Hi all, I was witness to a classical debate when the final admission list for most prestigious MBA colleges within the country was announced and was well covered in almost all the leaing dailies ( Ref- http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/male-engg-students-monopolise-b-school-admissions/395190/)

 The trend clearly showed the dominance of the Engineers and there was also a gender skew with male students beating the fairer sex for a change( Girls have been beating boys in CBSE XII exams for last twelve years- Ref http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/CBSE-Class-XII-results-Girls-outshine-boys-for-12th-time/articleshow/5960327.cms).

 The debate vered around whether the admission process is a comprehensive one or not, or rather it is too dependent on the age old format, and not considering the non-academic aspects of students. Or are the premier institutes also becoming the den of certain stereotypes, with complete disregard to students with other skill sets. Another question which popped up was that do these colleges look at the personality fitment of students in a rigorous manner? Or the future of the entrants hangs primarily upon the 2-3 hour window in which they take the test.. Another key point raised was as what is the percentage success rate of Enginners compared to other stream students? And also, talking within that cut-off percentile range, what is the percentage of engineers compared to the entire set? Then, there is always a discussion about meritocracy versus democracy. In former, the brain rules, while in the second, by the design itself, there is something for every one.

Coming to foreign universities, who typically look into more aspects for selecting a candidate, the B-School crowd is as diverse as possible. Chances of you rubbing shoulders with senior BBC editor, or a business tycoon heir or may be a NGO volunteer as well are much higher compared to Indian colleges. But a recent book PRICE OF ADMISSION by Wall Street Journal deputy Bureau chief Golden threatens to tarnish this repute to a great extent. (http://www.amazon.com/Price-Admission-Americas-Colleges-Outside/dp/1400097975/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276075009&sr=8-1) .  The book dwells on the endowment leagcy of colleges, and tries to reveal how some of them have been using/misusing the same for wealthy families . A hard hitting one, the book even names the colleges and in some cases, name of beneficiary students as well.

So, which of the two is better? The forum is open to deliberate and decide

Cheers

N.B. You may follow some of my education blogs at www.careerlaunchersec62.wordpress.com

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