How the fab 5 made it to IIMA

Prashant Patel
Resident of Nikoli village, Rajpipla district, Prashant Patel, is most probably the first from his region to have made it to IIMA. "A teacher's job is the most that one aims for in my village and, therefore, my achievement has brought celebrations to the village," an ecstatic Patel said. His eyes set on IIMA, Patel ensured he gave his 100% while preparing for its entrance exam.

"My schooling has been in Gujarati medium and hence my first aim was to master English. Thankfully, reading was my hobby and I extended this to English novels," he said. Every Sunday, Patel spent four hours travelling to-and-fro from Vadodara to his hostel in Vidyanagar, for his CAT preparation classes. A farmer's son, Patel found help and support in his friends and faculty. He scored 99.68 percentile in CAT. He is appearing for his final exams of BPharm from ARCP institute.

Sunil Chhipa
Sunil Chhipa is to appear for his BSc final exams from BA College of Agriculture. He lost his father when he was hardly five. Yet, he never felt lack of support thanks to his mother and brother.

"I hail from a small village called Baneda in Bilawara district of Rajasthan and study in Anand. My brother always talked about studying at IIMA, but I forgot about it until I reached my second year of graduation. That is when I started preparing for the entrance," he said.

During his second year, he saw his seniors preparing for CAT and that is how he joined coaching classes. However, since he had studied in Hindi medium, Chhipa had to toil harder. "I started my English language studies from second year BSc. I would devote around two hours a day on grammar and then moved to words. To polish my proficiency, I would use English to communicate with friends and faculty," Chhipa explained. He scored 94 percentile in CAT and paid for his coaching fees through scholarships that he received as a student.

Rushiraj Patel
Rushiraj Patel is visiting the Siddhivinayak temple, Mumbai, to offer prayers for having secured admission in IIMA, thus becoming the first from his family to be doing a post-grad course. "My father is a double graduate while my mom is a graduate. With their support, I am the first from my family to become a post-graduate," said Patel. Explaining how IIMA became his dream institute, he said, "My routes to school and college always had IIMA on them, hence I aspired to gain entry into the institute. As my seniors and friends got into the finest B-schools of India, the yearning turned into a passion.

With merely a crash course as preparation, I secured a 98.3 percentile score and have secured admission." As for his long-term plans, Patel intends to set up his own pharmaceutical business with the skills and knowledge that he would gain at IIMA. He is a BPharm from LM Pharmacy College and is an Amdavadi.

Ankit Tulsian
A BCom student of DRB College, Ankit Tulsian had, like many other CAT aspirants, IIMA as his target. The success story from Surat said that, "Unlike other students, I merely had eight to nine months as preparation time, as I joined CAT classes towards the end of second year.

However, I cracked it with 99.91 percentile and made it through to the brick-walled institute." The son of a textiles businessman and housewife mother, Tulsian does not have any big plans as he enters IIMA. "I just want to go with the flow and enjoy each moment.

I know for sure that, of the two lakh students who appear for CAT aiming to study in IIMs, only a few  make it and I am proud to be part of that group," he said. Tulsian eagerly awaits insights and knowledge from IIMA faculty and seniors in order to become a thorough professional.

Devangi Makwana
Student of BTech from Nirma University, Devangi Makwana was slightly apprehensive about how she would fare in the first year of IIMA's course. "It is going to be like a training period in which I will be interacting with faculty and students from across the country," she said. "I see myself as entering a phase that is going to change my future in a positive direction, not a phase of ease and comfort," she added. Scoring 97.9 percentile in CAT, Makwana always aspired to be a student of IIMA. She said that, "It was a dream to be part of IIMA. I have been planning my studies and future accordingly.

I started preparing for CAT around one-and-a-half years ago from Endeavor and was rigorously trained in written, online and personal interview tests." Makwana's sibling is in CEPT, father has a retail outlet and mother is a homemaker.