneshwar, TAPMI, Goa Institute of Management, IFIM Business School, ISBR Business School, K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, NMIMS, SDA Bocconi Asia Center and Universal Business School.

What Makes India an MBA Destination

India being one of the fastest-growing economies of the world, offers plenty of opportunities by way of higher education, especially for candidates across South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

It has prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) offering a variety of long-term and short-term management programs. Some of them have started granting MBA degree certificates instead of diplomas for their one-year full-time programs (for professionals with work experience) as well as two-year programs that admit fresh graduates.

A large number of private schools also offer a wide range of management programs like ISB, SPJIMR, XLRI and several others.

As an emerging economy, India offers good job opportunities for those with professional qualifications. Some of the cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad has got plenty of start-ups while others like Chennai are home to major automobile manufacturers and ancillary units.

According to BusinessBecause, more than 47,000 international students from 164 countries have found India to be their study destination with 3% of them having joined MBA programs.

GMAC Study in India Competition winners Voices

Mohammed Nabil Hammad from Egypt says after his graduation in Engineering, he worked for four years and decided to acquire business management skills. He finds India to be an economic power with a good environment for startups.

After GMAC informed him that he was among the competition winners, he did an internet search of B-schools and selected SPJIMR, Mumbai, ISB, Hyderabad and ISBR Business School, Bangalore. He was also able to secure his visa within one day.

About the schools, he says every campus has a different feeling. “At SP Jain, you feel like you are in the heart of the city. At ISBR, they have their own student lifestyle which feels like one big family.”

Nada Tarek, also from Egypt, said she has a diploma in Human Resource Development but found it difficult to find employment in her home country. She chose India for its stable economy and reputed education facilities.

“I liked Great Lakes, same with IMI. They provided me with facilities to apply for a work visa. I love the well-organised campus and like the way they interact with students,” she says.

Ishka Shriram, a B.Tech in Marketing from Durban, South Africa says she chose the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai, ISBR in Bangalore and NMIMS in Mumbai.

The selection was based on the schools’ proximity to industries in her field of interest. She says it allowed her to understand the scope for career advancement and internship opportunities if she enrolled for an MBA program.

She said she was also impressed by the career-focused curriculum of the Indian schools and the country itself being constantly at the forefront of innovation.

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International Applications Dip in US B-schools

According to the GMAC Application Trends Survey Report 2019, international applications fell 13.7% in the US B-schools. Canada saw an 8.6% increase followed by 0.9% in Europe.

In the US, 48% of MBA and Master’s programs saw a dip in international applications, with 23% registering a significant drop. The percentage of applicants who marked the US as their preferred destination had dropped to 37% in the first half of 2019 from 44% in 2017.

However, the percentage who had revealed plans to apply to US business schools saw only a marginal dip from 63% to 62% during the same period.

About 50% of those who had dropped plans to enrol for programs in the US cited apprehensions about landing a job after graduation as a major factor. About 48% referred to difficulties in obtaining a student visa, 47% the political environment, 37% safety and security concerns and 34% racism and discrimination concerns.

Top Programs Attract Quality Students

Despite a slight year-on-year decline of 3.1% in the total number of applications for graduate management education, it is by no means an easy task to get admission in top programs that continue to attract 2.5 median applications per seat.

According to the 2019 application trends survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), the median number of applications was about the same as last year (2.4).

Overall, 9 in 10 programs report that their applicant pools were equally (63%) or more (24%) qualified compared with last year.

Largest Survey Sample, Says GMAC

The annual survey gathers intelligence on the current market for graduate management education applicants. GMAC said this was their largest survey sample ever covering 1,145 graduate business school programs of 336 business schools in 40 countries for the 2019-2020 academic year.

The report is useful for insights on application volume trends by program type and region. It also provides details of applicant pool composition by gender, citizenship and work experience. The survey looks at expected changes in enrollment rates, acceptance rates and program size.

Top Program Attract High-Quality Cohort

Programs continue to seat classes with highly qualified talent. The median number of applications per seat was 2.5 this year, about the same as last year (2.4). Overall, nearly 9 in 10 programs report that their applicant pools were equally (63%) or more (24%) qualified compared with last year.

Student mobility was proving to be advantageous for schools in the Asia Pacific, Europe and Canada at the cost of US programs. More and more Asia-Pacific candidates were opting to enrol in schools in their own regions.

Programs in Asia-Pacific reported growing or stable domestic applications (2 in 3) compared to the previous year. As many as 90% of applications came from within the region.

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Sangeet Chowfla, president and CEO of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) does not think so. In an AACSB blog post, he explains why B-schools are not yet ready to abandon ‘selection’ that acts as a sieve to separate the right kind of candidates from among the thousands of applicants.

Why Adopt a Selective Approach?

