Friday, June 12, 2009

3rd visit to biz school campuses in Toronto

Today, I made a third visit to the campuses of the business schools in the Toronto area, strolled around the facilities and spoke to some students in the campus to get an idea about business schools.

Here is what I experienced:

Schulich:
Excellent infrastructure. Lots of energy on the campus. Met some exchange students from S.P.Jain Institute of Management from Mumbai, India. Students seemed to be very satisfied with the program.

Ted Rogers:
Not many students visible in the school. Reason being the weekend perhaps? While some students talk about the small classroom size being an advantage, the flipside would be that a student could be missing out on networking opportunities in a small class. It is said that an MBA is as much about networking and making contacts as much as it is about the learning process itself. Also, a small classroom size shall mean smaller range of discussions in the class.

The undergrad students that I met and talked to, spoke about the high quality of professors and visiting speakers to the program. But one thought seemed to lurking in the back of their minds... the very sentence that you see as soon as you step into the ground floor lobby area of the building... a quote of Ted Rogers, upon whose honour the school is named "the best is yet to come". While the sentence has the word "best", there is also another word "yet" in there. But give it some time and it should do well. Given the fact that Ryerson biz school has just stepped onto the growth curve, let's hope that it shall make it all the way to the top of the sine curve someday in the future! I wish the Ted Rogers School well. They are trying to help the student community by offering 18 scholarships worth $20,000 each. I respect their spirit and enthusiasm.

Rotman:
I am at a loss of words to describe my happiness on visiting this campus today. Around noon, the weather was lovely and there was a gathering of MBA students for a lunch meeting in the main hall on the ground floor, with the guys dressed in dark suits and the gals dressed in formal business wear. There were about 200 students inside the hall and about 50 spilling outside with their lunch plates... Everyone seemed so smart, so confident and so happy.

Dress code is a very important aspect of being in the management and it was on full display today. Discussions with some students revealed to me that the students were very proud and satisfied to be studying there and were very excited about their future. However, they mentioned that the work load is pretty high and it is necessary to work very hard during the course.

It should be an honour for anyone to be able to study in this great institution!

After I returned home, I got the feeling that I should choose between Rotman and Schulich. Even though these programs are expensive, they should be good investments in the long run. And once again, you spend your time, money and energy for 2 years, but you shall reap the rewards not only for your lifetime, but for generations to come. Even your kids and grand kids shall be proud of you for having graduated from an reputed School / University!

No comments:

Post a Comment