The students of IIMs are extending their hands to help all IIM GD-PI call getters. The students have launched the mentorship programme in this context. One of the unstated objectives is to ensure that they get competent juniors as themselves and ultimately form a common thinking bunch.

After IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Calcutta the students of IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Shillong have announced the launch of the mentorship programme. To help the MBA aspirants who have been short listed by the IIMs, the students have taken the initiative to help them to solve their problems and to give them the sneak preview of the B-School, give them an idea on what to expect during the GD, PI and Essay Writing rounds.

IIM Ahmedabad
The initiative taken by IIM Ahmedabad is called ‘Ask the students’. This initiative was conceptualized by the IIM Ahmedabad students last year and is being continued for this year too. The students have created the web portal www.askthestudents.org.

In this web portal the aspirants can put their queries and take part in the discussions going on in the web portal and get many of their questions answered from the B-school’s current students. “Students can now mail queries at ‘askthestudents@iimahd.ernet.in’ and the students shall respond to the frequently asked queries on this blog. The more personal queries will be replied to the candidates personally,” said Glen D’silva, Media Secretary, IIM Ahmedabad.

The mentorship program for IIM Ahmedabad would be coordinated by the first year students Parampreet Singh Bhasin, Pratik Mukherjee, Rahul Madhavan, Rohit Gupta, Raghul Manoharan and Nishanth Parlapalli. For PGP Agri Business Management, Abhinav Bhalla would be the coordinator.

Talking about the portal, Parampreet Singh Bhasin said, “While the same portal was used last year, this time the students intend to come up with an FAQ document as well. It would be prepared based on the common queries received over the last few years.”   
 
Glen mentions that the common queries are on the essay and interview processes, steps to be taken in case of interview date clashes, submission of documents, or about life in IIM Ahmedabad. “We had started this system for the first time last year and the responses from the candidates were really encouraging. We are happy that the PGP1 students have taken up this initiative this year as well and we hope more and more candidates will benefit from this,” Glen stated. “The students would also invite suggestions/feedback from the aspirants to facilitate a smooth mentorship process,” he added.

IIM Shillong
IIM Shillong students have also taken the initiative to help the aspirants prepare for the next round of the admission processes. The mentorship program of IIM Shillong is named as Synapse 2011. The IIM Shillong call getters can register and write to the students at http://synapse.iimshillong.in/ andmentor.iims@gmail.com or pgpmentors@iimshillong.in.
This is the third time that IIM Shillong is taking such an initiative after experiencing success in the previous years.

IIM Shillong students Sakshi Prashar and Vishal Goel say that the program will be conducted in two steps. Stage 1 will be for candidates shortlisted for the next stage of selection, Stage 2, is for those who convert the call.

The aspirants will get help from the students in form of the preparation material created by the students themselves. “It will also act as a platform where all the call-getters can come together and share their ideas and communicate with each other. In Stage 2, all those who convert the call and plan to join the institute will be provided help,” the IIM Shillong students mention.

This year, all the admission processes will take place online. “The interview form this year is to be submitted online and even in interview process, no paper will be required,” IIM Shillong informs.

IIM Shillong students hope that like last year this year too Synapse will be a great success and it will help candidates in all possible ways.