Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
The college I finally joined was Shailesh Jain Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay. It was the only interview (8th March) in which I was asked the question- “Why MBA.” It was the first interview where they took interest in the fact that I loved cricket. So a barrage of questions followed from cricket; and I answered them all. It looked like one of those days when everything I knew would get asked in the interview. I was at my happiest after this interview. It was also a very pleasant experience being in the IIT Campus and the chance to become a part of that campus was exciting to say the least.
There were two ways to look at this eventual result. The first way to look at it said- “I succeeded in making it to a college like SJMSOM, IIT Bombay and I should be proud of that”. The second way said- “In spite of getting 99.56 percentile, I could not make it to a big IIM and I should be sad about it”. It is then that I thought of the words spoken by my teacher- “There are no good colleges or bad colleges around here for MBA. What we eventually get into should be the ‘Right College’.” In some ways, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay felt like the right place for me. The cut off score in SJMSOM, IIT Bombay was 99.08 percentile. All my to-be batch mates, after a score of 99 plus percentile, must have dreamt of making it big into an IIM. The fact that they could not and instead ended up being there in IIT meant that they were all imperfect in their own ways. This gave me a chance to be one among equals. So instead of being unhappy about not making it to an IIM, I was happy and thankful to God for what I had got. Ever since joining IIT, I must say it has been a unique and enriching experience here and I intend to make the most of my time here.
P.S:- The teacher who I have talked about often in this series is Miss Shreeleena Bakshi, currently in Career Launcher, Pune. She is still a constant source of guidance for me. Anshul meanwhile made it to XIM, Bhubaneswar with his XAT Score while Prateek made it to IMT- Ghaziabad with his CAT Score. Sometimes I really wish how good it would have been had Anshul and Prateek been here with me in IIT. I remain in touch with them regularly and we hope to continue this friendship for a long time to come. Touchwood!