Now, I haven’t been a student at NMIMS, I’ve tried to join a couple of their courses and this is where I’ve experienced hell. I’d like to share some of my experiences with everyone so they can benefit from them.
Rewind to the year 2001, NMIMS had launched a novel new ’’Diploma in Public Relations’’ by online/distance learning mode. At that time, PR was what I was interested to study and there were very few institutes offering it in Mumbai, so when this course came up at NMIMS I decided to take it up, filled up the form, paid the fees of R.s 15, 000 and waited for the course to start.
I was told that in about a week or 10 days time I would get a login\password which I could access to download the study material. I waited and waited for weeks before I decided to approach the person in charge of the program, a Miss Aarti, she assured me that the program will start soon and that I need not worry.
To make a long story short, I waited a whole 5 months, from May to October for the course to start, I did not even get the login/password that was promised. Repeated requests for a refund were met with the same reply that the course will start eventually.
Ofcourse in the end my father decided to take it up with the principal at NMIMS and narrated this whole story and even he was aghast at what was going on at his institute, he decided to give me the refund of 15, 000. I should thank my lucky stars I got the amount back at all because NMIMS is nothing but a money hungry cheat.
Fastforward to May 2004, this time I decided to apply fo the Executive MBA program launched by NMIMS (Now why would I do something like that after my previous experience?!?!?!) Again, I paid Rs. 1000 for the prospectus, filled up the form and submitted it, I was told I would get a call for GD/PI in about 2 weeks time. Note, NMIMS blatantly lied about the cutoff date for submission of forms for this program. Anyways I got a call about a month and half later than what was expected. NMIMS obviously believes that you have nothing better in life to do and they have the right to play with your life and priorities.
Anyways, so I’m called for the GD/PI on a weekend. We were a group of about 25 people, we were told that only those ppl who score enough in GD will make it to PI and after PI only those who scored max. will get into the prog. Anyways, so the GD was good, presided over by a guy from ’’Atos Origin’’, and I made it to the PI round as well, I think only about 6 ppl from 20 made it.
So, I’m waiting for the interviews to take place, about 4 people are interviewed, when it comes to the last two people, I and another guy, we are called into the interview room and told ’’You both need to be interviewed by someone from industry and not from college, so wait and you will be called for another interview, you’ve both made it to the program but you just need a interview, thats all’’. I left with mixed feelings, such news from NMIMS can never be very good. The program director was a Mr. Rakesh Singh. He made the promise of another interview, but that call never came.
I obviously was dissapointed to find out I didn’t make it to the final list of candidates for this program. I felt I was cheated of an opportunity to interview, that my Rs.1000 was wasted cos of this. I decided to call up this Rakesh Singh to find out why I was abruptly stopped from interviewing etc. Needless to say, Rakesh Singh blatantly lied about what he said that day, he contradicted himself totally, he was absolutely unapologetic about the episode, infact he believed that the selection for the program was ’’transparent and fair’’ and to top it all off he was very rude and slammed the phone on me when he realised that he had no defenses left and it was becoming apparent what a crook he is.
Just a week back, I get a call from NMIMS offering me a place in their distance learning PGDBA program, where they’ve tied up with a co. which offers high speed net access in the classroom, No way I was falling for NMIMS dirty tricks anymore, their courses are over priced, they are not honest in their dealings, every staff member and worker at NMIMS has a arrogant demeanour, they think they’re doing a favour by letting you study their courses, they don’t respect the fact that people pay good money just to receive their prospectus’ let alone the fees!
I would urge anyone who’s contemplating joining NMIMS’s distance learning programmes, the one’s where they invite you to a classroom with a virtual proff., to please please think again. NMIMS has kept these courses as their cash cow, it helps them pay for their faculties fat salaries and maintaining the plush interiors of their campus and nothing else, below their MBA programme they don’t give a damn about the quality or the functioning of their courses, if they did they would overtake many IIM’s, instead NMIMS prefers to use their brand name and value to cheat innocent people and take their money to fund their operations.
It’s just very sad commentary on what is supposed to be one of the best colleges in the country, in reality they are no better than the money sucking computer classes out there.