How does a good MBA add value to a candidate?
MBAUniverse.com Bureau

Management experts opine that a good MBA equips candidates with adequate skills to face the challenges of a corporate career. IIM Ahmedabad graduate Santosh Desai, who's now CEO, Future Brands, says, "The wonderful thing about the MBA is that one will not just be the manager, but also a creator. I think the most important future challenge would be how you are going to transcend the act of managers. In management school, you are given the freedom to think and to face the challenges. It will be new because all the things are in you but nothing compels you to think independently as does the good MBA program."

So, the MBA is not just a degree: much more in fact. It helps you find yourself and the capability within.

According to Dr S P Parashar, Director, IIM Indore, "Management education is critical for the development of a country. If you look around at the CEOs across the country they are all the alumni of these great Indian schools. Many academic leaders in top-tier management schools in India are themselves from IIMs."

But some experts believe that the value addition at an MBA program largely depends on the candidate himself. Dr Ratnam says, "Many students go through the same education but the outcomes are different. You and I may get admission into the same B-school for the same course, but the outcome for both of us will not be the same. A candidate's mental makeup makes a lot of difference in what he or she is able to extract." As a first step to get the MBA degree, you will first have to get admission. For that you have to clear entrance tests like Common Admission Test (CAT) or Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) or Management Aptitude Test (MAT) or half a dozen other similar exams. The toughest and all-important of them all is, of course, CAT that is held in the second week of November; the other exams follow.

MBA is also an expensive affair in terms of time and money investment. Institutes have their own fees structure and most have increased the fee for academic year starting 2007. In case of the IIMs, the two-year Post Graduate Program will cost you a few lakhs. IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow and IIM Indore charge annual fees (for their two-year post-graduate program) to the tune of Rs. 2 lakh, Rs.2.5 lakh, Rs. 2 lakh, Rs.2 lakh and Rs.1.90 respectively. IIM Kozhikode charges Rs.1.90 lakh for the first year and Rs. 1.95 lakh for the second year. Other management institutes like the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Ghaziabad, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune, charge around Rs.1.88 lakh, Rs.1.75 lakh and Rs. 1.70 lakh respectively. Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon is charging Rs 1.95 lakh for the first year and Rs. 2.10 lakh for the second year and S.P. Jain Institute of Mgmt & Research (SPJIMR) Mumbai will charge Rs. 3.5 lakh for its two-year Post Graduate Program.

The good news is that banks are willing to offer credit for your education. Recently, for instance, most large commercial banks increased their educational loan portfolio (although the quantum and term of loans vary from bank to bank). Currently, they lend up to Rs 10 lakh for studies in India and up to Rs 20 lakh for studying abroad.
The loans typically cover:

• Tuition fee payable to college/school,
• Examination/library/hostel charges,
• Travel expenses,
• Purchase of books/equipment/uniform, and even a two-wheeler.

Repayment is in the form of equated monthly Installments (EMIs) and the first payment generally commences one year after the course or six months after securing the job. Let's now look at the MBA program in more detail.