Within the high walls of the three-and-a-half acre campus of Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Bengaluru (SIBM-B) is a world in itself, buzzing with different kinds of activity.
Let’s take a journey into the lives of the 341 students who strive each moment to meet deadlines, complete tasks and assignments, and try to achieve the highest standards.
In the process, we are left to wonder if 24 hours is actually enough for an MBA student? But what sets us apart is the level of student involvement in the day-to-day functioning of the college. Being a primarily student-driven college, we are involved in each and every activity; from placements to making sure the quality of food available is up to mark; from organising the various fests to being the face of SIBM-B in the mass media.
All about students
It’s all about the students. With 11 committees and 12 clubs; SIBM-B aims to achieve excellence in all avenues. The institute aims to inculcate in each individual a sense of responsibility, independence skill development and healthy competition. With the constant flood of tests, assignments and events and live projects, each of us eventually learn how to survive on an average four hours of sleep.
Holistic environment
The state-of-the-art faculty at SIBM-B represents a cross-section of both members from the industry, as well as academia. Each faculty member has vast amounts of knowledge, and sometimes is not possible to impart it all during lectures. Hence, they take up individual doubts very patiently in class and any time offline too. The various clubs focus on each of the functional areas of specialisations like HR, Finance, Marketing and Operations. The main aim of the clubs is to provide knowledge beyond the course books, to match current industry requirements.
All this, again, managed by the students themselves.
There is a healthy level of student-teacher interaction through mentorships too, where each student is assigned a mentor, whom they can consult whenever they have a problem. Analysing case studies from the Harvard Business Review , various other case discussions and making PowerPoint presentations is what each of us knows like the back of our hands by now.
Nourished mind and body
The mess has variety of foods available, with one good thing being that there is no limit on the amount one can eat. The campus also houses an amphitheatre where street-plays, music concerts, and movie screenings are held from time to time to give the students a break.
If that is not enough, there is a reading room that’s open 24 hours, a library, a well-equipped gymnasium, a basketball court, an indoor badminton court and a volleyball court. In short, there are adequate recreational provisions made, which students manage to make use of.
Dawn to dusk
The day starts at 9 am and ends by 6.15 pm for most of us. After which, one can see groups of students flocking to the reading room or the library; some to the gym; others to the cafeteria; and some to flex their muscles by playing a sport.
SIBM-B is seldom asleep. Even at 2 am, one will always find groups of students studying at one end or a group singing at another. From chit-chatting at one spot on the campus to completing assignments at another, the balance seems to be just right.
To survive in the rat-race that the world is now turning into, one not only needs to be hard working but also needs to develop and hone other key skills. Keeping this in mind, the curriculum is very challenging, intense and beneficial.
They say an MBA is all about developing people skills, networking , professional knowledge and rigorous mindset. And no place could offer this better than SIBM-B. Focusing on all the key aspects simultaneously as well as making each moment worth a memory is what we all are going to take away from our two years here.