If you are b-school in India that encourages and facilitates peer-to-peer learning and group activity, then do your research well before joining a non-residential MBA, writes guest contributor Junaid Shah from a nasty personal experience.

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Soon after the Common Admission Test (CAT) results are declared, the excitement builds up as one starts receiving group discussion and interview call letters from b-schools in ones wishlist.

Last year, I too had one such list in my mind and was fortunate enough to receive calls from nine b-schools from that list. I eventually attended the interviews of five schools from that list and made it to the final admission list of four.

After some research, feedback from friends and seniors, I decided to take the leap and pay the fees for studying an MBA at a non-residential b-school located in Dwarka, New Delhi. With things seemingly falling into place, I quit my job (I had a work experience of 32 months) and moved to Delhi with my head high and determined to make the most of the next two years to finally take my career successfully to the next level.

Soon arrived Day-1 at the institute and boy, did I know that 30 days later, I would be standing outside this b-schools gate eager to run in a direction exactly opposite to where I was heading towards on the first day? This is the story of those 30 days and the reasons that made me quit this b-school in such a short time.

After a few days of introductions and induction routines, I encountered the first turn-off after stepping into the classroom and realising that all 60 of us would be seated in a relatively small classroom on the same type of furniture that is used at CAT coaching institutes.

The folding armrest/table on the chairs was just about large enough to accommodate a notebook or small enough to accommodate the arm of the person sitting next to the each of us, depending on how one wanted to look at it. Placing a laptop on this table? Forget about it. But this is how it was.

Gradually, the lectures started and we were introduced to the faculty. Right from the beginning, few teachers made any effort to reach out to the students and insisted that they be greeted upon entering the class (not just verbally, but by standing up from where we were sitting). I rationalised this to myself by saying, Yes, maybe I did this last in high school and not even during engineering college. But perhaps this is what a professional college is like.

The lecture schedules slowly started falling into place. And then one day, it was 5 pm when the last lecturer of the day left. Within minutes my classmates disappeared for their homes. After that, it was just I and the four walls around me. At 7.30 pm sharp, the security guard reminded me that it was time to shut the college gates and therefore I should leave now.

I asked myself, where would I study then? At home? Seriously? You know, it wasnt school anymore where one goes back home and finishes his homework. What about group tasks and assignments? Where were we supposed to have our discussions post-class — at Cafe Coffee Day (gasp)?!

Upon further enquiry, I was told that these were the timelines strictly followed at the b-school and thats the way it was.

Another day, they held an introduction ceremony of the seniormost members of the student body. As we were seated in the auditorium, to my surprise, the members of the body asked us to stand up from our seats when we spoke to them as a show of respect. They reminded us twice that we were the juniors and they were the seniors and that difference had to be honoured. We had to address them as sir or madam only, we were told.

Requests to keep the institute library open till midnight for the benefit of the students were rejected for reasons of safety. Forget about a 24-hour library, as is often allowed in reputed b-schools.

At this point, existential questions started creeping up in my mind and I began to wonder whether it had been the right decision to quit my job to join this b-school. But I told myself that since I had decided to walk on a particular path, I should give it more time and see where it went.

The routine continued and I played along. From 9.30 am to 5.30 pm, students would attend lectures like schoolchildren, teachers would teach, students would listen, but not learn. As soon as college was over, everyone was out of the campus. All unique aspects of management education such as peer-to-peer learning, detailed group interactions based on all that we were learning were distant dreams.

Take the example of presentations and assignments. Once we were loaded with group tasks, we had to find a way to work on them together. Nobody was willing to stay back in college to work on them because we all knew that the guards would boot us out in a mere 1.5 hours. Puzzled, I asked our seniors how they studied and completed their group tasks in a non-residential institute like ours. Their reply made the earth quiver below my feet. I was advised to make use of Google Groups, Google Talk, Skype or Facebook Chat to complete our group assignments.

The existential questions crept up again. Was this an academic institution or one of those short-term vocational training institutes? Were we supposed to become managers by discussing complex management concepts over social networking sites? Dismayed but not ready to give up, I and my group-mates decided to meet at a shopping mall in nearby Rajouri Garden area to work on our group assignment. With almost all the students living with their families and the college not allowing us any space for after-class work, what other option did we have?

For the record, the college did have a hostel, which was outsourced to a nearby private property — more like a collection of service rooms than an academic residential complex. I learned the hard way that a one-acre campus had huge limitations in making for an environment that could be conducive for learning.

It then dawned on me why the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) or other reputed b-schools built campuses over tens of acres containing large hostel complexes that took care of most student needs. It was a lesson learnt too late.

Anyhow, the final death knell over this particular b-school sounded for me when I got hold of the internal placement report of the 133 students from my senior batch who had been placed till date. My heart broke when I realised that the placement figures quoted to us by the seniors on PaGaLGuY threads and Facebook pages were way inflated than the actuals. In fact, a financial major had not recruited a single person from the b-school even though its name was in the list of recruiters and we had been told that 2-3 students had been placed in that organization. I also learned that many companies in the summer internship list were those that students had applied to through their own contacts. The institute however had no shame in listing them as their recruiters.

After quitting my job of nearly 32 months, I had joined this b-school with the hope of securing my future with a decent education and job. But as it turned out, the culture of the school and its placements were a far cry from what had been advertised.

Exactly 30 days after I had joined the institute, I decided to quit and submitted the application for refund. After a few hiccups from the management about the refund amount, I was finally handed over the cheque a couple of months later.

I paid the price of not researching the college I was about to join properly enough. I paid the price of relying too much on the promises of the immediate seniors, and not checking up with alumni. I paid the price of not verifying the placement figures of the college from trusted alumni or people from competitor b-schools. I paid the price of not visiting the school personally and checking the minutest details and then comparing them with what the other colleges had to offer. I paid the price of not being meticulous enough to analyse whether the returns I would get from this college would really add to my 32 months of work experience.

The biggest price I paid was that of losing one year and not being in a job for that same duration at the age of 26.

I wrote this article solely for the benefit of MBA applicants this year so that they dont make the same mistakes that I did. I hope everybody reading this will be meticulous enough to verify the smallest details of a b-school before finalising an admission. This is one decision which can make you, or break you.

The author worked with an IT company in Pune before joining (and leaving) this particular b-school and is now a CAT 2011 aspirant. All views expressed about non-residential b-schools are the author’s own.