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ACHIEVERS in the MAKING
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Dreams are unlimited in the eyes of the present generation and they aspire to make it big in life.
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The future corporate managers in a jubilant mood. --Photos: K.R. Deepak
"Five or six years down the line, I would like to move into the senior management cadre in any good multinational company and, may be, in another couple of years become its country head," says a confident Sushant.
A final year B.Tech. student from GITAM, he has already written his CAT and GRE. Though he secured a combined score of 2,230 in GRE, which is pretty high by any standard, he plans to join any of the IIMs in India.
Sushant exudes confidence about scoring well in CAT also, and has his eyes set on the premier management institute in the country, IIM- Ahmedabad.
Why not an MS degree in the US? "I want to get into the management stream and for that I prefer the IIM rather than an MS or for that matter a management degree from any US university. The IITs and IIMs are on par with any of the top universities in the world; so why not here?"
The dreams are unlimited in the eyes of these young minds that aspire to make it big in life in the corporate jungle through a proper academic channel, be it routed at home or abroad.
White-collar jobs in MNCs are the ultimate goal for most of the present crop of management students. But according to J.V. Murthy, director of TIME, an institute that specialises in coaching such students who aspire to take a shot at qualifying examinations like CAT, GMAT and GRE for a seat in the top colleges in India and abroad, "the students with such ambitions can be broadly classified into three categories. The first consists of intelligent students and who wants to secure a seat in one of the top colleges in India or abroad and would not compromise for anything less. The second comprises students of average intelligence and the ones who would like to make a try by dint of sheer hard work and dedication and the third that somehow likes to get an admission in some God-forsaken foreign university just for the sake of name by spending huge sums of money. Now the students in the first and the second categories are a determined lot, and they plan their moves well ahead and have all the ingredients to make their dreams come true. While for the rest it is only a question of being tagged as foreign returned".
Though studying abroad has become a fashion, students like Sushant and Sowmya have a different thinking.
"India is a developing country and it has got some of the best management and technology institutes on par with the best in any of the developed countries. I feel that there is no necessity to rush to the US for a management degree, if one can secure an admission in one of the IIMs or top B-Schools like XLRI- Jamshedpur or S.P Jain Institute of Management and research," says Sowmya.
Sushant
She is a final year computer science student from the Andhra University College of Engineering, and has already secured a high score of 2,280 in her very first attempt in GRE. But she plans to joins the IIM and is confident of a good score in CAT. Sowmya also nurtures a dream of joining an MNC and climb up the ladder after her MBA degree.
But K. Sunita, a B.Tech. from Berhampur University, has a different view. She feels that as far as management is concerned IIMs are okay. But, for people who want to pursue an MS degree, the US is the best option.
"MS is research-oriented and even the lesser known universities in America offer much better facilities than any of the top universities in India that have post-graduate engineering programmes," says she.
Sunita plans to do a course in satellite communication and she is likely to get her admission either in the State University of North Carolina or University of California.
Be it Sushant, Sowmya or Sunita, each has a clear perception of what he or she wants to become and set their goals as early as in high school. Planning carefully, each of them has come to this position today, where an option is available either to go abroad or study in a good college in India.
Arunava Choudary, another director of TIME, feels that if we can provide a good education system in India then we can retain most of the students. Unfortunately, the gap between the top professional schools and the next set of schools is vast in India unlike in the US, the UK and Australia, where the disparity is marginal.
While going to the US is a difficult proposition today, especially after 9/11, a trip to the UK and Australia is relatively simple. All one has to do is to write the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) examination and apply. Whereas in the case of the US, the basic hurdle is the 16 years of education, which narrows down the option to engineering and PG students only. Moreover, to get an admission in a reputed college in America, one has to fulfil a host of other criteria: one should have a good percentage in his or her graduate examination, an overall good academic record, a good score in evaluation examination like TOEFL and GRE or GMAT and a very pragmatic statement of purpose, apart from recommendation letters.
Sowmya
Mr. Murthy feels that if one really intends to get admitted in any of the top institutes in the US or in India then the preparation should start early. It should be a combination of self-determination and astute planning apart from timely guidance from parents and professional institutes.
About the role of such institutes, he says: "They should provide the required competitive ambience. A student could be intelligent and hardworking, but he or she should be able to assess oneself in the company of other such students. Moreover, if one is really keen to cross the Atlantic then one can try the undergraduate option by writing the SAT examination. That way one can complete one's MS or MBA in a couple of years, in one shot."
SAT is not the buzzword in the four metros only, but J. Aditya and N. Sloka, students of second year Intermediate in the city, have scored well in the examination. While Aditya has decided to pack his bags, Sloka is weighing the prospects of her IIT JEE scores, though she has already secured an admission in the Sunny Buffalo State University.
Well, the young minds seem to have charted their way to the top of the corporate world through an MBA or an MS degree from some top college anywhere on the globe.
SUMIT BHATTACHARJEE
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