One of the first things about XLRI is the kind of all round development an XLer gets during his stay.Not a lot of IIM graduates would have interacted with their batchmates or their seniors/juniors, like the XLers do.
XLers develop softer skills because of the kind of interaction & dependence that people have on each other, this being the closest replica of industry experience where a lot depends on the capacity to get things done by others.
The group activity goes on to a level that every activity (academic / non - academic) is a group activity. An association for every activity, be it Sports, dramatics, library or the routinue functional committees, the association gives enough reasons for displaying initiative throughout the 2 years. Also because of the number of committees, one can hardly miss the kind of trade offs people do between academics and extra curiculars.
The impact of tradeoff is the decreasing focus on academics with the students and the institute at large found wanting in many a areas of intellectual capital. It is not that there is a defiecency of intellectual capital, but a lack of application of the knowledge present for continous improvement in the way knowledge is imparted in the various courses.
The institute is the best in the area of HR&IR and is also quite renowned in the industry for the marketing faculty. A lot of XLers have also shown their competence in the area of finance and Systems, but the overall course learning in these areas do not match with the best of the IIMs.
Highly Recommended for people looking at developing their overall skills. All round activity can be the other alternative to focus on academics in XL, though focus is definetely required on what a person requires from the course.
I still believe that on a holistic perspective, Xlers are ranked along with the cream of the IIMs and this shall stay for atleast the near future