Bad Grades from a Top MBA Program: How Much it Affects Your Career?

It’s not easy to get into the top business schools in India or abroad. However, even if you do accomplish that feat, you need to study hard so that you can get good grades. After all, you don’t want to get bad grades lest it should ruin your career, right? Well, the truth is that having bad grades from a good business school isn’t as bad as you think.

If we talk about average MBA programs, then there are usually a lot of students enrolled in the same. Thus, when recruiters visit the campus for placement, then they often pay a lot of attention to the grades of the students to make the selection process easier and screen the candidates faster.  However, that’s not the same with the reputed b-schools.

For instance, it’s not easy to get into an IIM in India. Only the highly meritorious students are capable of securing good ranks in the ambitious Common Admission Test (CAT). Plus, there are limited seats in the IIM campuses. So, when the interviewers from the top corporates show up for talent recruitment, they take many factors into consideration apart from the grades alone. The following are some of the things they might look into:

• Extracurricular activities you have participated in
• Any top management events that you have won
• Your choice for summer internship and experience
• General awareness about the industry you are interested in

There is one more thing that’s quite interesting. There are many business schools that have non-disclosure policies for your grades. What it means is that your recruiters won’t ask you for your grades if you did an MBA from such an institute. This system was set up to encourage more and more students to apply for MBA programs without worrying about their academic performance. So, that’s another advantage you get even if you scored poorly.

In the end, what matters is how much knowledge you have about running a business, and how good you are at making decisions on the spot. Your industry experience and achievements can say a lot about your acumen than grades. So, even if you fail to get good grades, you can look forward to a bright career still. Good luck!

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