• Selection enters the picture as soon as you decide to enroll for an MBA and draw up a list of schools that you hope would fulfill your educational and career aspirations
• As for the schools themselves, they are looking for candidates who could bring in the best mix of capability, experience, drive and diversity to fit within that program
• Enrollment-to application ratio for full-time MBA programs remains significantly high. In other words, demand exceeds supply
• This is despite the disruption caused by online or shorter duration programs leading to a decline in application volumes for full-time MBA programs in the United States

Chowfla quotes a recent GMAC analysis of 246 U.S. full-time MBA programs that disclose enrollment data on U.S. News & World Report’s website. It showed that out of 119,338 applications only 18,829 were selected, a ratio of 16%. The offer-to-application ratio was somewhat higher, at 31%, reflecting the need for a higher offer rate to offset yield losses as candidates apply to multiple schools.

Even in so-called less selective part-time MBA programs, the enrolled-to-application ratio was 58%, implying that there were nearly double the number of applications than available seats, he says.

While ratios will vary for individual schools, the need for schools to choose—or select—clearly still exists. This selection is often to find the best, Chowfla points out.

Some More Reasons

Chowfla says the schools also consider the following reasons:

• Whether the candidate is adequately prepared for the rigors of the program. If they have the reasoning, critical thinking, verbal or quantitative abilities to keep pace and contribute in the class
• Candidates in management programs are expected to learn from each other and draw benefits from the diversity of thought and experiences
• The candidate should be capable of completing the program
• They should have good employment prospects after completing the program as the school rankings are adversely affected by negative outcomes
• Signalling impact on candidates and employers. The brand value of a school and quality of the candidate and career progression affect the standing in the long run.

Chowfla concludes by saying that in today’s environment of enrollment pressure, the inclination to potentially open up and reduce the burdens of the admission process is natural. However, by staying true to selectivity, even in a dynamic, changing GME environment, schools can maintain and increase their signalling value, enhance cohort cohesiveness, improve employment outcomes, and protect the long-term value proposition of their brand.

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While The MBA Tour supports business schools’ global recruiting efforts by organizing business education-focused events around the world on an annual basis, GMAC now proposes to add value to it by expanding into additional markets.

GMAC will also explore ways to deepen the interaction between business schools and prospective students in a personalized, data-rich manner, the Association said in a press release.

The acquisition is consistent with GMAC’s mission; to build the tools that help business schools and talented individuals discover and evaluate each other. GMAC will add value by integrating its market intelligence and digital assets to create a richer event experience and attract prospective students through comprehensive recruiting solutions that align its data, reach and presence along multiple candidate touch points, it said.

“Building a robust and diverse pipeline is a critical issue facing business schools around the world, and GMAC recognizes the important role it plays in connecting schools and candidates,”

“The acquisition of The MBA Tour is part of an ongoing effort to develop smarter, more innovative ways to help business schools grow their candidate pipeline while providing programs with more intuitive, data-driven solutions to meet their recruiting needs,” said Sangeet Chowfla, president and CEO of GMAC.

“Building a robust and diverse pipeline is a critical issue facing business schools around the world, and GMAC recognizes the important role it plays in connecting schools and candidates,” he added.

By expanding The MBA Tour events into currently underserved markets, GMAC will bring easier recruiting access to a new pool of prospective students.  At the same time, the schools will get more opportunities to build stronger, more informed, and meaningful connections.

With the availability of additional information, prospective students will be able to take better decisions from the moment they consider a graduate business degree to the time they enter the application phase, the release said.

The MBA Tour that began operation in 1993 hosts more than 60 business education events each year across 6 continents and connects candidates with business schools from North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and South America.

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“The MBA Tour has always been committed to providing the best opportunities for schools to meet qualified candidates”, said Peter von Loesecke, CEO and Managing Director of The MBA Tour.

“GMAC is well-positioned to make these events more compelling for schools and candidates by using their data and scale to better prepare candidates and schools for more meaningful discourse,” he added.

The acquisition was completed on January 10, 2019, the release said.

The MBA Tour states on its website that the events it organises emphasize personal interaction between prospective MBA students, business school admissions representatives, alumni and other like-minded education enthusiasts. C

GMAC is an association of leading graduate business schools worldwide. Founded in 1953, it is committed to creating solutions for business schools and candidates to discover, evaluate and connect with each other.

GMAC provides world-class research, professional development opportunities and assessments for the industry, designed to advance the art and science of admissions. It also owns and administers the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), the most widely used graduate business school assessment, recognized by more than 7,000 programs worldwide.

It also holds NMAT by GMAC exam, for entrance into graduate management programs in South Asia, Southern Africa, and the Philippines, and the Executive Assessment (EA), specifically designed for Executive programs around the world.