BITSians at India's best B-schools
By Sandhya Krishnan ('99 Information Systems)
Approximately 500 BITSians write the B-school tests every year. While most of these are final year students, the others are those waiting to take a break from corporate life. The number of calls from the top colleges varies every year but many of these calls are converted to final admissions. Most successful students believe being a BITSian has a lot to do with making it through and the reasons don’t just stop with the brand name. It has more to do with the attitude, the adaptability and the personality that a BITSian carries out of Pilani.
Being a BITSian can also have its downsides. There’s a pretty big reputation to live up to. You are automatically deemed to understand all complex mathematical problems and it’s tough to accept that you really don’t. However, of course, it’s not long before everyone forgets which college you are from.
Of course, there are BITSians everywhere - but how many exactly?
 IIM-A has five in the first year batch and seven in the second year. The second year batch has a good mix, BITSians who graduated in different years. All the first year BITSians at IIM A are from the batch of 2000.
At IIM B, BITSians are all over the place. There are 21 BITSians in the first year- from the batches of 1996-2005. IIM C has four BITSians in the first
year and only one in the second year.
The number of BITSians at XLRI seems to be growing steadily. From none in 2003, there were two in 2004 and this year there are four, one from 97 batch, two each from the 99 and 2000 batches and one from the 2001 batch. It can be odd when your junior at BITS is your senior here!
ISB also is attracting a lot of BITSian talent lately. This year, its one-year PG programme has ten from the desert. It is possibly the only top b-school to have married BITSians in class.
So what really is the transition to a b-school student like?
One major issue every BITSian faces is the attendance. From a life of late mornings (who attended those common hours anyway?), sleepy afternoons and zero percent attendance, B-school life is a rude wake-up call. According to this author the 90 minute long classes were the most difficult to digest- even worse than the late night ones. Life at Pilani has sure spoilt us rotten.
BITSians don’t really hang out together in these schools. For one, most don’t have the time. Another reason is we are a breed of people who easily gel in with other groups of people – so we don’t really see the need of hanging out together.
“Some of them I dont see them for days. It’s a tough place and offers people no time for such gatherings” says Kartik Laxman, PGDBM Batch of 2007 at IIM A. But, of course, there are always the few moments when everyone just comes together for a few minutes of Pilani ‘psenti’. At a recently held XL-IIMC meet in Kolkota, BITSians who had never met at Pilani warmed up to reminisce days from college. While the background reverberated with slogans against each other’s B-schools, BITS laccha happened with full gusto.
The hectic life maybe another issue that can be a little difficult to take. In one term of three months we do the amount of work which is done in two years at BITS. Projects, case studies, assignments, and submission keep us perennially running from the group to the professor to the printer and all the way back. At ISB things only get worse- the whole two year course being compressed to one. ‘But then we party hard too – with professional DJs and a lot of booze!’ says Raghini Rajaram (PGP Batch of 2006 at ISB). At XLRI too partying is taken very seriously. Called ‘wet nites’, they happen the night before every national holiday and last till 6 am. In that aspect XLRI among IIMs is a lot like BITS among IITs.
BITSians also tend to participate a lot in non-academic activities. There is usually atleast one BITSian who holds a significant post in most of these schools.. They pass on games of purely BITSian culture like ‘Beg, Borrow, Steal’ and are often found at the helm of organizing events. At times even the sacred BITSian lingo is passed along packaged with the Pilani culture.
The quizzing scenes at ISB and XLRI are dominated by Ramkrishnan (Batch of 2006- PGP) and Lalith Krishnan (Batch of 2006- PGDBM and BOB 2002) respectively. We seem to lead the pack in theatre too. At XLRI, three ex-EDC members are planning to do a play they acted in while at Pilani.
Other hard-hitting realities
The mess food at B-schools is much better say some while the others still swear by Sharma’s,
Nagarji’s and Sunday special grubs. Hardly anyone has seen the breakfast table at their B-schools and the most missed dishes seem to be kela rabdi and dahi vada.
The B-schools have relatively less number of students. While the IIMs have about 400 in each batch, XLRI has just 180. As a result of the various group projects and team presentations, there is a lot of interaction among the students in each batch. On a lighter vein – according to the BITSian guys at ISB, the girls are better looking there than at BITS. A view shared by men at XLRI too. “The choice is much better here though the numbers are small – maybe it’s the more equal distribution” smiles Sandeep (Batch of 2007 –PGDBM). Some others beg to differ. “Only in IIMC did I realized the value of BITS girls” says Gaurav Shah (Batch of 2003 PGDBM) with a distinct sigh. The BITSian women at these schools don’t seem to have an opinion on this topic but I’m told that they keep a good distance from the BITSian men whenever possible!.
The big question at the  end of the article – would these MBA grads prefer to call themselves BITSians first or by the names of these prestigious B-schools? Some paused and thought for seconds, some gave confused smiles and some rolled their eyes and looked at the ceiling. Then, after a few seconds, they all came up with the same answer- you can take someone out of Pilani but you cant take Pilani out of them.
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