Voices from Abroad: Giovanni Spaliviero
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Students on IIM campus
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Ahmedabad (India), Double Degree, Indian Institute of Management
The Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad is very often indicated as the best business school in South East Asia and it is the toughest business school to enter in the world according to The Economist's 2008 rankings. The Old Campus was built in 1966 by the world famous architect, Louis Kahn, and consists of the central square to which the classrooms, the library and the offices of the faculty converge, 18 dorms, faculty houses, many green areas, a gym and several courts for playing different sports. A few years back a new campus was built particularly for the needs of the public management and executive courses. What makes the place great are the people that live here. All the students come out of a selection of 1 out of 1000. Therefore you can easily say that each of your classmates is a mathematical genius (just to mention three guys that live in my dorm, one got an 800/800 score on the GMAT, another has been topper in institutes with 1500 students, another one placed 15th out of 800,000 students in a state rank at high school). On the academic side, therefore, I've been incredibly enriched both by class interaction and the contents of the courses themselves. On a human and cultural side I've learned several things, by the constant immersion in the incredible Indian culture and the distance from home and Europe.
Life on campus will never be boring: everyday there will be something that attracts your attention, monkeys passing by, any kind of bird flying outside your window, great events or parties, the picturesque traditions of the dorms, courses and classes on topics you would have
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The IIM campus |
never thought about. My personal recommendation to students is to learn how to drive a motorbike and start touring around the city as I have done, or in the breaks enjoy the wonderful cities and landscapes in India. Flights and trains will never be too expensive and you will never be able to see everything here.
This said, a few words is worth spending about the major problems you will have to face while coming here: in order of appearance, if you come in early June the weather may be a problem, the standards in terms of hygiene and cleanliness needs to be a bit adapted, the food will always be a major issue and Indian bureaucracy will complicate matters even more. But after a while you will learn to live without many things, the learning curve is steep, and you will very easily come to the conclusion that what you believed was essential is very often unnecessary.If you are a Double Degree consider that the benefits and the troubles will increase but that the second ones will never outweigh the first. In particular living here an entire academic year and having one of the most prestigious MBA degrees in Asia while you are still a Graduate student are two gifts you would never get in any other way and be able to repay. I don't want to say more as I will ruin the surprise...enjoy the pictures!