Calcutta Business School PGDM Review By Shaurya Saini

I tried my best at the CAT and various other entrance exams but failed to get good Colleges and CBS happened by chance. My paternal family stayed there and they told me about this College and I went there without thinking much. My decision was backed by my family and honestly, they are proud of me today and I promote CBS among my circle because CBS is that kind of College. I did my major in finance and therefore no one should be surprised when CBS ranks in a survey for their finance course. The internships provided were world-class as we had the option of extending our internship because classes would take care of attendance if you are out on an internship. If the sample of participants from CBS is taken, trust me on the kind of knowledge that we were provided with the subjects, it has to be after IIM-Kolkata. The difference between the two Colleges was the placements, because otherwise, the difference is minimal. I am sorry for comparing CBS to IIM, but at least in terms of education, it is just a shade under it.

During academic sessions, we have to go for workshops on many industries where the kick start to the course and the career starts. The classes were way too lengthy, but in PGDM, one doesn't have a choice but to get out of the skin or rather play out of the skin to complete that many subjects. I studied around 30 subjects and cleared them all in one go. I wasn't the only one as students here have no choice but to do it because the College has maintained a 100% placement record and for that 100% passing result too is required. CBS has done exceptionally well on this front and so kudos to them.

CBS has nothing but high-end faculties. I am sorry for type-casting them as a brand, but they were no less honest. Our faculties facilitated us with high-end programming for management studies and they have given us many things to look at. We had no choice but to do as we were told to do. The faculties as they say are the biggest guns, and they fired like an AK-47 because there was no escaping from them. They wanted 100% results and they did all that they could to make sure that they produced the results that pleased the management.

I think all the students who studied here were placed and placed with a package that would take out their fees in a year. I paid around 6.5 lakhs as fees and got placed with a package of nearly the same amount. The placements in Finance were the best as there were 5-6 specializations, but Finance had the upper hand. Banks like Standard Chartered, Kotak Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Federal Bank, and Axis Bank were the places that first offered us internships and then jobs. I had to compromise a bit on packages during the interview but I didn't choose the place of my choice as by studying in Kolkata, I got placed in Delhi and what else could I have asked for.

There was a single hostel on the campus and it accommodated both boys and girls. Of course, the floors were divided, but the mess was common. CBS has made it clear that each individual should get a personal room, so even though the room was like a matchbox, I had no issues staying in it as it had the required furniture, from a good bed, to a cupboard, to a table, everything was already present at the hostel room. I want to meet people who are huge fans of Bengali food because I hardly had food in the mess as I couldn't eat that at all.

The College is on the outskirts of Kolkata. The airport and railway station were so far that my parents made plans to come to Kolkata but they could never gather the courage to travel so far to meet me. The campus residential area is on the right side of the gate while the educational buildings are on the left of the gate. There are nice landscapes in between as one will feel quite close to nature at the CBS campus. The canteen was refreshing as we didn't have many options off-campus, so we were confined to that. A nice restaurant 'Sanchari Kitchen' was close to the College and that's the only good option as I had most of my meals for two years only.

I will be honest about it as I got little from campus life as the crowd is dominated by local students. Outsiders were very few and even though I have my roots from Bengal, I felt like an outsider. It was the College events that kept even the outsiders on the hunt because that was our show time and I showed all that I had got.