Established in 1991, MICA (formerly known as Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad) is India’s premier management school for Strategic Marketing and Communication. It is the alma mater of professionals serving in leadership positions in some of the best known companies in India and the world, in marketing, brand management, research & analytics, advertising, media, digital and other related businesses.

MICA offers a wide-range of academic programmes, including three residential and four online programmes.

Here are ten things that you should know before applying for MICA:

1. Register for MICAT: MICA is a B-school with a difference and so it only makes perfect sense that our entrance exam would be different too. The MICAT will test both your right brain and left brain capabilities. Keep your pens at the ready and your creative juices flowing because you’ll need time to cross your t’s and dot your i’s. Click here to find out more.

2. Know your Brands:

Heard of Muji?

No?

What about Beiersdorf?

Or Peroni? It’s time to keep an eye on the brands around you. From your stationery to your kitchen equipment, new brands can show up just anywhere. MICA is a place where the brands become your bread and butter. It is time already to learn to love them.

3. Brush up your Writing Skills: The MICAT will require you to show some creative writing skills but that’s the least of the writing you’ll do here at MICA. Get your verbs, adverbs and pronouns to stay in their right places and learn to spot an idiom or two.

4. No more Channel Surfing during Commercial Breaks: Start watching advertisements. No, really. Commercial breaks are when aspiring MICAns need to be most watchful. Campaigns are important. Whether it’s “The Complete Man” or “Sense and Simplicity”, if these words are nothing more than just phrases to you, you need to give up on surfing channels or getting food during breaks in your favourite programmes.

5. Numbers ARE important: It’s just a myth that MICAns don’t do numbers. Your MICAT will have some puzzlers, and you’ll need to have the wits to solve them. Keep sharpening your quantitative abilities because even the most creative plans need numbers to back them.

6. Where you are from matters: MICA prides itself on its diversity and as a result you might see a lot of interview questions about the city and state you are from. Know your state politics, latest developments and the things that make it, and you, special. And it won’t just be a checkbox to tick for MICA – you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised to better discover your own roots.

7. Be sure of what’s in it for you…: MICA offers five specializations in its flagship PGDM-C program. Be sure to know what they each entail and also what you might like to pick up as a specialization in the future. Read up on the different opportunities and avenues each of the five offers. You don’t need to choose them right at the beginning but knowing where you might fit in will help with your admissions.

8. Digital is the new wave to surf: With the emergence of social media and digital marketing, it becomes important for MICA aspirants also to be savvy on these platforms. Next time you login, observe everything. Be it promotions, parody ads, interesting digital campaigns or another big billion day sale online it is important to know where the bandwagon is at.

9. Communication and Culture: If you become a MICAn, communication and culture will soon been the buzzwords for you. Your families, hobbies, backgrounds all makes up your culture. Communicate in meaningful ways through understanding others, appreciating differences and gathering new perspectives from those around the world.

10. Be  true to yourself: MICA values you for the differences that you bring, the ideas that you spin, and the new outlooks with which you can see the world to reshape it. Being yourself is the key to finally crack the entire MICA admissions process because in the end, it is your vision and your passion that will set you apart the most.

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