Come Sunday March 14, India’s brightest minds will get ready to cross the last hurdle to make it to coveted B-schools. IIM Ahmedabad is the first one amongst the IIMs to kick off the ‘personal assessment round’ from this Sunday. Other IIMs, IIM Calcutta and Lucknow will follow suit and GDPI rounds will be held from mid March to April end. While IIM Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Lucknow and Shillong have already decided their dates, IIM Bangalore, Indore and Kozhikode are yet to finalize the dates. MBAUniverse.com spoke to representatives of IIMs, and scores of students who will be sweating it out to cross the final hurdle.                

While the personal interview is common in all the institutes, IIM Bangalore has substituted the GD process with Essay Writing. IIM Ahmedabad and Lucknow are also having essay writing and written ability test rounds.

Talking to MBAUniverse.com, representative from IIM C, Samyukktha Thirumeni said, “IIM Calcutta will hold the GD & PI rounds for one entire week, starting from Monday, March 22 to Sunday, March 28, 2010.”

 “I have received calls from such premiere institutes like IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow. Though I have not received the date from IIM Bangalore yet but I am getting ready to make my mark in all these places,” said 100 percentiler Ankit Garg, a student of PEC Chandigarh. Another CAT topper, Karanvir Singh, a final year student of IIT Roorkee, who got 99.97 percentile said, “I am about to face a series of GD & PI rounds in the top B Schools which is going to start from this Sunday, March 14 with IIM Ahmedabad.”

Let us have a look at the schedules of the top MBA institutes.

IIM Ahmedabad                                                                                                                

The dates for holding the Personal Interview and Essay Writing are Sunday, March 14 to Friday, April 9, 2010.

Ankit Garg, 100 percentiler in CAT 2009, has his call for IIM Ahmedabad on Monday, March 15, 2010. Manu Bajaj and Karanvir Singh, who scored 99.98 and 99.97 percentiles respectively, have got the Day 1 calls on Sunday, March 14, 2010. Anshul Kishore and Anshul Singh of 98.72 and 98.5 percentiles respectively not only share their names but the IIM Ahmedabad PI date also, which is Wednesday, March 17, 2010. Sushant Jhamb of 99.94 percentile has got his IIM Ahmedabad call on Wednesday, March 24, 2010.

IIM Calcutta

IIM Calcutta will hold the GD & PI processes from Monday, March 22 to Sunday, March 28, 2010.

Ankit Garg has been called on Wednesday, March 24, 2010. Karanvir Singh and Manu Bajaj, 99.98 percentiler has received the IIM Calcutta call for Tuesday, March 23, 2010. Like IIM Ahmedabad, both Anshul Kishore and Anshul Singh have been called on the same date by IIM Calcutta, which is Thursday, March 25, 2010.

IIM Lucknow

IIM Lucknow will hold Written Ability Test, GD and PI from Monday, March 22 to Tuesday, April 13, 2010.

Ankit Garg, Anshul Kishore and Anshul Singh’s date for WTA, GD and PI in IIM Lucknow is Tuesday, March 27, 2010.

IIM Shillong

The GD and PI processes in IIM Shillong will be held from Thursday, March25 to Saturday, May 8, 2010.

The cities in which the GD & PI will be held are New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore. Anshul Singh has got call from IIM Shillong on Wednesday, March 31, 2010.

FMS

Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi holds GD, PI and an extempore round for the shortlisted candidates. The procedure will start from Thursday, March 25, 2010 and will continue till the end of March.

Manu Bajaj and Karanvir Singh have received the call from FMS for Sunday, March 28, 2010. Anshul Singh has to appear for the GD & PI rounds on Wednesday, March 31, 2010.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on the GD & PI dates