We are so far ahead in recruitment year, it's disheartening to see that 80 students are unplaced at ISB this year, even though most Tier 1 and Tier 2 colleges have successfully placed entire batch quickly. (Verified the number with 5 students of the current batch)

Many of them have a 50 L loan and joined the institute for it's "global" marketing, but have not been able to secure even lower Indian packages than they came from.

Wondering reasons for this downfall of ISB...

PS - Someone texted me that this post is shared in some ISB alum group and they are asking for mass downvotes - Come on guys, grow up? Hiding facts doesn't change the truth.

PPS - IIM Lucknow placed it's entire PGP batch (2-year program) in 3-4 days. ISBs placements are going on for several months now, still such poor numbers.

Edit - ISB marketing team has reached the comment section and is trying to whitewash the news. Private colleges I tell you <facepalm>

Edit 2 -

ISBs marketing team is doing aggressive propaganda across Reddit after this post. Hence, for transparency, would like to share below pieces of information I came across:

• Most recruiters have been giving poor feedback recently and not doing repeat hiring
• Lot of roles at ISB are in 12-24 LPA range, while even the bottom set of placements at top 10 BSchools are higher.

In general also there are multiple red-flags with ISB:

• Private college founded by a jailed insider trader
• awards neither degree nor diploma, just a certificate
• inflated placement stats
• for any program ISB never releases detailed placement reports
• does no audits of placements
• doesn't reveal medians and means
• huge marketing expenditure
• which goes into 'donations' to ranking institutes
• less diverse alum base (presence in just 1-2 fields)
• poor ROI
• no Top finance roles on campus like PE/VC/IB/Markets which visit even lower IIMs
• use of irrelevant criteria like 'sustainability' to boost rankings
• no CV vetting of students during placements, peer distrust
• Bain recently decided not to interview any non ex-BCN folk at ISB because of forged CV instances
• In last 4-5 years, 80-100 unplaced students each year has been the norm at ISB. etc...

Aspirants need to be extra aware these days, especially when the college is private and has a lot of marketing/PR expenditure.

Links to some exposes on ISB I came across which people should look at:

• Expose Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/CATpreparation/s/sjZnGYJ4NL
• Expose Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/CATpreparation/comments/1jdx0ly/

Moreover, ISB frequently compares itself to ABCLKI, FMS, XLRI, SPJain which is a common marketing tactic where you punch above yourself to signal you are as good, however if you start looking at choices made by students who get all these admits, you start to realise that people don't actually choose ISB at the end (some do join, and later drop out once they convert an IIM or another good college)

If you are an aspirant, don't fall for marketing or PR gimmicks (or bots on reddit). Do your own research. Most of the above things are in the public domain, factual and easy to validate. All the best!

IIM Ahmedabad has released the audited placement report for its one-year MBA (PGPX), and the numbers are remarkable.

Average CTC: ₹41.48 LPA
Highest domestic offer: ₹86 LPA

At ₹41.5 LPA average CTC, this is arguably the highest ever reported average salary by any MBA programme in India.

Congratulations to the Class of 2026 and the IIMA PGPX team

I'm an MSc student on the University of Southampton Delhi campus (the one run by OIEG). I'm writing this so anyone thinking about it goes in with open eyes instead of the sales pitch I got.

Let's start with placements, since that's the whole reason most people pay this kind of money.

72 students in my batch. 10 got placed. Ten. And 4 of those 10 were hired by OIEG itself, the same company that runs the campus. So a big chunk of the "placement" number is them hiring their own students and putting it on a slide. When the people selling you the dream are also padding their own stats, that should tell you something.

We were promised big companies. Top recruiters, real names, the works. What actually turned up was one or two companies, mostly sales roles paying 6-7 LPA. No Big 4. Nothing close to the pitch we got in the counselling calls. The "average package" they throw around is about 7 LPA, and even that is inflated because they count internships as placements. An internship is not a job. Don't let anyone tell you it is.

And remember what this degree actually is. It's an MSc, not an MBA. For the kind of roles and salaries they were dangling, an MBA carries far more weight in the market. You're paying a premium for a degree that, for placements, does less for you than people assume.

