The selection procedure consisted of three stages:

Stage 1 : Essay Writing

The word limit for essay was 300 words and duration was 20 minutes.

Stage 2 : Group Discussions

Stage 3 : PI

Sample Essay Topics:

1. Participation of women in politics
2. Rolling stones gather no moss
3. Honesty and integrity are mere buzzwords today
4. Learn to unlearn

Group Discussion:

In certain cases the moderators announced before the start of the GD that they will disqualify the entire group if the GD turned into a fish market.

Most of the topics given were general in nature. The number of moderators in all the GDs was between 2-3. 3-5 minutes were provided to students to think on the topic and then they were asked to start the discussion. Initially the moderators gave the students one minute to speak on the topic individually. After that the real discussion started which went on for about 30 minutes. The sitting pattern was either semi-circular or square.

GD Topics:

1. Should India host Olympics or not?
2. Age is just a number
3. Indians are as racist as any other society we talk of.
4. India – Scamster’s Happy Hunting Ground.

Interview Feedback:

          For some students the same panel conducted both GD and PI. One of our students reported that the    number of panelists was 3. The PIs generally lasted 10 – 15 min. Most of the students were questioned on Academics. Since IIFT is a specialized institute, students regardless of their academic background were also asked questions on foreign trade.

Sample PI questions:

1. Introduce yourself.
2. Why do you want to do MBA in International Business?
3. Tell us about five recent happening in International business.
4. What are the headlines of today’s newspaper?
5. What is the present GDP growth rate of India?
6. What is your future plans and how does MBA from IIFT fit in this?
7. What is the capital of Malaysia?
8. Tell me your 3 weaknesses and what are you doing to overcome them.
9. Define Quality.
10. Do you think government is wasting money on producing engineers when so many of them are opting for MBA?
11. Sell us a pen.
12. Questions on disinvestments.
13. What is e commerce?
14. Who is the IT minister of India?
15. Questions on computer networks etc.