How is the IIM Kozhikode BMS program?

Read with patience. I wrote this to inform y’all and wrote it exactly how I wanted my curiosity to be addressed about what was happening in Ranchi, Rohtak, and Indore last year.

Some context: I’m Pratham, and I got the full tuition fee scholarship for the first year awarded to the top 5 boys and the top 5 girls. Here’s my LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/prathamhanda

So, I’ll divide my answer into 3 parts — padhai, log/life/maze, and the issues. Once we get to the issues, you can decide for yourself whether the cons are really cons for you or not.

Padhai: top notch. The course is fabulous in the sense of the subjects that are taught to us and how they’re structured. The courses in the first semester are:

a) Poetry and Literature (introductory works of Shakespeare, important poetry, and 2 novellas). It’s nice to study these works which are very fundamental to human civilisation and the English language, and I personally like the course due to the fact that literature genuinely builds character and awards you with the ability to genuinely critically analyse stuff. Our final group project is to write an intuitively complete research paper on a topic of our choosing. The course has been interesting so far.

b) Fundamentals of Economic Analysis (Prof. Vipin taught this course and he is one of the smartest/the most well-read people I have met in my life). The open-book mid-term exam has been glazed enough on LinkedIn because it had only 2 questions — the question paper is attached below hehe. Idk if I can attach the outline here or not, but the structure is incredible and Prof. Vipin got 3 other professors from all over the country to teach us for 2 weeks each. He taught how education was initially meant to be transferred. This course might be life-changing for some of you guys. Also, he once mentioned that IITM and IIMK are the least rated institutions he has taught at bwahahahaha.

c) Business Management. Professors are thik thik and the course is too general to be enjoyable, but the projects are very cool. We were given a business simulation game in which we had to turn a profit by tweaking real-world variables. Our final group project was to make a dense report on business along with a video about the project (a group took AfterBoards and Bhavesh Bhaiya). We were also taken to a dairy factory (PDDP) and Vagamon (a hill station in Kerala) for rural immersion.

d) Sociology and Anthropology. Sweetest professor ever. She recently came back from a conference in Germany. She allows a lot of healthy debate in class + she tries to cultivate genuine values among the students — effectiveness ka kuchh nahi keh sakta, but she has had a positive impact on me. I didn’t see much direct value when I started off with the course, but while I was coming back from Delhi, I sat next to a sociology prof on my flight and I realised that I am fully equipped to carry out an intelligent conversation with any social scientist. I have also started to look at the world differently. Our assignments included: a photo journal (journalling sociological phenomenon we see daily), gender diary (journalling the unsaid impact of gender), research paper (we chose the TV show “You are not the father” to study the transcripts and deduce how people show emotions on public platforms), and a shit ton of assignments on movies and documentaries and Marxist influence on real world businesses. Gender diary ka example (AI hai but please bear with it, it has fun stories about the boys hostel): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zZQ8VBOydKwNWEKViPW0B10VKH9Zuw6Hdz3nC-9eti0/edit?usp=sharing

e) Introduction to Accounting and Finance. Ye maine padhi nahi, but I feel like the professor works really hard with worksheets and doubt sessions. Maybe end sems ke liye padhunga to I will be able to give a better description. Should’ve studied after the amount of effort she puts in the subject. Sad. Will lock in aaj se.

f) Computation and Programming + Yoga and Pranayama. 2 credit courses hai ye. CP mein we were taught AI tools, thodi si Python, a few tools, and Yoga is, well, yoga.

Log/life/maze: the people here are smart (and surprisingly rich). 2000 FIDE rated chess players, an international badminton player, JEE rankers who didn’t want to get into engineering, 1540 SAT scorers, and my friend and I had been active in the blockchain community for the past 2 years and we discovered each other here (he dropped out of IIT Madras btw lmao).

This is the part where things start to get thoda bad. Life here isn’t very integrated and stuff. The hostels are quite far away and the timings are very, very weird so we can’t really sit and chill. However, I think this issue is just starting to get solved since my friend and I are coming up with a game theory, chess, and poker club called STACK (Strategic Theory Applied in Competition Klub) which might allow us enough time to chill and talk to each other. Also, since the batch is v small, everybody is very cohesive and we get together whenever shit hits the fan. I personally believe that the issue will be solved partially by the time you guys come since things have just recently started moving in terms of a college life.

We are going to the inter-IPM sports fest at IIMI, Echoes fest at the mother campus, 21 of us went to the agent-based modelling workshop that was held at the main campus (look the topic up, you might learn something new if you are familiar with Python), three of the girls here came 4th nationally at IIT Madras yesterday, everybody is doing some case comp or the other, we are coming up with clubs and societies, and the management is very supportive filhaal.

We have had a lot of alumni interactions since they are trying to work on us. Some were: Ronald Philip — Harvard Public Policy, McKinsey (direct interaction) (Board of Governors); Suveer Sinha — KKR Managing Director (Private Equity Big 3); Hiren Dasani — Goldman Sachs Global Equity Head. These are people who are trying to help and because of the small batch size you can directly interact with these people.

Maze ke liye, we live in Kochi which is a fairly metro city. Nice cafes, Biennale Kochi is happening (look it up), but majorly itna time nahi hota since the college keeps bombarding you with shit to do. Girls’ hostel ka idea nahi, but the boys’ hostel is incredibly fun. Probably the only thing that is stopping me from studying hard IS the boys’ hostel — birthdays are insane, timepass ke bhot avenues hai, and if someone is interested in seeing what happens there, text me on LinkedIn and I’ll share photos and videos. Also, we are starting with the PR stuff and Instagram pe reels so you’ll be seeing what happens in the hostels soon. Here’s a very basic si sneak peek of the hostel as of now: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9JNQZ7rjAhB4EQZv7

Issues — masala time. Dekho, not having a real campus is problematic but something is in the works (that’s what they say). Also, by what I see here, there isn’t enough space to teach 200 students here, so something will definitely take shape when you come here kyuki they basically have to. All in all, come here for great education, smart seniors, making money, and getting better, but not for a huge campus.

Sports: sports hume khud se arrange karna padhta hai, but this got solved due to the inter-IPM fest and Raksha (the international badminton player) talking it out with the management.

Hostels are far away from each other, so clubs, group projects, and case comps are difficult to navigate. I don’t think ye solve hoga unless we shift into the new campus as soon as you come. We try to manage (silver lining ye hai ki we get to explore Kochi when we have to meet at a cafe or something), but it is what it is.

Now, summing everything up: IIM to hai hi so things are nice. People are incredibly smart so, by emergence, good things bubble up. Academics are genuinely solid; it’s not like hum straight up management courses mein jump kar rahe hai — there’s a clear momentum to things. We have marketing next semester and organisational behaviour in the one after that. Life is thodi fragmented mainly because hostels are separate, but since the batch size is small, it’s easy and fun to take initiative and organise cool stuff. And Kochi as a city is amazing: good weather, even better cafes, very college-esque vibes.

even im pretty curious ab this

Hi Prantham. Thankyou for providing such a detailed answer. I am a class 12th Student (PCM). I have two questions for you.

1. I have scored 90% in class 10th and will probably score 90% in 12th also. And I have no eca. So will it be difficult for me to join IIM K??

2. Is it beneficial for someone who wants to entrepreneurship? How much time is available on daily basis if I want to do a AI startup?

3. In website it's mentioned that summer vacation will be from may to aug so is it true??

Btw let's connect on LinkedIn