University of Michigan - Ross school of business

sm, Ross definitely has a good brand name in India. The brand value within a region is usually driven by the amount of alumni present in that region. Ross has a reasonable number of alumni living in India, but that number is significantly less than the number of people from IIMs, and to a lesser extent ISB. If you are strongly focused on a career in India, the IIMs are better value for money than almost any other foreign B-school.

But, taking the Indian schools out of the equation, Ross does have big footprint in India relative to other elite schools. Apart from the alumni community, there are a couple of factors that contribute to this.

MAP : MAP, as you probably know by now, is the cornerstone of the Ross MBA education. It is a mini-internship of sorts done by student teams just before their summer internships at the end of 1st year. Many of Ross's MAP partners are India's most recognizable brand names; both domestic and foreign. Some names that come to mind immediately are TVS Motors, Infosys, Microsoft India, Johnson & Johnson, Lehman Brothers - Investment Banking, Sundaram Group, Arvind Eye Care, and HLL. As you can see, this list cuts across a broad spectrum of industries. During the MAP project, students work with senior management in all these companies and ultimately make recommendations that are then implemented by the company. For instance, 1 of my contacts at Ross worked on developing a market entry strategy for Infosys in the Asia Pacific. The MAP projects are generally very successful and as a result senior management/HR in these companies know that Ross MBAs are some of the brightest in the world. So, if you knock on their door, assuming you also do the ground work, I am pretty sure you will be given a chance to atleast interview.

Professors - Ross has an amazing strategy department. More importantly, many of the leading professors there are from India. People like CK Prahlad, Gautam Ahuja and the rest are sought after by India's leading companies for consulting purposes. So, if you studied strategy at Ross, companies in India will know that you were taught by some of the best faculty in that field. This again provides another hook for you when you network.

So, I would say that Ross MBA does provide you enough leverage to land the best jobs in India. Whether you can do it or not will totally be upto you. The opportunities will definitely be there.



This is a toughie. For any school, the farther you go away from the region in which it is based, the lesser the impact of the school's career management group. So, it means you as a student will need to do more on your own. As I said before, MAP is a fantastic opportunity. If your target company is on the MAP list, you can bid heavily on it and land that project. Once you land the project, network like crazy while in India and try to land an internship. If you land the internship, then it is just a matter of winning people over by demonstrating that you will be a valuable addition to the company.

In summary, if you want to work in India and you know that is what you want to do, go to the IIMs. Even ISB is a newer brand and doesnt have as many alumni in senior management positions as the IIMs do. But, if you want to go to a school that provides a strong brand value all over the world including India, Ross is better than most of its peer schools in the US. You can't go wrong by deciding to come to Ross.