My MBA Journey - Part 4 (Why GMAT or Why CAT)

After I was done with my GMAT, I had 2 options in front of me: either to start preparing applications for international b-schools or to prepare for CAT and after that prepare applications. I went with the former option.

An obvious question that might arise in the minds of readers is why did I take both CAT and GMAT? Now this needs a long explanation and perhaps the most important answer every aspirant needs to have crystal clear before he/she takes any of the said examinations.

During last year I had talked to over 200 people: some CAT/GMAT aspirants, some alumni of B-schools (both Indian and International schools), current students of various B-schools etc. In my discussions I came to know of various reasons why anyone prefers one examination to the other or in other words why does someone not like to take GMAT or CAT.

A GMAT aspirant has one or more of these factors in mind because of which he prefers GMAT to CAT:

1) Opportunity for international exposure which has a strong demand in industry and which you will not get in IIMs and other Indian colleges (exchange programs in Indian colleges are for only 3-4 months and I personally feel that does not do significant addition towards increasing international management effectiveness)
2) Heavy pay package after MBA which would be in dollars in Uncle Sam’s state and in pounds in UK (and we Indians are very good at saving a lot of money. Indian IT engineers who have had the chance to go onsite would grasp my point easily :))
3) Strong acceptance of US/UK MBAs in almost every nook and corner of the world( very few people outside India know about IIMs and those who know there understanding is limited mostly to IIM Ahmedabd .Many people would feel shell-shocked reading this but this is the truth. Even in other Asian countries such as Singapore, industry would prefer graduates from global b-schools (having ranked in top 100 b-schools of the world) which might stand no where against IIMs and where admission is also relatively easier vis-à-vis cracking CAT)
4) Easier to gain an admission to international b-schools (for most US and European b-schools acceptance rate varies from 8% to 40% with top 10 colleges having the rate toward the lower side of the range. Even the likes of Harvard/Columbia/Wharton/Insead/LBS (top 5 colleges in the world (Source: http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings ) have acceptance rate of around 9-10%. And now consider IIMs. In 2008, around 2 lakh 50 thousand students took the exam for 1800 total seats in 7 IIMs i.e. acceptance rate of less than 1%. Pheewwwwww)

And these are the factors a CAT (or shall I say an IIM) aspirant has in his/her mind:

1) Dynamite brand value of IIMs in India (I have talked to HRs/industry professionals of various organizations and the revelation was mind-boggling. In India in more often than not cases an IIM pass-out would be preferred over pass-outs of say world’s top 15+ colleges. Even a graduate of world’s top 10 colleges would not be considered too high when compared to IIMs graduates)
2) You need only peanuts to do an MBA from IIMs (tuition fee of IIMs lie in the range of 7-12 lakhs whereas tuition fess of top 10 US two year MBA programs lie in the range of 40 to 60 lakhs .Add to this living expenses + other expenses and you would be required to shell out some 70 to 80 lakhs only. I believe compared to this figure IIMs are charging only peanuts :). Taking GMAT exam itself would cost around 12000 INR (CAT costs around 1500 INR))
3) People with less experience (0 – 2 years) can not get an admission in international b-schools easily (Most of the foreign b-schools have set the minimum work experience limit as 2 years. IIMs would not mind if you are a fresher though some IIMs such as IIM Lucknow and IIM Bangalore have of late started to build work experience requirement into the selection procedure. But still percentage of students with 0-2 years of experience in IIMs is pretty high)
4) And finally if you are coming from the worst cohort in the world, Indian IT Male, you are doomed. Every foreign b-school and even ISB have a strong averseness for this privileged community and some colleges have even placed a limit on the maximum number of students they will hire from this elite community. So safe haven for members of this group is IIMs where majority of the students are from this group only. (Btw if you were thinking about the most sought after candidates in phoren b-schools and even in Indian b-schools: your guess is as good as mine:))

Now after so much gyan, I can answer why I chose to give both GMAT and CAT. Because
1) I wanted to do an MBA desperately this year as I had already got an ultimatum from my family that I would be sentenced for life ( I am referring to marriage) if I don’t get an admission in a b-school this year
2) I wanted to stay and work in India (so GMAT could work as my back-up if I don’t get into IIMs)
3) This reason is personal :)

And so I started my CAT preparation.