Feels good to be in IMIM

Hi,

I am a student from India and have joined the latest edition of IMIM in September 2008. I have completed my five year Integrated Master’s Program at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. I graduated in July 2007 with a Bachelors and a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Later I worked as an analyst with Deloitte Consulting in Mumbai for a year.

While planning for higher education I was looking for a course which provided a chance to work with people from all around the globe. With this perspective I started searching for different courses in Europe and finally applied to Erasmus Mundus courses and Grande Ecole in France. After being admitted to different course I chose IMIM as it was my first priority when applying, a decent scholarship provided by EU is definitely a huge plus point. Although there was not much information available online at that time regarding the course I decided to join this and I am happy I made the right decision.

For me IMIM has been a really pleasant experience with fun and studies balanced skillfully. The professors are excellent; colleagues are fun and Madrid ROCKS!!! Before coming to Madrid I was expecting a mix of people from different countries around the globe and that is exactly what we have got in this batch of IMIM. The discussions let them be on any topic are interesting with different views about an issue from Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Sometimes it might cause a paradigm shift about an issue about which previously you have been so sure about.

All of us who are currently in MADRID with IMIM have enjoyed the classes to the fullest. The classes are interactive; with professors keen to make you understand the concepts. The classes consist of practical exercises and not mere theory. The classes are taught with case basis but not just standard cases which are there in HBR or cases mentioned in the books these also include the experiences of the Professors which make it more interesting. Saying that I don’t think I need to comment on the professors who teach us, all I can say is it will be hard to find such a ‘perfect marketing mix to deliver the high rates of return absolutely risk free and with minimal investment’.

About the fun part, You need to be here to witness it, its just amazing how you can find time to go around have fun, help each other in group assignments and the staff at the university make enough efforts to teach you Spanish and make your stay pleasant by assisting you in everything you need. Icing on the cake are the trips organized by the university to places around which make you understand the culture and enjoy the beautiful Spain.

I'm coming

Finally I'm writing something here. ( Don't push me again, I'm not the last)
My name is Guo Feng, come from China. I'm 29 years old now. An old man with plenty of stories. If any young and beautiful lady is really interested in, we can contact with e-mail. :)
About my application, I knew IMIM very late from an online forum, 4 month before the deadline.
However, I am a really honest man, I tried to fulfill all the requirements. Even today, I'm not clear about which conditions does the committee consider the most, but what I know is, during the application period, I talked with some other Chinese candidates, and all of GPA, IBT and GMAT are not in the top level. So I would like to attribute my success to my educational and career background. As you know from the website of IMIM, this program prefers the candidate who has a technological or engineering background and has several years work experience. While I have a bachlor degree in nuclear engineering (maybe too technical) and nearly 5 year work experience in manufacturing companies. And I successfully combined my former experience with my purpose of joining this program in my motivation letter, which I think it's very important. ( You can contact me to have a look, just 5 euros).
Anyway, if somebody wants to get more information, please don't hesitate to contact me. Hope all of you can make it.

Best regards
Feng

My story after 18 months...

It's been 18 months now... even more since I decided to apply to IMIM...

18 months full of experiences...
18 months full of happiness...
18 months full of crazyness...
18 months full of exams...
18 months full of studies...
18 months full of sometimes not so good moments...
18 months full of parties...
18 months full of alcohol...
18 months full of trips...

18 months where I kept calculating the NPV of all my time spent here...
18 months where I learnt a lot of things...
18 months where I spent money like crazy...
18 months where I smelled a lot of glue...
18 months where I slept too much sometimes... or too few others...
18 months where I learnt 2 new languages...
18 months where I met hundreds of new people...
18 months where I got used to say "goodbye"...

18 months full of chaos and party in Madrid... along with its thousands of eramus...
18 months full of rain in Como... along with its hundreds of old people...
18 months full of snow in Stockholm... along with its incredible women...

18 months getting along with 39 strangers...
18 months where those strangers became my friends...
18 months sharing my life with these friends...

18 months that were not enought to live IMIM to the fullest...
18 months that I will never forget...
18 months that are just the fucking best in my life...

And now...
I'm ready to live the last 6 months of this my IMIM story...
6 months where I'll be working as hell...
6 months where I'll be wishing to go back to university...
6 months that will mark the end of my adventure...
but at the same time, the beginning of a "hopefully" brilliant future...

This is my story folks... my story, after 18 months in IMIM.
Cheers,
Alberto Abugaber
IMIM 4th Edition
Viva Mexico cabroneS!!

Why IMIM?

Well, there are many reasons to want to be a part of IMIM, and most of them have to do with the experience and opportunities you get. Today I was in the same class with 26 people from 17 different countries. However, this wasn't very weird for me since this has been my life for the past 4 months. I feel like I am in the UN and not in a masters course sometimes. 17 different nationalities! 17 different lifestyles to learn and to adapt to. Different experiences, different interpretations of every body language movement... These are not only general cultural information. These are preperations for the future so that you don't get shocked by how direct Americans can be once you start to do business with them, or so that you don't get offended by the warmth of the Indians who are willing to be your suppliers.

Let's see what else is there in the program... There are 3 wonderful settings first of all: Madrid, Como - Milano, and Stockholm. Plus, in these cities I am having my education in one of the best universities in Spain, Italy, and Sweden. I will get a diploma from all of them, I will learn (at least to a bit) how to speak the same language as the citizens of each country, and most important of all, I will understand how to work, collaborate, and do business with them. Since this master is a International Master in Industrial Management, I think all the candidates would like to know about how to work with businessmen from these places; and trust me, by taking classes from professors of this quality, it is very probable to learn the working environment and business opportunities in each country.

