My experience in the past 5 months at BITSoM has been really wonderful! Iām so happy with the quality of the teaching and the faculty. The professors are very kind and engaging, and theyāre all brilliant teachers. Itās clear how much care and effort they put into crafting every lecture, every assignment, to add the maximum possible value to our academic experience.
Iām especially happy with the strong emphasis here on practical application. E.g., our Business Stats professor (Dr. Rohit Deo from NYU Stern) largely used real-world data sets for every assignment and exam, which helped us place every technique in the context of its real-life applications. It was much more holistic than just learning formulae or making graphs, which is usually the norm in classes like this. Our Decision Models professor Dr. Ziv Katalan read about every single student and their work ex/ academic background before the course started, and he then tailored the examples he used to fit with our batchās experiences. These are just a couple of anecdotes, but every single faculty member has exceeded my expectations of a great teacher. In fact, we always end up forming such a strong rapport with each professor within just two weeks, which makes it hard to say goodbye to them :ā) (Luckily, though, theyāre more than happy for us to get in touch via email for advice/ questions/ conversations, and I plan to take them up on that offer!)
Another unique feature of the BITSoM curriculum, as you may already know, is Winning at the Workplace, or WAW courses. I didnāt really get how valuable these courses would be until I actually took them. But some of them have rewired the way I think, e.g., Dean Ranjan Banerjeeās course, Learning to Learn. One main pillar of this course was: the best way to learn from business leaders, colleagues, bosses, teachers and mentors is by asking them the right questions. I had never realized before how difficult it is to construct a concise, incisive question, while avoiding assumptions and egoism. This course trained us to do that, so now, every time I raise my hand to ask a question to a professor or a visiting speaker, I find myself automatically double-checking to ensure that my question abides by the general principles we learnt in that course. And it actually makes a big difference ā conversations flow more organically, the answers offer deeper insights.
Of course, we follow the block teaching method, which means that each course is taught within a two-week āblockā. The accelerated nature of the course can definitely make it intense, especially because we have two courses per block: one Core course, and one Winning at the Workplace course. We have exams every alternate weekend. Sometimes assignments can also overflow to the next block and add up. So even with excellent time management skills, youāre never going to get as much sleep as you want ā be prepared for that! But the block teaching method is what makes it possible to bring in faculty from the best b-schools worldwide, and I think that tradeoff is worth it.
From a student community perspective: The Admissions team has really selected an amazing group with some of the most diverse academic backgrounds youād find in an Indian b-school. I learn so much from them every single day in and outside of class, and theyāre some of the most welcoming and helpful people Iāve ever met. This was especially evident during placement season: whenever students needed assistance with resume review, company research or dealing with hunger pangs between interviews, other students were available to help at the drop of a hat. In these past 5 months, I feel that collaboration and kindness have really become part of the culture.
Ultimately, Iād say thereās a strong spirit of camaraderie here ā itās a small, highly motivated, close-knit community, and everyoneās really excited about being part of this new venture. And Iām really glad to be part of it too.
