The IIMs are in a transition phase from being an engineering college ( oops..the fact that almost 92 percent of the intake are engineers say so) to global MBA college. Coming up with 'glitch full' and some 'weird normalization' of online scores is giant leap in this direction. But even a small step to change does come with such issues ( but only problem in this case is that it came at the cost of 2.41 lac of IIM aspirants minus the ones who got atleast one call....oh..that's negligible compared to India's population). Making the entrance test online (at the mercy of Prometric) has made it 'Global' as aspirants from abroad can also appear for the test.. (wow thats 'cool' .. Indian Education system coming at par with Global standards)
Let's not get into the intricacy of the way the entrance exams has been conducted this year and raise eyebrows. Rather, let's focus on the big picture i.e the changes and impact of the surprised cutoff criteria, increased weightage to Xth ,XIIth and work-ex have brought this year. Definitely, unlike other reputed MBA 'Factories' ( producing MBA grads) outside India having mix of students from various backgrounds, Indian "Factories" are dominated by 'engineering illiterates' ( may be that's why most of them directly joined MBA college after completing their engineering). When an engineer directly joins an MBA after completing his/her degree, how would he/she justify his/her contemporary engineering aspirants who might not have got as good a college or might even not got an engineering seat. I know there are still engineering colleges where the placement is not good and some students might not get placed and end up going to an MBA college.(But the question is whether they would have contributed to engineering field). Bringing work-ex as a selection criteria will surely close this loop hole in the education system.
Increasing the weightage in Xth and XIIth is just another measure is get hold of the students who are consistent through out their life. But there are states where its difficult to score high marks in these board exams. For this , IIMs are following some 'sensible' normalization process ( I guess so !!) to bring all boards at par.
Getting hold of more undergrads from other field will still be a challenge for IIMs as engineering grads will keep appearing and getting through the selection process ( though with work-ex atleast) whatsoever be the criteria. It might so happen in future that IIMs might start shortlisting students on the basis of fields (like technology,medical,journalism,art,etc) of work-ex rather than 'just' work-ex in their attempt to become a global college and meet the standards set by some of the best business schools in the world.
But one thing is for sure.. IIMs have become more 'unpredictable' than before and thereby reaching to higher standard of "Uncertainty for Aspirants" .