For the candidates, who would be eligible is also another important issue, because they would want to see who can get in here. Well, although this is a new program I must say that the background of the people are getting better and better every year. I was very happy to hear that I got accepted once I got the news in July (a very late date, I know; patience is a virtue!) In order for you guys to reference yourselves, let me give you some information about my capabilities and what made me get into the program.

I am Turkish, and my name is Cem Gürbağ (funny letters, eh?). Personally when they ask where I am from, I say Turkey, but I cannot put an exact location on the globe for Turkey. It is a clash of cultures, Turkey, really. Part of us is in Europe, part of us is in Asia, and it was actually after seeing the variety of cultures even in my country that I wanted to be in a rich and culturally colorful environment. Anyway, I am a mechatronics engineer, graduated from Sabancı University in Istanbul. My high school was an American private high school, Üsküdar American Academy. I was in the football team in both high school and university and I really learned the basics of groupwork, trust, and motivation in these communities. I was also an exchange students mentor and a peer tutor at my university. I finished some serious projects during my bachelor, the most successful one being designing and implementing a rehabilitation robot for people with injured ankles. I put some effort to my summer vacations and went to France, Bordeaux and Cannes to language schools to learn French. Also after being at a considerable level, I went for an internship for 2 months in Paris, at an engineering company. I have no work experience, but had other internships during the summers in Renault factory in Turkey, and in a Turkish robotics company. My English is pretty good and I got 117 out of 120 in the TOEFL exam. My GMAT score was 630 and I my GPA was below 3/4.

I hope that this information gives you at least some guidelines... But anyway, I hope all those who are interested can apply to the program, and I hope that you can get a class full of diversity, both in terms of backgrounds and nationalities, for this is the main purpose of the program. Good luck to you all!

Finally a word for my Turkish friends/candidates:
İnanın bana Amerika'da herhangi bir üniversitede (mesela top 50 dışındakiler) yapacağınız bir eğitimden çok fazla şey katıyor bu master insana. Dil öğrenmekten tutun dünyanın 4 bir yanından gelen insanlarla anlaşabilmek ve buralardaki insanlarla arkadaş olmak size büyük bir avantaj olabilir ilerde; hem sosyal, hem de profosyonel anlamda. Umarım istediğiniz olur, programa girersiniz. Başarılar,

Cem Gürbağ

Hi, friends

Hi, friends,

Thank you fpr the invitation.

Hope you have a good time in Como. Enjoy the lakes, mountains and nice weather there.

As to the accommodation there, as some of you asked me, if you wanna nice view, look for the room in downtown, if u wanna convenience and good price, take the offer from the agency of POLIMI.

International story

IMIM…International Master of Industrial Management…well, yes it is the name of the programme but in fact that is just one part of the whole international story…

The story for me began few years ago. My name is Milos Jovanovic and I am coming from Serbia from Novi Sad. In my opinion people do not plan things in advance so much in my country but for entering this kind of programme it is a necessity, at least one year in advance. If you want to get a scholarship (who doesn't ? J) you should apply in January in order to begin studying in September same year. Moreover, you need some proofs that you are the right man for the programme so you are free to add few months more on already 9 months of advance for submitting the application. That is why I say few years, deciding to apply for some international master and after that at least one year of working on it.

First and in my opinion very important is certificate of English knowledge. You have two options for solving that problem. Toefl and Ielts, I would suggest you to apply for Ielts certification. That is what I did, you can do it in Belgrade in British council, every six weeks or even more often. After that you will have to write motivation letter, CV, get references from professors or companies which is all not a problem, at least not so time consuming. Now we are coming to the most FAQ, GMAT? Do you need it, of course but there is always but. I did not have it but I was approved for the scholarship and the programme. So, many factors decide if you are going to get scholarship or not, not only one thing. Therefore, do not give up if you are missing something, I mean if you do not know English then really I would suggest you not to apply, but if you do not have GMAT you should try, it is better to have it BUT… When I was applying we did not have GMAT certification in Serbia, nowadays I think we have, anyway It was not so easy to do it and moreover, I finished my master in Electrical engineering-automation in the year 2008 which was additional proof that I know some math J. You need to explain you situation and people here are reasonable. Also about the scholarship, we have one place "guaranteed" as a Balkan window students, that is also important factor, if there is not many people from our region you chance are very high. One more thing, if you got into the programme you will need dichlarazione di valore for Italian faculty, you should take it in Italian culture center, it is free and easy, you can get info in Italian embassy.

When I came to the programme I was 25 years old. I have Msc in automation, Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, over 85% average. Along the studies I was very active in Student organizations, vice chair in EESTEC-student exchange organization for Electrical engineering students of Europe, traveled a lot probably the reason for applying for this programme. I was involved in two TEMPUS projects in Serbia, part of coordinating team in one. Also, I was a president of student guild on my faculty for one year. As you can see I had no professional experience in companies but very active student life, though I finished faculty with 1,5 years of delay.

If you want one great European story, having friends from 20 countries, try the food you could never imagine, learn 3 language and all the bad words from all 20 countries J, to live in 3 or 4 great cities for half year, visit a lot more countries around and to get to know us as senior colleagues, then you should definitely join us and apply for the programme!!