What is so special about IIM Calcutta?
I am not gonna talk about how a campus is better for Finance or Consulting or a zillion other things, or how brilliant people are at all these IIMs, or how good they are at extracurricular, or how networking is better at one place over other or how the alum base helps or the number of companies visiting campus or the infrastructure or the opportunities. I am gonna talk about the single most basic and inherent quality in a human, the will to fight! Go to IIM Ahmedabad, you will find students with flawless academics - great CAT percentile, amazing 10th, 12th and undergrad results - never failed in their lives. Go to IIMB, the same thing happens, except for the CAT percentile, which averages out to be a tad bit lower than IIM Calcutta and IIM Ahmedabad, but still a great percentile. Come to IIMC, you will find people with high CAT percentiles but quite a few students would have a messed up undergrad maybe. Lets say somebody with a 99.93 in CAT but just a 6 pointer in Undergrad or may be an average 75% in 10th or 12th. People who have seen failures in their lives, have learnt from them and rose from them. People who have empathy and perseverance. People who know how to work with less resources. These are people who are street-smart, who know how to improvise and excel right from the bottom to the top.. When you interact with the best smart-minds of the country over a period of 2 years, you learn a lot of things apart from just the subjects being taught, the qualities which evolve you as a person. You go to IIM Calcutta, you find people, not profiles! A manager needs to have these qualities and I think this is a single most outstanding quality of IIM Calcutta and is quite unique! While we always have students with flawless academic records, who chose IIM Calcutta above others, I am trying to tell you that it is a mixed bag which only happens at IIM Calcutta. I do not mean to demean any of the other institutes, I have nothing but respect for them!