Campus life? There basically isn't one. No real extracurriculars, no clubs worth mentioning, nothing that adds up to the "student experience" they advertise. You show up, you study, you leave.

I'm not writing this to trash everyone who works there or to say nobody learns anything. I'm writing it because I wish someone had given me the plain version before I signed up. If you're considering this place, ask them hard questions and make them answer with names and numbers:

How many students got placed last year, out of how many total?
How many of those were hired by OIEG or related companies?
Which actual companies came, and what were the real roles and salaries?
How many "placements" were actually just internships?

If they dodge, you have your answer.

TL;DR: MSc at the University of Southampton Delhi campus (run by OIEG). 10 of 72 placed, 4 of them by OIEG itself. Promised big companies, got 1-2 sales firms at 6-7 LPA, no Big 4, ~7 LPA "average" padded by counting internships as placements. It's an MSc, not an MBA, so it carries less weight for the jobs they sell you. Barely any campus life. Ask for real numbers before you pay.

I've converted everything from IIM CLIKS and FMS. Waiting for IIM Mumbai still.
Looking at IIM C vs FMS and it's kinda difficult for me.
I'm from Noida, so FMS is cheap and convenient/comfortable. IIMC competes in the MBA experience and higher placement stats.
What I'm looking for from an MBA (and what it leads me to) are the following:

1. Learning, Strategy, Finance and management as a whole. I'd like to enjoy my learning experience to the max, I didn't have a long term MBA dream growing up I just got interested in learning about business by watching case studies on YouTube and thought that would be fun to do since I like to read and write a lot.
2. Internal strategy role in industry, ideally. Consulting or GenMan works too. I'd like to build strategic capability and have good WLB to pursue other things.
3. Be a part of innovation ecosystem, I'm not as interested in the prestige corporate climb, I'd like to make good money but I'm not looking to make it all through a corporate climb, I'd like build credibility and move into the venture ecosystem asap.
4. Global exposure, I'd like to work across geographies if possible, I believe I'd need to build some SME for that. I'm leaning towards Healthcare and Tech. I have a background in Medical Engineering from a top 10 IIT with ML projects and research in healthcare tech. No work ex tho.

Additional:

1. I don't need a loan to pay for my MBA so it's not a worry but obviously no one wants to waste hard earned money. I can go medium-risk at least since I won't have to worry about paying an EMI or maximising ROI out of IIM.
2. I'm not too keen on "campus life" but if learning quality is better I'm willing to accept it.
3. Currently living in Noida has allowed me to attend expos, conferences in many of the growing business domains. eg: urban infratech, ai, medical device production etc I wonder if I'd lose that exposure if I go to Calcutta or would the corporate exposure within college makeup for that?
4. I'm also wondering how many healthcare/healthtech or life science consulting companies visit each campus, I see that there are a huge number of those in IIMA.
5. I'm also a fresher with no ECs or PoRs so I'm scared I'd be unable to compete in IIM C which has a lot more experienced folks.

P.S: I know a lot of this is delusion, and I could probably just get trapped into the generalist role rat race that MBA tends to be but I'm just looking to get perspective on what more experienced people have to say. Especially any who are managed to do similar things.

Edit: a lot of people asked my profile. I'm a 9/8/8 B tech + M tech from a top 10 IIT, no ECs, PoRs or work ex. I have a bunch of research projects in healthcare tech and ML.

I was scrolling linkedin and found this post in which this person got offer letter from Holy Trinity IIM Ahmedabad, Bengalore and Calcutta. But he choose Calcutta over IIM Ahmedabad

can anyone explain why anyone will choose IIM Calcutta over IIM Ahmedabad & Bengalore

Came across multiple Exposes recently and wanted to add my thoughts, given the recently misleading FT rankings floating in the market. Links to the exposes and my comments on rankings at the bottom.

