Surely IIM Calcutta is the oldest and yet stands out the most from other IIMs. But trust me it has nothing to do with its campus, alumni, education, placement, extracurriculars or any other features. All the IIMs are equally good in all these aspects.

What makes IIM Calcutta different from them?

In reality, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore welcome students only who have been toppers throughout their life. Their academic reports are flawless. Be it their 10th or 12th or Undergraduate. They have never seen failure in their lives. 

But in the case of IIM Calcutta, it has both genius students with flawless reports and people who have great CAT scores but below average undergrad or 10th and 12th scores. IIM Calcutta welcomes a mixed crowd and this is what sets it apart from other IIMs.

At IIM Calcutta, you will find peers who have failed or been to the lowest level once. But they have climbed the ladder of success with determination. Studying alongside people with such qualities makes education much more than just learning your subjects. You grow as a person. You don’t find people here, you find profiles. A manager needs to have these qualities in order to excel.

All the IIMs are great but it’s only IIM Calcutta that welcomes a mixed crowd.

I think IIM Calcutta is not as recognized or talked about as IIMA or IIMB because it did not gain fame from Bollywood. Bollywood movies have been shot at IIMA and IIMB. So they are more talked about than IIMC. It has nothing to do with its own facilities. That being said, some amazing features of IIM Calcutta are

1. Top notch alumni base 

2. Beautiful campus: The campus of IIM Bangalore is not an average one. Its beautiful infrastructure and location give it a surreal ambiance.

3. Amazing Placements: IIM Calcutta is the best for finance placements. Reputed banks like Merrill, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan and Chase, Goldman Sachs prefer students of IIM Calcutta over IIMA and IIMB. For consulting IIM Calcutta has all the top 4 Mckinsey, Bain, BCG and AT Kearney.

So nothing about IIM Calcutta is less than other IIMs. It just lacks the general fame, not the works.

We can compare IIM Ahmedabad to XLRI Jamshedpur on the basis of the following aspects:

• Brand Value: Without any doubt the brand value of IIM Ahmedabad is much more than XLRI.

• Placements: IIM Ahmedabad enjoys a slight improvement in placement opportunities than XLRI

• Alumni: IIM Ahmedabad has amazing alumni like Raghuram Rajan, Chetan Bhagat, Harsha Bhogle, etc and has dominance over top positions in industry. XLRI on the other hand has its own alumni pool that’s known to back XLRI strongly.

• Industry scope: Both the colleges enjoy an excellent industry reach. XLRI first BM batch (2020–22) of Delhi NCR campus completed its placements with an average of around 27 lakhs. This shows their vast industry reach.

• Rankings: If you consider ranking then XLRI is far behind the top IIM Ahmedabad. But in reality it should have ranked 3rd (after IIM A B C).

• Culture: The culture at IIM Ahmedabad is less vibrant than that of XLRI

So it can be said that both XLRI and IIM Ahmedabad offer if not equal but excellent career opportunities.