The simple answer is that the choice of the course depends more or your overall profile than the course itself. Irresponsible of your specialization your chances at placements will be low if your resume is below average. Moreover, institutes like IIM Indore and IIM Lucknow offer joint placements for both programs.
Students can apply to any company irrespective of their specialization. Yet there are many who are able to get into their dream companies while some failed to get a call from a reputed firm. This is because the PGP program just added value to your resume and if that is already poor then even PGP cannot guarantee you a high-paying job.
So if you already have a good resume all you need to do is improve your resume in marketing and operations. This can be done through extra-curricular activities and B-school competitions. For this the PGP-ABM program is perfect.
But if you have a below-average resume, then go for PGP. Because then extracurricular activities alone will not improve your resume. You need class projects and good academic scores to upgrade it. Unlike PGP-ABM, you won’t miss out on basic electives related to marketing/ops/finance.
So nothing is certain about an MBA program. One needs to know what he will be doing after acquiring knowledge to decide which course to take. I will personally suggest you go for IIM Lucknow PGP-ABM if you just want to improve your resume.
My brother was confused about the same. He later decided to go for IIM Kozhikode. Some reasons that helped him take this decision are
Apart from these differences, both IIM Kozhikode and IIM Indore are similar with respect to their status, faculty experience, Alumni network, equality and diversity of students, and foreign exchange opportunities.
The placement statistics of IPM students at IIM Indore students are as follows
Particulars |
Placement Statistics |
Highest CTC |
INR 49 LPA |
Average CTC |
INR 25.1 LPA |
Median CTC |
INR 24.09 LPA |
Total Companies |
200+ |
Total Number of Students |
572 |
Around 80 waitlisted candidates manage to clear on average in IPM IIM Indore. The main reason is that most students consider IPM as another option like engineering. The course is good and not exaggerated.
The curriculum has been updated to remove the courses that were of little importance and focus more on core subjects like Maths, Statistics, and Economics. The IPM program is a relatively new course but has witnessed great improvements in the past few years. Nothing is stopping it from climbing the ladder higher.
Firstly Economics Honours required an in-depth study of Economics whereas the IPM program focuses on the many areas of Management. There is a drastic difference between the nature of both courses. No doubt Economics knowledge is beneficial for the IPM program but is not necessarily important. In IPM, Economics is just a 4 credit course in a term of about 30 credits.
IPM hugely emphasizes Quants over Economics. So if you are more interested in Economics, then IPM is not for you. Your choice should be a good college from DU North Campus. If you manage to get into one then pursuing Economic Honors is a much-preferred option over IPM. Don’t choose a below-average college for Economic Honors. In that case, go for IPM only.
IIM Indore conducts a national level Aptitude Test called IPMAT. The exam duration is 2 hours with 100 total questions.
Quantitative Ability: 60 questions (75 minutes)
Verbal Ability: 40 questions (45 minutes)
Composite score is calculated as follows
QA= 65 * ( candidate’s score - Min Score)/ Max score - min score
VA = 35 * ( candidate’s score - Min Score)/ Max score - min score
Final score = QA score + VA score
If you are shortlisted, you will be called in for the WAT and PI round. The weightage for the complete composite score is as follows
Your composite score is informed only if you are not shortlisted. Otherwise, you won’t get to know your score.
FPM is a Ph.D. research program. There are no placement opportunities for this program at IIM Indore.
They can try and seek a job themselves. But this practice is not encouraged by IIM. This is because it spends around 1-1.5 Cr on each FPM participant. They want them to be true to the field of academics. They don’t want FPM students to be employed by the industry, they can just work with them occasionally.
First of all the paper available on IIM Indore’s site is not a sample paper. It comprises some difficult questions from the last IPMAT paper. So yes, the questions asked are of the same difficulty level. However, some questions may be easier as the available sample paper covers the most difficult questions.
The Aptitude Test is especially challenging for the students from Commerce and Humanities stream. The Mathematical part is very difficult and those who did not opt for Maths after High School will have to prepare extra hard. To have an upper hand one needs to focus on higher Mathematics as well.
I have seen instances where students cleared Symbiosis and NM entrances but lost IPMAT as they couldn't clear the AT cutoff.
Don’t forget to prepare for the other sections as well i.e., Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation, and Logical Reasoning. They carry equal importance.
Honestly speaking, every career is good from a financial perspective provided that you are efficient in your job. You don’t get paid for your qualifications, degrees or certificates. They are just means to acquire the skills. People pay you for your skills and efficiency. They pay you for the quality of work you get delivered.
The reason why IIM or top Business or Law Schools students earn a higher salary than others is because their colleges teach them the skills along the way. They don’t just receive their degree after paying high fees. They earn the degree through struggles and efforts.
Other instances include people who lack higher education yet have strived to become entrepreneurs and stock investors. They are making a lot of money through it. They are being paid for their skills and knowledge for their degrees.
So decide your career solely on the basis of your interests and inclinations. Don’t just aim at a degree or a certificate.
In my opinion, the best course among these is IPM. Some might even think I am a little biased towards this course but in reality once you learn the advantages of this program you will change your mind.
The Programme consists of 15 terms spread over a period of 5 years, with each year having 3 terms of 3 months. The subjects of the initial 3 years focus on the foundation and the last 2 years have core subjects that focus on Management.
Cons :
Still if you are not convinced that IPM is the best alone the courses you mentioned, the order for the other courses is
SSCBS> NMIMS> Christ
The only advantage the other courses have over IPM is that their model is tried and tested and open to lesser risks. Hence the scope is not that much limited.