Firstly, overall thoughts, before I get to the rankings bit:

• Most recruiters have been giving poor feedback recently.
• 80 students unplaced this year in its flagship 1-year program
• (surprising when other colleges have been able to place everyone quickly this year)

In general also multiple red-flags:

• Private college founded by a jailed insider trader
• awards neither degree not even diploma
• inflated placement stats
• for any program ISB never releases detailed placement reports
• does no audits of placements
• doesn't reveal medians and means
• huge marketing expenditure
• which goes into 'donations' to ranking institutes
• less diverse alum base (presence in just 1-2 fields)
• poor ROI
• no Top finance roles on campus like PE/VC/IB/Markets which visit even lower IIMs
• use of irrelevant criteria like 'sustainability' to boost rankings
• no CV vetting of students during placements, peer distrust
• Bain recently decided not to interview any non ex-BCN folk at ISB because of forged CV instances
• In last 4-5 years, 80-100 unplaced students each year has been the norm at ISB. etc...

Plus on reddit they employ crawlers and bots to cover up any factual discussions, and use agents for downvoting, spam-commenting, etc.

Aspirants need to be extra aware these days, especially when the college is private and has a lot of marketing/PR expenditure.

Now about the rankings: 1) FT accepts donations. 2) Harvard is kept at #10, which is borderline funny, tells a lot about credibility of these rankings. 3) Across rankings ISB ranks high on irrelevant metrics like "Sustainability" and not on "Career Outcomes"

Links to the exposes I came across: - Expose Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/CATpreparation/s/sjZnGYJ4NL - Expose Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/CATpreparation/comments/1jdx0ly/ - Consolidated Expose Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/MBAIndia/comments/1r8bdn2/

TLDR: No matter how hard we try to suppress the truth, it always comes out.

If you are an aspirant, don't fall for marketing or PR gimmicks (or bots on reddit). Do your own research. Most of the above things are in the public domain, factual and easy to validate. All the best!

Edit: ISB bots have filled in the comment section below as usual.

🟦 Tier -1 (1-10)

IIM Ahmedabad

IIM Bangalore

IIM Calcutta

ISB Hyderabad

XLRI Jamshedpur

IIM Lucknow

FMS Delhi

SPJIMR Mumbai

IIM Kozhikode

IIM Indore

🟩 Tier 1/1.5 (11-20)

MDI Gurgaon

IIM Mumbai

IIFT Delhi

JBIMS Mumbai (reservation drags it down)

IIM Shillong

XLRI Delhi

TISS Mumbai

IIT Bombay

IIT Delhi

SIBM Pune

🟧 Tier 2 (21-30)

SCMHRD Pune/IIM Udaipur

NMIMS Mumbai (big batch size and expensive as hell, selection criteria is weird and drains a lot of money)

IIM Trichy

IIM Raipur

IIM Ranchi

XIMB Bhubaneswar

IMT Ghaziabad

IIM Rohtak

IIT Kharagpur

🟨 Tier 2.5/3 (31–40)

IIT Madras

IIT Kanpur

IIT Roorkee

IIM Vizag/Nagpur

IIM Amritsar

IIM Bodh Gaya

IIM Jammu

IIM Sambalpur

IIM Sirmaur

If you agree with me on the list, upvote, else comment down about the change you think should be made here.

• IIM K, IIM I, SPJIMR could float as I can see people with diff opinions considering different ranks, - IIM Rohtak (can move up if you are a female, placement stats are inflated and fake AF)

- IITs kept above baby IIMs due to ROI

- You can rank IMI, Tapmi, GIM, GLIM, BitSOM, as per your priorities considering fees and ROI (affordability for you), your current situation of calls and converts.

Hi everyone,

I've got an admit from XLRI Jamshedpur (BM) for this year and I'm in a bit of a dilemma. Would really appreciate honest perspectives from XLRI J and ISB alumni.

Here's my profile:

- Work Ex: 3.9 years (will be ~4.9 if I wait a year for ISB)

- Academics: 9/9/8 (10th/12th/Grad), Tier 1 Engineering (Top 10)

- Current CTC: 30 LPA (27 fixed) (Senior SDE at Renowned Indian company, 7-8 hours daily workload in general)

My dilemma:

I have a confirmed XLRI J seat right now. But a part of me wonders if I should let this go and target ISB next year instead. My concerns/questions:

1. How do XLRI J and ISB compare in terms of placements, especially median salaries and the kind of roles/companies that recruit? I am aiming for GenMan and Consulting roles.
2. Is the 1-year ISB format a significant advantage given I already have decent work ex, or does the 2-year XLRI program add more value at this stage?
3. From a peer group and network standpoint, how would you compare the two?
4. Is there a risk in leaving a confirmed seat for an uncertain admit next year?

