Schulich India MBA - Admissions Query Thread

MBA
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Greetings from the Schulich School of Business, We are glad to bring you the first Official Admissions Discussion Platform for Schulich MBA in India Program . On behalf of the Schulich School of Business, Nishant Jain (Student Repr…

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Greetings from the Schulich School of Business,

We are glad to bring you the first Official Admissions Discussion Platform for Schulich MBA in India Program .

On behalf of the Schulich School of Business, Nishant Jain (Student Representative for Admissions) would be answering your queries on this discussion thread. Nishant is a current student with Schulich's India MBA program and is now at Schulich's Toronto Campus for his Term 2 of the MBA.

You can post all your queries pertaining to Course Structure, Faculty, Infrastructure and the Admissions Procedure.

How does it work?
1. You post your questions by hitting the 'Post Reply' button
2. Nishant shall be keeping a close track of all queries, and will be replying on a regular basis

Schulich India's official ID on Pagalguy is ' schulich@india '.

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To be eligible to apply to Schulich MBA in India, you need:
First Class Standing in either of the following:
* A three year Bachelors and a Masters degree
* A four year Bachelors degree (e.g. BEng, BPharm, BArch, MBBS)

GMAT Score
Acceptable scores on all measures of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT)

Relevant Work Experience
Two years of relevant full-time work experience (post-undergraduate degree)

References
Two recommendations

English Proficiency
Proof of English language proficiency (if English was not language of degree study)
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Looking ahead to interacting with you all. Keep posting!

Warm Regards,
Imran Kanga
Associate Director - Student Services and International Relations
Schulich MBA in India Program
Visit Us At: Schulich MBA in India Website

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Hi Nishant,

This is Kishlay here.

I have already contacted you via mail before my interview for this program. Thanks for replying to all my queries very honestly and to the point.

I received my admission package on 06/09/2010. Now, i m in the process of paying my confirmation deposit. My credit card has a limit of INR 90,000 and thus i wont be able to pay the amount using credit card.
I m looking forward to getting a draft made for the amount payable to York university. Can you give me details of other payment options available?

"*Your student permit shall be valid till May... though you graduate in April... you can apply for a Work Permit in January. You would need a work permit to work in Canada. You can work on campus though... in RA positions etc... with your student permit." This is an excerpt from one of your replies.

1.You mentioned that we can apply for Work permit in Jan. For how long this work permit will be valid? As per the CIC website since we will be in toronto for 8 months only validity of our work permit will be that for 8 months unlike 3 years for the Keele Campus FT grads.

2.Since our student permit will be valid till May only what if we dont get a job within one month after graduation? Can our permit be extended?

My Toefl was waived off as the medium of instruction and examination of my UG degree was in english.Butt i guess i would require either a Toefl or a IELTS score for visa applications. Can't we get VISA without it? If not what shud i appear for Toefl or IELTS?

I hail from oil and gas sector (Working in IOCL for past two years). keeping this in mind which specialization will most certainly enhance my chances to get into this sector in Canada?


I hope i m not bugging you with so many questions.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Kishlay.

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Hi Kishlay,
To your query on Initial Deposit payment -
This was specific to your case, and I've passed your query to Carol Partland - Manager, Marketing and Recruitment. She'll get back to you very shortly.
To your query regarding the permit -
The work permit post graduation is not applied for until after the program is finished. The MBA is recognized as a two year graduate program and the government permits students to spend one year up to three years post graduation.
The student visa is issued for the two year period once an admission offer is extended. Since the maximum time to complete the program is 24 months, the visa does not usually expire before graduation. If there is an earlier expiry date, the university and student would work together to request the appropriate extension.
We have asked all incoming students to apply for their visa once the admission offer is extended so that the students can have their visa in place when school starts in India in January.
To you query regarding TOEFL / IELTS -
Since TOEFL was waived for you, your admission offer letter would have clearly stated the same. When applying for your Visa from India, you may highlight the same in your application and on the copy of the offer letter. That suffices. Should you still face any roadblocks feel free to get in touch with our admissions office.
To you query on specialization and MBA Concentration -
See this Specializations Page on the Schulich Website to find the range of courses / concentrations available. Your IOCL experience can be helpful in seeking opportunities with energy companies here. Keep your options open - for example you might want to work for a Business Consulting firm that specializes in consulting for the energy sector, rather than working for an energy company directly.
The Career Development Centre will provide you with numerous resources to help you with this decision making. I can say that Energy and Natural Resources is one of the top industries in Canada. I strongly suggest you to keep following your industry of choice in Canada by keeping up with Canadian News sites such as the Globe and Financial Post.
Hope this helps..
Nishant Jain
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Hi All,

You might want to take note of the following dates of the MBA Tour in India.
Imran Kanga - Associate Director - Student Services and International Relations - will be at the MBA Fair as per the following schedule. Imran will be accompanied by some Schulich Alumni as well. So this will be a chance to interact with them in person.

