Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication MJMC Review By Rohit Londhe

I passed out from SIMC Pune in 2019 and I am very happy with the things that gone over there and post that. For MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, one has to clear SNAP and because I failed in that, I decided to pursue MA from here which is also highly ranked. SIMC Lavale offers two specializations and they are journalism and audio visual. Since, I was into creativity, mass communication and journalism was the one I chose. Rankings has proven that SIMC has been ranking among the top colleges for media studies for a while. On academic front, the delivery is first class but the fees is just too high. Paying over 8 lakhs for MA and then the hostel fees and project costs, it costed around 12 lakhs and the jobs were definitely not in accordance with that. So, these things do bring this institute down a bit. There’s nothing called callous from the management as they were up front with all the issues that students put forward. Some of the labs are updated regularly and an overhaul of all the labs is done every couple of years. So, an institute which is sharper than a razor is adept for media studies any day.

SIMC is a niche institute and the niche course had niche subjects like business statistics, advertising business, and managerial economics to name a few. Here again though the institute even though was far off from Pune, the media people used to come to the institute and have workshops here. The course was for the ones who believes in experimental learning because classes were just for fun. One thing which I have never heard or seen before was that our institute has tie-ups with many foreign institutes and students were free to take semester exchange courses and study in those universities.

If SCMC faculties were skilled then at SIMC they have just doubled it up because many renowned media people were the ones who took classes. Not all of them makes a part of the core faculty but some of them used to stay at the campus for weeks and take the classes. So, it was like only the industry experts were allowed to take the classes because more than degrees, the college gave more importance to the experience and knowledge that they carried about the industry. I was so jealous of the faculty as the editors of Pune Times from Times of India; Sakal Media Group assistant directors were the ones who became permanent faculty over here. So, this is indeed the best part of the college.

Top media houses like Zee Media, CNBC, Thomson Reuters, Times Now, Sakal, Lokmat, and DNA were the top recruiters. Well MBA students who also studied business acumen as rest of the subjects were almost the same were offered salaries worth 8-10 lakhs but we were offered a paltry 4-5 lakhs per annum. The placements didn’t justify the placements but getting in the media industry is not possible with proper degree and internship and SIMC provided us both.

SIMC has its own hostel at the campus as the rest hostel were shared but SIMC hostel was only for SIMC. It was the smallest of the hostels at the campus but with a countryside view and fully furnished rooms, the hostel became an integral part of our lives. The mess had both veg and non veg food options, so the food part also was sorted. Also, most students who study at the institutes of Lavale stay at the campus as all the MBA courses are fully residential programs. So, interacting with students of various other institutes was possible and that opened gate for learning way beyond our course.

SIMC Lavale campus is the biggest campuses of Symbiosis International University Pune. We didn’t have any library in our block but we had access to the central library of the campus. The library had a huge collection of books as caters to all the students of the university and had exhaustive material for the media students too. Well, to catch up with friends there were a lot of areas but no better than the cafeteria SymbiEat. It was always full and one gets to see the most diverse crowd of the universe there as not just there were students from all Indian states or UTs but also students from across the globe had their go to food at SymbiEat. Other than that, there was one huge auditorium and almost the best-in-class labs at the campus.

I have been a part of two symbiosis campuses and it is hard to mention which one was better. All in all, if you have the zeal to work the hardest and at the same time is also a party animal, come to SIMC. I experienced a diverse culture at the campus like never seen before and more importantly if one has to make is huge in media and communication world, then SIMC will certainly aid your journey.