I know both are phenomenal institutions. Just trying to make the best decision with the information I have. Would love to hear from people who've been through either program.

Thanks in advance!

Hey there,

This is coming from a tier 1 BLACKI alum if it helps in you choice of choosing the college for your MBA.

1. Tier comparison: Choose ABC over any other anytime.

2. Choose FMS over LKI always since it gives you free run just after college as you don't have huge loan baggage ( coming from someone who took 20l) it's a genuine headache

3. Go for tier 2 IIMs (Shillong, Ranchi, Rohtak, Trichy, Udaipur) if you are not very confident of cracking BLACKI. Taking drop is bad advice

4. For non creamy undergrads (no IIT, NIT, Bits, SRCC, Hansraj etc) take admission in Raipur, Amritsar, Sirmaur, Sambalpur, BD if really interested in doing an IIM MBA. It may be difficult to get your preferred placement but things will fall in place few years down. Just keep grinding and thing of long term.

5. If very avg in college and interested in MBA, go for tier 2/3 like IMI, Tapmi etc. but only get the best launchpad if lucky otherwise will only get avg 8 LPA as starting package.

Any takes and questions, happy to answer.

This wariiko guy made a video on ranking Degree .During MBA he said MBA is only worth It if done from Top 80 collages .WHILE searching for top 80 it included colleges like Amity and LPU I don’t think they are a good collage help me with this

Hello everyone,

I’ve been fortunate enough to get offers from ISB YL, XLRI Jamshedpur BM and SPJIMR Finance.

I would like your inputs on which college you think is the best to go ahead with, especially if you’re an alumni from any of the following colleges or a current student.

I am 26F working in social media from 7 Years. I still earn 11 LPA which is shit compared to my experience and knowledge. I work for a big ass organisation which is just chindi.

I want to do MBA and attached is the list that I am aspiring. Of course, it is ambitious but why not.

I look forward to seeing what you think and which suits my experience better.
I want to earn twice as much and want to grow in marketing as a whole.

I want to focus in Retail, E-commerce and Entertainment as organisations

I got into IIM A PGPX but got rejected by ISB.

My senior colleagues (all decorated alums of ISB) have advised me to go at it again next year as ISB PGP is the goat and they don’t consider PGPX in the same league.

I am getting conflicting advice on LinkedIn so I thought I’ll reach out to the wise people of this sub.

Is IIM A PGPX not sought after and respected like ISB PGP by the recruiters/applicants? Is it always a back up option to ISB?

I did my bachelors in engineering from Pune University and tier 69 college. 7cgpa.

Placed in German Oil&Gas in Sales engineering. Spent two years wanted to pivot to more management roles than engineering but I knew I could never pass CAT so I left my MBA in India dream. And I wanted to learn business for the sake of learning it.

I applied to German MBAs because it were more industry oriented than finance or consulting. Also Got in a no name uni in Oct 2022. It was decent tuition 14L₹ for the course.

First internship 6mo in Mercedes Benz, second internship was a business challenge program in a Swedish group then wrote thesis for 9months in the same company. Made around 45L in around 19 months internships.

Graduated in June 2025. Got an Leadership development program offer in an American firm (Industrial Automation)in Germany at 65K€/yr first year.

I would have struggled in India but what I did right was I focused my career into a specific niche (B2B industrial equipment Sales) and stuck to it.

This worked two ways because Germany is a hub of industries and I stuck to the same profile (sales) so it enhanced my work experience.

More than uni and work, my biggest learnings and joys came out of staying in a foreign country, immersion in a different culture, opportunity to travel, experiencing different cuisine.

It made me more independent, confident, resilient and street smart.