Bangalore: 19th September, 2010
School Presentation: Between 1:00 and 2:55pm
The MBA Tour: 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Taj Residency

Hyderabad: 21st September, 2010
The MBA Tour: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Taj Krishna

Delhi: 23rd September, 2010
The MBA Tour: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
The Lalit, New Delhi

Mumbai: 25th September, 2010
School Presentation: Between 1:00 and 2:55pm

The MBA Tour: 3:00 pm - 5 pm
Taj Lands End

Click here to Register for the event.

Best Regards,
Nishant Jain
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@ Kishlay

I got to hear from Carol regarding your query on initial deposit payment.

A bank draft for CAD 2500 along with the completed confirmation deposit is acceptable. Last year bank drafts from the ICICI Bank were submitted. Clarify with the bank the time needed to clear payment and show up in your student account.
Another option is to copy the confirmation deposit form and divide the deposit into two payments on the credit card. Guidelines regarding the processing of the credit card payments can be discussed.

Best,
Nishant

Hi Nishant,

This is Kishlay here.

I have already contacted you via mail before my interview for this program. Thanks for replying to all my queries very honestly and to the point.

I received my admission package on 06/09/2010. Now, i m in the process of paying my confirmation deposit. My credit card has a limit of INR 90,000 and thus i wont be able to pay the amount using credit card.
I m looking forward to getting a draft made for the amount payable to York university. Can you give me details of other payment options available?

"*Your student permit shall be valid till May... though you graduate in April... you can apply for a Work Permit in January. You would need a work permit to work in Canada. You can work on campus though... in RA positions etc... with your student permit." This is an excerpt from one of your replies.

1.You mentioned that we can apply for Work permit in Jan. For how long this work permit will be valid? As per the CIC website since we will be in toronto for 8 months only validity of our work permit will be that for 8 months unlike 3 years for the Keele Campus FT grads.

2.Since our student permit will be valid till May only what if we dont get a job within one month after graduation? Can our permit be extended?

My Toefl was waived off as the medium of instruction and examination of my UG degree was in english.Butt i guess i would require either a Toefl or a IELTS score for visa applications. Can't we get VISA without it? If not what shud i appear for Toefl or IELTS?

I hail from oil and gas sector (Working in IOCL for past two years). keeping this in mind which specialization will most certainly enhance my chances to get into this sector in Canada?


I hope i m not bugging you with so many questions.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Kishlay.
7

Hey Nishant,

Thanks a lot for your replies. They have really helped me a lot. I think i will get DD of 2500 $ CND made in favour of York University payable at a canadian bank from HDFC bank.

I have already booked a date for IELTS next month on 09/10/2010 and will be applying for VISA only after that. In the meantime i will get the confirmation DD sent and figure out my available funding options.

Will keep on bugging you with my queries.

Cheers!

Kishlay

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Not a problem. Please feel free to keep writing in.

Also, you might want to check out the school's MBA Tour schedule posted above.

All the best !
Nishant Jain

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Hi Nishant,

I've been researching on Schulich and observed that most of the students take up a job in Canada, perhaps bcoz of its PR advantage. But can you tell me what %age of Schulich students have been recruited in major Financial & Consultancy companies, such as McKinsey, Goladman Sachs etc. I ask this bcoz the number of students recruited by companies is not given on Schulich's website.

Thanks

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Hi Nishanth,

I had a question about joint degree. Does schulich provide any joint degree options with the Schulich India MBA programs ???

Is it possible for us to extend the one year we spend in Canada by extending the course.

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Hi,

You have already mentioned 'The MBA is recognized as a two year graduate program and the government permits students to spend one year up to three years post graduation.'

Came to know that we were having a confusion about the eligible term of post study work permit for the India-MBA program and Schulich is discussing this with officials. Has this been clarified?

Thanks

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Hi,

Re the MBA Tour.
Kindly let us know if there are any possibility of arranging the MBA tour in Chennai as well.
thanks

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We will be coming to Chennai in November... check out the Schulich Web site for times and places.

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@ All - As Informed by Charmaine Courtis above, Schulich School of Business's India MBA team will be in Chennai in November '10. Keep checking on P-Guy and our website for details on time and dates.

@ rish90 - Firms hiring from Canadian Schools / Schulich - Canada does come out as an attractive destination for prospective immigrants, however as per my experience as an international student at Schulich, the PR policy has nothing to do with placements. Out of current 25 students in India batch, 2 have a Canadian PR for reasons other than placements, and they'd applied for this PR 2 years ago while in India :-)
Schools in Canada get most of their placements from Canadian firms. The following firms are visiting the Schulich Campus this Sep / October - all major banks (CIBC, RBC, TD Bank, National Bank, Manulife Financial, Scotiabank, HSBC and BMO), Consulting firms (Deloitte, Capgemini, KPMG, Managerial Design, Satov, IBM), firms with Retail and Marketing focus such as Walmart, Loblaws, PepsiCo and General Mills) and Energy firms (Suncor, etc). Please note that unlike in India, firms in North America come for Placement Information Sessions. Students interact with Hiring Managers, existing alumni of the school in the firm, business managers, etc .. and then apply on the Schulich Career portal separately. This is to your query on which firms are visiting the campus.
As per my knowledge US / UK firms such as Goldman Sachs, Mckinsey, etc have not visited the Schulich campus in he recent past; they hire majorly from the US. Some Canadian firms such as Manulife, Scotiabank, HSBC Canada, etc do come to campus with their International Rotation programs for outgoing MBA grads. Hope that brings up enough data for you to do a "Google Search" on these firms / industries in Canada. You can write to the admissions / Careers office at Schulich for the school's latest placements / salary report.

@ All - A piece of advice- Based on my own experience, one of the best ways to research on B-Schools is to stay abreast with the economy / major companies of the country the school is based in. Canadian banks are amongst the world's largest and most stable banks. Consulting firms are coming back to business and hiring in better numbers for Techonology Consulting and Strat & Operations Consulting. Doing some research on this data can give you a a good idea about Canadian schools and economy. And I again say, you can never do the mistake of under-estimating the power of repo-building, reaching out to people, researching companies and being knowledgeable, if you're planning for a North American MBA. There are no "placement-weeks" here !

@ aksiceman - Option of Joint Degrees for India MBA candidates You can go for the following joint degree / diploma options, over and above the normal structure (India + Canada):
Option 1 - MBA + Masters in Public Administration = you will study for 2 semesters after completing your MBA in April 2012

Options 2 - MBA + PG Diploma in Advanced Management = you will study for 1 semester after completing your MBA in April 2012

Once in Toronto, you can also take some courses which are delivered along with York's Law School and Joint MBA students. One such course is Art of the Deal.. look for more on the course / program selection portal on our website.

@ evin - Work Permit - Your study permit would last till you are studying at Schulich. You would apply for a Post Grad work permit to be able to work after your MBA. The Post Grad Work Permit shall be applicable for 1 year (12 months) from the date of graduation i.e 12 months from June 2012.
There's absolute clarity on the above point.
However, the school is trying to clarify with authorities about a possibility of upto 3 years of Work permit upon graduation - which would definitely be a big plus for all of us willing to work in Canada.
Still, I am busy attending company info sessions these days on / off campus. Thus far, no employers have actually asked / specified this as a reason for not selecting a deserving candidate.

That was a good set of queries - Thanks for keeping me busy friends :biggrin:

Best,
Nishant

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Hi Nishant,

I have a query about the admission process.
What kind of a profile does the school look at?

i have 3 years of work experiece in BFSI domain in IT(technical)
I have done my BE from Bangalore with First Class.
I have a GMAT score of 640 ( i knw it is on a lower side)

Do you think that i will make a good candidate for the School and that my low GMAT wont be a problem? what is the avg GMAT score for indian applicants?

2) The list of recruiting companies for MBA/IMBA is actually very huge.
I have never seen such a huge list on any of the websites of north american grad schools that i have visited. I get the impression that the placements are really good from schulich. But what about international applicants?
Does the school provides sufficient support to an international student in getting placed?

3) Can you tell me from your own experience that how are the placements in Banking specifically, like the mean and avg base salary in Canadian Dollars?