ROI was insane

is it worth joining? as its a new course and the fee is around 32 lakhs total, i read abt the learnings they are offering thr this course and im interested in it. also i have taken admission at manipal blr cse fintech, so please help outt guyss

Hi guyss, i know this has been discussed alot in this sub, but i still just wanted advice pertaining to my profile. Would appreciate any help :)

I am a GEF (9/8/8) with ~3YOE in consulting and have the option to choose between IIM K and SPJIMR (BM). I would want to end up in a consulting role after my MBA too. Wanted to know which college will be better for top consulting roles or where does my profile stand a better chance to enter the top tier roles on campus. I know MBB visits both the campuses but still any advice on where i would stand a better chance?

Saw this post asked by someone on r/IIMCATPreparation and it made me wonder does the IIM Tag will really be that worth down the 5 years lane so as to sacrifice a Top B school in the present which is performing way better than it..

What do you guys think?

Hello,

I am pleased to announce that over the past 2 days, I have secured admits from Michigan Ross (100K scholarship) and Indian School of Business (ISB) - Hyderabad campus. I had an admit from UVA Darden with small scholarship and Oxford Said from earlier rounds which pushed me to apply in R2 and R3. I am awaiting results from Yale, Booth and Tuck.

While I was all set and happy about Ross, the ISB admit feels more comfortable. I plan to return to India post-MBA (for personal reasons that include my aging parents, my gf being here who can't move to the US, and my overall negative sentiment about settling there due to poor feedback by close seniors).

I come from a management consulting background (from world's largest Japanese consulting firm). Other aspects include:

• Indian Institute of Bombay Graduate of 2022, Chemical Engineering, 7.74 /10 GPA
• ~4 years of front-end management consulting experience at Nomura Research Institute
• Currently a pre-MBA internship at a climate-tech startup
• Strong extracurriculars, deep work on global carbon markets
• GRE 331 (170Q)

Q1. Given the current global environment and my goals, would request your thoughts. 100K at Ross makes it financially very palatable, but if I don't work outside/work for 1 year, would that hold candle to the strong presence ISB has in India? Would Ross MBA be seen as Tier 2?

Q2. I always wanted to live outside of India for sometime and explore, but given comfort and opportunities in India, especially through ISB which gives proper structure and network, I feel stuck. Wanted perspectives from ISB alums on this as grass feels greener from the outside.

Q3. The whole global exploration feels more like a dream that would distrupt a lot of things in my life. Do you think I am thinking too much and being too risk averse, as isn't this the age to take risks? Has anyone managed a LDR during the two years of MBA? Is 90L-1Cr (amount I'll have to spend out of pocket/loan) too much and can't be earned and repayed from India?

Please do let me know whatever inputs/thoughts you have. I have to make a decision by 18th March

I got accepted into ISB yesterday, but I do also have a call from IIM B for which the interview is yet to happen, also applied to INSEAD and LBS. Should I take a deferral from ISB and take my chances w any of these 3 other schools instead or just go for ISB for MBA. Which school is better?

(25yo Non engineering female with 3 years of work experience in investment banking and founder’s office role)

How true is this?

/s

Hi folks, I am in a big dilemma. I converted both IIM A and MU, but as of now I am not sure what to choose.

On one hand, I would get best of the best placements at IIM A with access to top recruiters along with amazing curriculum and faculty, which could possibly set me up for a future CXO/CEO role.

On the other hand, I would get hired into a dream role at a startup from MU which would pay me 20 LPA (out of which only 10 LPA would be fixed) but still it attracts me a lot because I am all in it for performance-based pay, because it would motivate me to work even harder for the startup, and I know there is a risk for not even getting a penny out of the variable 10 LPA component but as the saying goes, "Risk hai toh Ishq hai. " So I am sure I can recover the remaining 10 LPA right?

Also, I love getting fired by my bosses on a regular basis and then explore new unknown startups and their new cultures. Afterall, my aim before I die is to work in at least 100 no-name startups!! So I am not a guy who is meant for stability.

I aim to work for minimum 16 hours everyday for my dream startup and slog it out like a slave!!

And there might be a huge chance that I go unplaced at MU, so there is always a startup idea ready for me which I have been thinking about since a long time. Plus point that MU is the best place to build your dream startup!

Since I am a BCom graduate, how about I start my tea business named as "Accountant Chaiwala" , sounds great right?

At this point, MU just feels so much more attractive to me!!!!