Regards,
Arjun

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Hi,

Please try to answer my following queries:

1. If I get a work permit for 1 year, then do I need to return to INDIA after one year or is there any provision wherein my employer can apply for extending my work permit?

2. What type of On-campus jobs are available, Can you provide some example. Also, what is the renumeration rate per hour?
Do you guys work? I mean is it possible to spare time from studies for work.

3. How do you find accomodation. Are you people living On-Campus or Off-Campus. What do you do for food. Is vegetarian food available?

4. How is the job market for graduates who specialize in Marketing, IT Management and Business Consulting.

I know I have loaded you with lots of queries, but I hope you understand my curiosity.

Thanks in advance !

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Hi Nishant,

I am adding one more query to the above set of queries.

-> I found on the CIC website that one can apply for Skilled Labour Work Permit after graduation if one fulfills the following eligibility criteria:

1. should have worked Fulltime (37.5 hrs per week) for atleast a year in Canada.
OR
2. should have completed a fulltime post graduation course (16-24 months) in Canada

So, In our case

1. We wont be having a fulltime work experience of 12 months as we do not have a longer workpermit.
2. Only our degree will be fulltime, but we will study only for 9 months in Toronto. I dont know whether the Canadian govt will consider our course as fulltime or not.

As we wont be able to fullfill these above criteria, we will also not be able to apply for Skilled labour workpermit.

Please comment on this and also correct me if I am wrong.

Regards,
Mudit

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@Arjun
Profile and GMAT
The average GMAT for the current Schulich India MBA batch is 670.
Given a 3 years of experience, acads and 16-years of education till under-grads you do satisfy all criteria for your application being considered. So you should apply. Your application would assessed i totality, and GMAT is jst one of the parameters. Through you essays and resume do elaborate your co-curricular initiatives and any volunteer work that you might have done. Give more attention to initiatives that you took during your workex.

Placements and Opp for International Students
Yes the list is exhaustive. This list also consists of companies where students have interned in the recent past , and also companies which have not come on campus, but do hire students by posting their openings on the Schulich Career Center's website. For example - This year Loblaws posted its positions on Bschools' career portals and is doing a common info session in downtown Toronto. Students do get approached by Schulich Alumni, and Part-time students who're looking for potential candidates in their current organizations.
Support from the School - India MBA students had a one-o-one alignment with Schulich Alumni Mentors both in India and in Toronto. So I have a Schulich alumni in India, and one in Canada working for RBC whom I can reach out to for guidance. By and large in Canada you'll find very few people who can say we "orginally belong to Canada". More than 55% of the current Schulich campus has International Students - represented by students from India, Latin American countries, exchange students from European, East Asian and Indian Bschools, Mexico, China etc. Cognizant of the cultural differences between our home countries and that of Canada, CDC does organize events like "International Student Boot Camps", International Student Orientation Weeks, etc to expose you from Dining etiquettes to networking tips. You'll get more than what you can chew in 24 hours in a day... that's the tough part.. not that whether you'll get it or not :-)
Read my earlier posts on what companies come on campus; for details on recent salaries See the Career Development Center Portal

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@Mudit
Work Permit - Depends on your employer if he's willing to apply for your work permit extension. You complete your courses in April 2012, and will be ready to work beginning May 2012. You'll convocate in June 2012, and your 12 months would be counted from June... so it makes close to 14 months in all.

Campus jobs - I can give you examples - one of my peers is working in the Dean's office into Market Research towards keeping course offerings upto market standards, one is assisting in maintaining the school's website, another one compiles class presentations for Corp Finance for Under-grad courses and editing the prof's new book, one is researching for a new product under another prof, and there are people working in Students Services office assisting the department during peak rush in Fall and Winter. Yes I work too. No - we dont get time - will be honest - I am happy I still manage 3 hours of sleep daily On renumeration .. write to the students services office.

Accommodation - I strongly recommend you to stay on campus - saves you time. Budget for that ,its worth your money. Students do commute daily from diff parts of Toronto, however, I personally feel it would be a challenge during harsh winters. See Housing Portal for more info.

Food - Its a heaven for non-vegetarians, but I am able to maintain my "pure vegetarianism" till now 😃 You will find options on campus - no worries as such. You'd prefer to cook at home if you wish to save money.

@ Job Market - See my posts above, and try to keep abreast with "Globe And Mail " - famous Canadian news site.

Cheers
Nishant

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Thanks a lot Nishant, you are a great help !
Hope to meet you in Toronto:)